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.

“I would say at this point that he still has that magic.” – Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL.)

Open Letter to Antioch students

I just returned from a weekend in YSO and attended the open forum session with the Board of Trustees. As an alum (class of ’77), I had not been on campus since the late 1990s when I tried to interest my daughter in attending. My experience this weekend reminded me of why I have always loved Antioch and why I stayed after the 1973 strike.

Everything I have ever accomplished of any significance is due to my years at Antioch College (parenting included). I’m often asked how I learned the skills of my profession and I always credit my years at Antioch College. (I own a healthcare consulting firm.) I explain that I learned active listening through participation in AdCil and long meetings held to debate whatever issue was the hot topic on campus (including the ’73 strike). My classes emphasized critical thinking and the synthesis of multiple theories and ideas. During my work study job in the WYSO newsroom, under the careful mentoring of Mark Mericle, I tested my communication and analytic skills. Finally, I gained confidence and independence through the coop program/AEA experiences in Mississippi, New Orleans, Washington DC, and Mexico.

So why did I become alienated from the College from which I loved and took so much?

My name is Julian Sharp and I am a senior at Antioch College. Over the past three years my experience at Antioch has been rich. I have taken challenging courses, involved myself in shared governance, for those of you on the board who know what ComCil is, I at one time served as the chair, made life long friends and have traveled the world through co-op and Antioch Education Abroad.

Dear Community,

In writing this I am finishing up the first Record of a year that is said to be the last of Antioch College. The summer was branded by the news of Antioch’s imminent closing; the mere existence of this early issue is the hard copy proof Watching out of a window into a waking New York street, I hear my exhausted coeditor talk in French to my 12 inch Mac while laying the last hand on the layout for the back page. Both the co-editor and the Mac have maneged to amaze me this week in more ways than can be mentioned here. The latter for not melting under the weight of a hastily installed version of Indesign CS3, the former for flushing her acceptance letter to Bard College down a French toilet and deferring her transfer to run a newpaper with me for the next four months. Her learning lay out in one sunny afternoon on a back garden terras in Williamsburg from me of all people was a stellar example of the deaf leading the blind and she pulled off what I could never have managed on my own. Complete chaos, and Antioch at its best.

KJ

Dear Antiochians,

As I write these words to you, I am entering my 43rd sleepless hour. Co-Editing this fi rst edition of the Record from off campus and before the beginning of the term has been a hectic yet exhilarating experience.