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Scott Hwang, Senior Assistant Dean and Director of the Multicul-
OFF THE CUFF
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Scott Hwang Photo courtesy of Scott Hwang
Ava Miller
Senior Staff Writer
In early June, Scott Hwang was named Senior Assistant Dean and Director of the Multicultural Resource Commons. Hwang holds a bachelor’s degree from Gordon College and a master’s in higher education from Geneva College, and he is currently pursuing a doctorate in education from the University of Pittsburgh. Hwang began his career working as the director of student leadership at Covenant College. Afterward, Hwang shifted into working with multicultural programs at Gordon College and Messiah University. Hwang most recently worked at the University of Michigan in intergroup dialogue and social justice education. Hwang wrote to the Review about the trajectory of his career, what drew him to Oberlin, and his hopes for the MRC.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you talk about how you became interested in addressing societal educational disparities? Were there any early experiences that inspired your career goals?
When I got into student affairs as an undergrad almost 20 years ago, I really enjoyed orientation programs, student activities, and multicultural clubs. I was living down south for the first time in my life and had begun to experience overt racism to my face as a person of color. This was one of the awakening moments for me — I started to realize my experience as an undergraduate at a primarily white institution was difficult at times, and I began to connect the dots that it was not because of my own doing. There were systemic structures at play. This started a whole process of reflection about my experience growing up in Los Angeles during the LA Riots and the OJ Simpson trial, among other very unique experiences.
At Covenant College, you primarily focused on student organizations and orientation programs. However, your work since has centered around issues of equity. What inspired this switch?
The switch towards issues of equity and justice happened when the Virginia Tech shootings occurred. The fact that the shooter was a Korean-American male really shook me to the core. This was another experience that shaped me and my career trajectory. I immediately began to look through an equity lens and started to connect the dots of how and why things were the way that they were. At this point, I had not had the formal education about and didn’t know the terminology of systemic oppression and racism, false narratives, intersectionalities, tokenism, microaggressions, etc. These were things that I had experienced and was experiencing, but I thought it was just what life was. I was right about one thing — this was how life was — but I didn’t know the why or the how.
Your dissertation at the University of Pittsburgh is about the pros and cons of peer-led intergroup dialogue facilitation. Do you aim to encourage similar dialogue between Obies?
I think I will always use intergroup dialogue principles as my grounding in how I interact, program, and lead. I have had conversations with David Dorsey about my experience, and he plans to use me as a resource and consultant for the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. At the end of the day, I do encourage Obies to have difficult dialogues with each other. We are socialized to not talk about certain things, but if we can’t have these conversations, then we are inevitably going to fill in the gap with assumptions, stereotypes, and misinformation.
Oberlin has a rich history in social justice and activism. How do you hope to honor the College’s values as the new Senior Assistant Dean and Director of the Multicultural Resource Commons?
The history of Oberlin was definitely a draw for me as I looked at this position. Over the summer, my colleagues and I were emptying out files, pictures, and books from where the old MRC used to be located. We plan to archive and keep records of people who have done this work in the past and connect it to the current MRC. We also hope to create a “Celebrating the Legacy” event around graduation in late May and invite alumni who were doing social justice and activism work. It is very important to honor the past and those whose shoulders we stand on, but at the same time, we can’t rest on our laurels and must recognize there is plenty of work to be done.
As the MRC reaches its 27th year, what changes do you hope to implement?
The MRC staff will be present on campus trying to build relationships and trust with students, and I hope that this will lead to affinity groups and clubs wanting to partner and collaborate with us to have a greater impact on the whole campus and community.
Are there any qualities you hope to see from the students you work with within the MRC?
I don’t think we are looking for specific qualities from students who want to be involved with the MRC. We want to support all students and make them feel like they belong. I encourage anyone to stop by Wilder Hall, room 212, to connect with us.
College Contracts with Bon Secours Mercy Health
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Holmes, who had worked at Student Health for over seven years, reflected on her disappointment about not continuing her position.
“We’re still not over this,” she said. “We’re still dealing with how we feel about it. We’re honestly sad. I loved my job. It was the best job I’d ever had. I never planned to leave. I would stay there till I retired. But now I don’t have that choice.”
Last week, another email from the Office of the President informed the community that HHP would no longer prescribe contraceptives for the explicit purpose of birth control or implement gender-affirming care. According to Goff, HHP agreed in its official contract with the College that it would provide these services.
“Harness Health Partners assured us both verbally and in writing that they would provide a wide range of services — LGBTQ, sexual, and women’s health, including but not limited to the prescription of birth control and other forms of contraceptives,” Goff wrote. “The signed agreement also included continued medical care of previously established plans for gender-affirming care.”
Last week’s email from the Office of the President also announced a partnership with another health care affiliate who would provide these services: Family Planning Services of Lorain County.
“While we were disappointed by this change so soon before the start of the semester, we quickly moved to ensure the needs of our students would be met without interruption,” President Carmen Twillie Ambar wrote.
According to the email, FPSLC has previously supplemented Student Health Services and conducted sexually transmitted infection testing clinics on campus. FPSLC will begin providing students with gender-affirming care and reproductive healthcare services on campus, “including offering contraception, STI testing and treatment, PrEP and PEP for HIV prevention, Pap exams, and dispensing reproductive health contraceptives and medication such as Plan B on campus,” President Ambar wrote.
FPSLC will operate out of the Student Health Center three days a week, and on the four days when FPSLC is not operating on campus, the College will provide transportation to FPSLC. According to Goff, FPSLC will provide telemedicine services to students, and the College will also have an independent nurse practitioner on site.
“Oberlin is committed to the health and total well-being of all of our students,” President Ambar wrote. “This commitment requires that we provide a high level of care across a wide scope of services, including reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care.”
Harness Health Partners declined to comment on these matters and requested that questions be directed to the College.
SIP Phase Two Complete, Phase Three to Wrap Up in 2025
Emma Benardete
Editor-in-Chief
The College completed most of the second phase of the threestage Sustainable Infrastructure Project over the summer. The ongoing project, which has a target completion year of 2025, is slated to improve energy efficiency on campus by 30 percent and save the College $1 million annually in energy costs.
One major facet of the project involves switching some buildings’ heating infrastructures from steam heating to hot-water-based heating. In the buildings where this change has taken place, the hot water used for heating is heated using natural gas. However, eventually this water will be heated by electric heat pumps. Campus Energy & Resource Manager Joel Baetens described the benefits of this change.
“Using 140 Fahrenheit water for heating instead of 240 Fahrenheit steam has many benefits,” Baetens wrote in an email to the Review. “It is safer, more efficient, easier to control, and most of all, can be produced with renewable and clean energy.”
Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology John Petersen, OC ’88, who has sat on committees that have played a role in designing the SIP, made note of the project’s additional progress this summer on installing the pipelines that extend from campus buildings to campus athletic fields, eventually connecting to geothermal wells, which are yet to be constructed.
“It will take another year or so to get the wells installed and operational, but once they are we will be able to switch most heating and cooling from natural gas to 100 percent green electricity — that will get us very close to our goal,” Petersen wrote in an email to the Review.
The construction this summer resulted in various street and parking lot closures. An Aug. 3 Campus Digest email indicated that the SIP should not cause any additional summer road closures.
The next phase of the project will focus on converting other campus buildings to the district hot water system and installing electric heat pumps and geothermal wells. Air conditioning will also be installed in multiple buildings across campus during this phase.
“Where it makes sense, we are adding AC to buildings,” Baetens wrote. “This also provides comfort for occupants and opens up campus to be more utilized in the summer.”
Phase three of the SIP will begin in summer 2023.
