One hundred and twenty ExCo courses were offered at the ExCo fair on Sunday, Feb. 15, thus giving the Oberlin students the chance to get even busier than they already are. The topics ranged from religion to hula hooping and the throngs of students milled around the tables, overwhelmed by all the choices.

“I’m crazy. I signed up for so much: cricket, Israeli dancing, eighties movies, hip hop dance and Radio Noir,” one student exclaimed.

Over 60 of the classes offered this semester are new. One of them is Creative History, which will attempt to challenge modern assumptions of history.

“We’ll make things up, wonder if they happened, get drunk, talk about history and feel important,” instructor Sean Treanor said.

Redefining Southern Culture aims to encourage understanding between Oberlin students and the South. The course includes field trips to local waffle houses, country cooking, listening to bluegrass and a journey to Mardi Gras.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans can now incorporate her into their Oberlin education.

“Buffy blends simple base enjoyment with an agitation of philisophico-intellectual ideals,” teacher Kyle Strimbu said. “The show toys with ideas of moral relativism, religion, mythology and ethics.”

When asked if he believed in vampires, Strimbu replied “Oh hell no!”

The Pirate ExCo explores myths and realities of the pirate life, studying pirate themes such as being proletariats, feminists and homosexuals.

“We don’t have many concrete facts about pirates, so people have spent years making stuff up,” teacher Meghan Wendt said.

Students in the Hula Hooping ExCo will learn to make their own hula-hoops and will plan a choreographed performance.

Popular ExCo classics returned to the fair as well. According to the course’s instructor, the Steel Drum Exco is now in its 20th year.

A few days after the ExCo fair, 28 local and national organizations helped students get involved in the community at the Community Service Fair on Feb. 17. About 200 people signed up to help local activist, faith-based, social and environmental groups, according to event coordinator Erin Elliott. Many of the groups at the fair expressed their gratitude at the involvement of Oberlin students.

“We are very appreciative of this fair,” Susan Johnson coordinator of the Oberlin Weekday Hot Meal Program said. “We have 25 volunteers a week, and several of them are Oberlin students.”

The Firelands Land Conservancy is an organization which is trying to conserve land around Oberlin through education and action. Generally four or five Oberlin students are involved each year. The group is responsible for the conservation of about 3000 acres of land between the Vermillion and Sandusky Rivers.

Save Our Children, Inc. is a nonprofit that offers children from low-income families a safe, fun environment after school. Children meet in the afternoons and take field trips every Friday.

The Earth Day Coalition is a Cleveland group that organizes EarthFest. It is the “largest Earth Day celebration east of the Mississippi,” according to group representative and college alumni Kate Kelly. EarthFest occurs annually at the Cleveland Zoo with up to 70,000 attendees.

Senior Noelle Ross found her job at Humility of Mary Service during the Community Services fair last year. Serving at homeless and battered-women shelters, preparing adults for the GED, teaching piano to children in the shelter and writing grants have helped her live the values Oberlin helped instill in her.

“It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever done,” Ross said. “I’ve learned so much about others and myself. It’s been a reality check for me to see what people struggle with and are comforted by every day. We’re very privileged at Oberlin, and this job has given me a raw perspective of why it’s so important we work for social justice.”

Ross is recruiting seniors to fill her position next year.

Groups at the fair also included El Centro, an agency that offers Spanish translation services to Lorain County, the Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights, Ohio PIRG, Lorain County Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the Lorain County Labor Interfaith Committee and the Messengers of God Mentoring and Tutoring Program.