Though renowned for being one of Oberlin’s most unique and notable programs, Art Rental is far from the smoothly run process advertised in admissions pamphlets. The Allen Memorial Art Museum prepared well for the 200 or so students that entered the museum. Amongst the student body, however, there was confusion about the general protocol of how one goes about signing up for the privilege of browsing the Allen’s 400-strong rental collection on the Art Rental Preview day.

“The thing that really frustrated me about it is that the museum puts out the art and doesn’t really oversee who does it,” said Dan Schaeffer, a senior art history and cinema studies double major and studio art minor. “I talked to a lot of people who thought that they were running it. No one knew what was going on.”

The decision as to which group is running Art Rental is made simply by who gets there first. This can cause some friction, as it did when senior Julia Feldman, an art history and Latin double major, ran Art Rental last year. She and a friend posted instructions about five minutes before another student arrived to post his. They decided to run the rental together and there were no hard feelings.

The students who run Art Rental get to put their names at the top of the list and have first pick of the museum’s offerings as a reward.

This year Art Rental went against traditional protocol. Generally, instructions are posted on Monday in the courtyard specifying how Art Rental will be run that year. Traditionally, a sign up is then posted the day before Art Rental, on Wednesday. The Art Rental Preview, also on Wednesday, allows students to peruse the selection and decide upon the pieces they’re interested in. Roll call (where students show up every hour on the hour to announce their presence in line) is a more representational version of camping out overnight, for which the event is famous. This generally lasts from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., with one last morning check-in at 8 a.m. During these times students are allowed one absence and one proxy or their names will be moved to the bottom of the list.

The process of signing up for Art Rental weeds out the truly dedicated from the apathetic.

Lucille Stiger, the registrar for the Allen Memorial Art Museum, calls the students’ efforts to organize themselves in such a manner “enterprising.”

This year, however, things went a bit differently. The time at which the list was to be posted — which is usually a time frame rather than a specific time — was spread by word-of-mouth. Sophomores Christina Boland, a studio art major; Zeke Runyon and Alexandra Casanave arrived to post the list at midnight, as announced, only to discover that a pre-list had been made by those waiting in the courtyard for the list to be posted.

“The fact is that there are no rules that are set; anyone could take advantage of the system,” Shaeffer said. “People are cheating. I have seen so many people shouting ‘here’ for people who aren’t there. It’s an arbitrary system, and they’re enforcing.”

This pre-list is an example of this possibility. The list was not started by the first people to arrive — seniors Brandon Adler, Taylor Van Zile and Sean McKeown (the editor of The Grape) who had been waiting since 6 p.m. — but rather a student who began the list with his or her own name. Upon discovering that a list had already been started, those running it appropriated it as the real list.

Shaeffer feels that the secretive nature of signing up for Art Rental favors those who are running it — and their friends — and puts others at a disadvantage. Even as someone who works for the Allen, Shaeffer had trouble figuring out what the protocol was. He advocates for a more centralized administration of the Art Rental sign up.

“Maybe a system needs to be set up among students or art students specifically to maintain goodwill. Some people have even suggested a lottery,” Feldman agreed.

While this lack of central administration makes it easier for the Allen to execute this event, it can create frustration among students. Shaeffer explained: “I didn’t expect to get first dibs. I’m not mad about my position. I’m mad that I couldn’t get a straight answer out of anyone.”

In Feldman’s opinion, “The most important thing is to keep it open, and to that end I would feel uncomfortable saying that there should be restrictions based on department or motivation. Restrictions should be institutionalized. It would have to be something we all agree on. There’s some logic in having it restricted to juniors and seniors because they’ve seen it a few times. It also gives seniors a chance to do it if it’s their last chance. But I’m not necessarily advocating for that.”

Art Rental was sold out at 1:15 p.m. after opening promptly at 9 a.m.