From The Editors | THE ANTIOCH RECORD

Alumni Interview: Gerry Bello, ’97

15. March 2009

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Gerry Bello, '97

Thursday, March 5th, in Gerry’s car.

What did you do after you left Yellow Springs?

After I left Yellow Springs [...] I went to work for Anti-Racist Action, in Columbus. [...]

What did you guys do there?

We were and are (I’m still involved with the organization, I just don’t work there full-time. We don’t have a national office and staff of six. We’re just a decentralized network now; we don’t have the resources we used to have in the 90′s) [We get out of the Car] but we’re a direct-action anti-fascist organization. We go and smash-up klan rallies, quite literally. No, really, fascism can’t be debated, it has to be destroyed. [Opens door] (Come in, welcome to my humble abode.)

We enter his living room, which is starkly white and empty. About one third of the room is taken up with cardboard boxes. The only pieces of furniture are the coffee table holding his ash tray and his bed which he promptly sits on. Clearly he’s just moved in.

This old civil-rights attorney that used to work with us, he goes, “Gerry, why are you wasting your time on that crap?” (Here, pull up a milk crate. Sorry, I haven’t built chairs yet, I’ve only got as far as a trash can, a bed and a desk.) He goes, “why do you waste your time with that?” I’m like, “Cause they’re sayin’ X, Y, Z.” He goes, “Well talk is shit man. Talk is shit.” He goes, “Look, we’re talking about politics and they’re talking about us and if you’re a true humble servant of the people, [CLAP] than you’re nothing, you’re just an implement. So, if you’re talking about politics and they’re talking about you, they’re talking about nothing, so whose got something to say? Shut up and do your job.”

Board Pro Tempore Member of the Week: Pavel Curtis

15. March 2009

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To read the full transcript download PDF: pavel_curtis_interview_transcript

Interview by Rose Pelzl

Why did you agree to be a Pro Tem board member?

[...] this opportunity to recreate what Antioch should always have been. [...] An institution that encourages young people to think for themselves, to backup their ideas with actual rigor and, and to appreciate the conflicting ideas of others. [...] We have this great combination of an institution with a great legacy and at the same time has a pause in which we can really catch our breath and do what’s right without having to keep it running day to day.
[...] I didn’t want to disappoint anybody with my being on the board. I didn’t want people to assume that I had great buckets of money that I could give the college. I didn’t want anybody to assume that I had great huge amounts of time that I could give on a day to day basis to the college. So I think those were the two biggest concerns. [...] And they insisted. [...] they basically reassured me that I wasn’t going to be disappointing anybody. [...] So I agreed because I am very excited about the whole possibility of what we’re doing. And I resisted because I didn’t want to let anybody down.

Dispatches from the Alumni Board Weekend

15. March 2009

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By John Hempfling and Jeanne Kay

Steve Schwerner’s Report on Visiting Team

The first Alumni Board meeting of the year opened morning of Friday the 6th with a presentation by Antioch Emeritus Professor Steve Schwerner, who was representing the delegation if educators who came to Nonstop and reported on their visit to the Board Pro Tempore. [link to Record article on visit] Schwerner said he expected that everyone had already read the eight-page report, [Link to the Report] and preferred to answer questions from the floor rather than reiterate the points made on paper. He specified that he would be unable to answer “questions of speculative nature,” since he was not in a position to answer them, and stipulated that he could only speak for himself.

Schwerner, however, stated that the Visiting Team was “impressed on every level; we were impressed by the seriousness of the faculty, by the excitement of the students, the innovations, the ability to make something out of nothing.” Yet he emphasized that despite the unquestionable value of Nonstop, it was too early to assess how it would be reintegrated into the new college; “to lose everything that Nonstop has done seems foolish, to incorporate everything is impossible.”

Alumni Board Elect New Vice President; Joe Foley to Replace Ellen Borgersen

15. March 2009

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On Saturday March 7th, the Antioch College Alumni Board reelected President Nancy Crow ’70, and elected Joe Foley ’64 as its new Vice President. Though Foley was not supposed to take office before October, outgoing Vice President/former Acting President of the College Revival Fund (CRF) Ellen Borgersen ’67 immediately resigned from her officer functions; the transition is thus to take place immediately.

According to Tim Klass ’71, Chair of the Nominating Committee, who specified that his empirical assessment was based on a relatively short experience, “it is unusual for an incumbent officer not to be nominated for re-election, assuming the incumbent is eligible and wishes to run.” To Borgersen, the nominating committee’s decision not to bring her name to the floor is equivalent to a vote of no confidence; “I did not see it coming at all,” she confessed.

The incumbent Vice President addressed the Nominating Committee on Saturday morning; “I said that my position on the hard issues facing the Alumni Association were well known and if they didn’t agree with me, they shouldn’t nominate me,” she recalled; “that could have easily been taken as throwing down a gauntlet.” Yet she was surprised by the negative response of the committee; “It surprises me that these views could be controversial because in my view these are our legal obligations, this is what we are required to do; and the full board never got to vote on that… It was the nominating committee that refused to pick up my gauntlet.” When asked if she wanted to be nominated from the floor, she declined, because she “thought it would be harmful to Nonstop and… Antioch to have the debate about those issues at that time.”

Question of the Week

1. March 2009

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In planning for the next year of Nonstop, we all have a lot of hard questions to ask ourselves. Like why haven’t we had a mascot this whole time and what should it be?

Jeanne: A pink phoenix (with piercings) building a plane while flying it and while reading Foucault’s “power, gender and aerodynamics”

Chelsea: Xena, Warrior Princess

Gerry: A badger.

Shea: Cicada swarm. They live underground, come out in increments of prime numbered years to avoid the life cycles of their predators, and use the power of choral singing as defense. I love cicadas.