By Jeanne-Kay

Research: Brian Springer, Kathryn Leahey, Jeanne Kay

Prelude: The Discourse of Toxicity

“Toxic Culture.” Steve Lawry’s infamous phrase is now part of the vocabulary of virtually all Antiochians. The year before the Antioch University Board of Trustees (UBoT) resolved to close the college, the key political issue on campus and the polemic that reached alumni revolved around the question of Toxic Culture–whether there was one, how it manifested itself, how to fix it or how to debunk its myth.

To alumni whose only contact with the community in years had been filtered through Media and University intermediaries, “toxic culture” meant a steady decline in academic excellence and increased political narrowness from their time at Antioch onwards; to conservative reporters, “toxic culture” came to be the perfect excuse to write diatribes against political correctness at liberal arts colleges; and to many observers “toxic culture” was a perfect shortcut to explaining how Antioch College had found itself in such an incomprehensibly dire situation: Antioch students were narrow-minded, unstable, out of control–they chased away new students, driving down retention and preventing Antioch from achieving financial stability. The toxic culture narrative made sense–and it was useful.

On a night in January, I was looking at myself in the mirror of my bathroom at 4 a.m. I couldn’t sleep. Everything was theoretically okay though: I was safely escaping the winding down of Antioch, I was being reasonable and attentive to my feelings and health. I had taken a sound decision considering the circumstances, the little hope, the dimming down, the bruises, and I was supported in it by virtually everyone I knew. Until then, this rational discourse had satisfied and comforted me.

But at 4 a.m. in that cold empty bathroom, it was suddenly different. Maybe because of the insomnia that had turned my nights into atrociously agitated marathons for the past three weeks. Or maybe it came from the thought that classes would be starting soon at Antioch, and that I wouldn’t be there.

“In my mind, Antioch has a soul,” mused Antioch College professor Scott Warren to a small audience gathered at Wittenberg University last Wednesday. Community members Jeanne Kay, Scott Warren, Scott Sanders, and Wittenberg professor and Yellow Springs resident Laurie Askland comprised the panel in order to openly discuss the circumstances regarding the closing of Antioch College.
The panel started off with college archivist Scott Sanders, presenting pieces of Antioch history to illuminate parallels between the college’s current financial situation and those of its past. According to Sanders, the year 1880 saw no graduates and concerned alumni and students met with the college’s Board of Trustees in order to prevent the closure of the college. Sanders also described the events of the summer that led to the announcement of closure as “surprising” and elaborated upon the efforts of friends and alumni of the College to prevent the suspension of operations that is planned for July 1, 2008.

Jeanne Kay, a second-year globalization major at the college, providing a student perspective to an intimate crowd in the Wittenberg auditorium, lamented the wave of “bad press” over the summer, following the announcement of suspension of operations. Kay stated her concerns about limited operations, facilities, and the number of students on campus, but she disputed the sentiment parlayed in newspapers across the country that campus culture has had a negative effect on the retention rate of the college. she pointed to the 100 percent retention rate of the incoming class and the fact that the second-year class has had half of its original students return to campus even after the news of suspension of operations as indicative of the environment of tolerance resplendent on campus.

“Ya basta! It’s enough! Another world is possible!”

As I scan the innumerable websites organizing the anti-G8 mobilization, the familiar alterglobalization rallying cries remind me that I am on friendly ground. Yet the somewhat sketchy information about the camps, transportation and events is not easy to fi nd online even when one knows how to follow the white rabbit. Will there be enough space? Rides to the events? Showers and Internet access at the camp? No one really know but there’ll be (vegan, fairtrade) food and water, so there is no need to worry.

By Jessica Rapchik

On October 19, Antioch College will be host to Uprising Tour, a collective of individuals from around the country who are engaging in communicable dissent. Throughout their tour, which is aimed at Mid-West and Mid-Atlantic States, the collective will aim at advancing regional counter-recruitment efforts and linking the issues of war and military recruitment to corporate globalization and environmental sustainability. The Tour consists of student and non-student activists, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and musicians. At each stop, members of the Tour will organize and participate in workshops, trainings, public forums, direct education and outreach, all-out street protests, as well as concerts and other creative performances. Events will be held throughout the day, with a culminating musical performance in the evening. While the locations for the planned events and dialogues are not definite, more information will be available on campus in the upcoming week.

The itinerary is as follows:

12-1 PM Meet and Greet in the Caf

1.30-4 PM Separate group workshops: Local/Global Connections (discussing the connections between globalization and war and the local effects on the Rust Belt) and Organizing 101.

1.30-4 PM Affinity Groups and Campus Organizing and the Military-Academic Complex

4-5 PM Communities as Alternatives: Why Change Must Start at Home

6.15-7 PM Action As Theater

7-9PM The film Sir, No Sir and Iraq Veterans Against the War panel

9.30- late evening Special performances by Drive by Schiavo and RyanHarvey from the Riot Folk Collective (http://www.riotfolk.org)