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.

Robin Rice Lichtig, Antioch College alum (59-63) placed in the top three in the Goshen Peace Play Contest 2008 this summer for her one act play, ?Blood Sisters.? This prestigious award is hardly the first Lichtig has received in her play writing career.

According to Lichtig, the world of play writing is a tough one. ?Any where I send a script for a competition, they get any where from 500 to 1000 scripts.? However, for Lichtig and other playwrights, contests are only the beginning. ?I remember you asked me ‘what does this [award] do for you’ ? and I said ‘nothing’ and it really does do nothing at all, except that when you send the play out you can mention that it was a winner,? she said. ?All it ever gets you: Sometimes you get a production. Sometimes you get $300 if you’re lucky, but really that’s about it.?

Lichtig specifically spoke about the difficulty of landing a major production. ?There are almost no agents for playwrights; they’re getting out of the business. It’s financial.? she said. Lichtig went on to describe a conundrum she says she and others are experiencing. Landing a major production is very difficult, especially without an agent, but the agents still in the business only work for those who have had major productions.

By Jeanne Kay
On Friday, February 22nd, Interim President Andrzej Bloch announced to the Antioch Community ?the reconfirmation of the decision to suspend operations of the college on June 30th for at least one academic year.? Students, faculty, staff, alumni and Yellow Springs residents gathered, like they had many times since last June, for an emergency community meeting in McGregor 113. The Interim President had just flown back from Los Angeles, where the Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting was still being held, to present the college community with the resolution of the trustees? discussions concerning the immediate future of Antioch College.
The discussions took place on Thursday the 21st, Bloch specified in a later interview; they started early in the morning and lasted until the mid-afternoon. The negotiating team, composed of Chancellor Toni Murdock, Chair Art Zucker, Chief Financial Officer Tom Faecke, and two attorneys, presented the trustees with a report based on their negotiations with the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (ACCC.) The trustees, Bloch said, ?concluded that there weren?t sufficient material, sufficient grounds, to take action.? Therefore he decided, with the approval of the board, to come back to campus to inform the community.

Privilege, Power, and Sharpies
To my fellow first years:

This is a letter to inform you that the anti-Toni/Andrzej propaganda that has been scrawled across the walls of North is not okay. It is not okay to vandalize the private space we share. Does anyone remember last term? Does anyone remember how upset several first years got because they felt that their personal space had been invaded? Then why is this hostile behavior toward our building happening again? I can guarantee that most first years don?t want to be fined several hundred dollars because some of us can?t keep the lids on our sharpies when we get frustrated.
I understand being upset. Antioch has been a haven to most of us. It is our home, and we want it to remain our home, and some big, bad authority is telling us to vacate. This is worth the yelling. It is worth real action. Let?s not cheapen our passion with scribbles of crudely formed sentences in our living rooms. How often does Toni take a stroll through North? When do you think she?ll see these opinions? The fact is that the only people who will ever see these displays of outrage are tenants and the people who have to clean it up.