Month: October 2006

International Student Describes Her First Month at Antioch

Antioch vs. The Rest of the World, Part I: Germany
20061011-international.jpg
“Write something about the differences between your home university and Antioch…� Mmmmh, where am I supposed to start?! Explaining the difference between the German and the American educational system would take me for ever, but to compare Antioch to Tübingen…Let’s begin with the very basics: We don’t pay for university (well, they are going to make us pay 500 euros a term from summer 2007 on, but that’s pretty much nothing compared to tuition in the US). We don’t have to take a certain amount of credits per term (you could do nothing at all or maybe one class, or if you’re absolutely insane, don’t like to sleep and would rather live on coffee 24/7 you could take 30 hours of classes per week; they just expect you to have certain credits after your second year). We divide our academic year into 2 semesters, each followed by a break (2 months after the winter semester and 3 months in summer; technically they are “lecture free times� and you’re supposed to write term papers, do internships or research projects etc but it’s more like almost half a year of vacation…). We don’t need p.e. credits (if you don’t want to get some exercise after graduating from high school, no one is able to force you to move your body). We have more than one photocopier in our library (copy machines are a student’s best friend… we usually don’t buy expensive textbooks, we just xerox them). Maybe I should stop making you jealous… It seems like we have more freedom, but hey, we don’t get free prints and it usually takes us more than 5 minutes to get to our classrooms… ; )

Katharina Buchter

Students Grumble as Problems Plague IT Department

broken-laptop.jpg By Paige Clifton-Steele

The staff knows it and the students notice it: the Information Technology department at Antioch College is understaffed and under-funded. “We’ve had consistency issues. We’ve had authentication issues. And it was generally inconvenient in the beginning,� says Shea Witzberger, first year. She isn’t alone in her complaints—many Antioch users of WiFi continue to experience similar problems.

According to a June 2002 study released by the Gartner Group, a respected computer-consulting firm, one IT support person is required for every seventy Macintosh computers, or for every forty-five PCs. The Antioch Information Technology department has six people, in addition to one co-op student and the manager of the website, who lives and works out of state. When measured against the approximately 1,200 users who make up Antioch College and Antioch University McGregor, it becomes clear how disproportionate these numbers are. That’s one staff member for every two hundred users.

The implications of this are many. First year students have complained about the wireless in North Hall—mostly about problems that have since been resolved. However, students continue to lament short-term problems with wireless. “I’m glad that they’ve been so helpful with my concerns online, though.�

Several students report being better able to access support online, while their in-person requests receive less priority. Paul Deardorff, Systems Administrator, acknowledges that questions put to him in his office or the hall may fall by the wayside. “People will come up and say I’m having a problem with this, I’m having a problem with that…And to be honest with you, it’s hard to keep up. It’s much easier for us if someone were to log into the helpdesk and put a helpdesk ticket up.�

Sometimes, students and staff vary on what constitutes a problem; several students are concerned about privacy policies on First Class, while IT staff would like to handle the issue informally.

“I am concerned about privacy in my First Class Account,� says Sean Bradley, straight white male first year. “And most people’s initial passwords were logarithms of their names and some fairly consistent number…�

However, Brown differs, “I don’t know of any policy, but to be honest I don’t see the need for one because every person in the IT department very firmly believes that we don’t mess with your mail unless somebody real, real high up above asks us to.� At MacGregor, policy states that that person is the president of the school. It remains ambiguous who would have the authority to ask that of the department at the college level.

Cassie Collins, a fourth year co-oping in the department, says, “What I have seen would lead me to believe that there is not [a privacy policy regarding First Class moderation].� Asked whether she believes there is a call for one, she says yes, qualifying, “But not because anything that IT has done.�

Another problem hampering the efficiency of the department is its tendency to be pulled into audiovisual maintenance jobs that are not strictly computer related. Collins believes she has a solution: “I think just having one person to handle AV would be useful. Take a coop student, teach them all about the AV, and just have them run AV support.�

Units, in addition to North Hall, has wireless internet, while Birch and Spalt remain connected with Ethernet. Spalt residents complain of few problems with their internet, but North has suffered a series of setbacks since students arrived in September.

The IT department made changes to the North wireless network just prior to the beginning of the academic school year because of a PHD program residency, but the changes caused problems that went undetected for a few weeks. “There was a difference in firmware between the AP2000 and the AP4000,� says Tom Brown. “We couldn’t figure it out for a while because we couldn’t see a trend. We had to make the wireless open, available to everyone.�

During this time, students in North could access the wireless network without a certificate. A few weeks later, it was resecured.

Understaffing isn’t the only problem that plagues the department. On the second floor of the library is a pile of broken computers awaiting disposal. “The village won’t take them because they’re not environmentally safe to dispose of,� says Brown. Though a few of them were removed when Dylan Reiff took them for use in his show. ‘Robocalypse’ last term, Brown still stays, “I think we need to work with physical plan to make that happen. They’re piling up every time one dies.�

Asked what makes the IT department at Antioch unique than that of other schools, Deardorff says with pride that the members of the IT department have a variety of degrees and areas of expertise different from the usual computer-related studies. These range from philosophy to English.

Generation to Generation: Dealing with the F*** Word

Each generation has words, phrases, and terms that upset the previous generation. It is a right of passage to find and use language that sets you apart from the generation before you.

For my parent’s generation (now in their 70+ years) I suspect it was words like “fool� and “mess�. I’m serious. They talked about “fooling around� or “messing around�. Also “I’m a mess� “I’m a fool� “Don’t mess with me� “Don’t try to fool me� “S/he is a mess/ fool� “The world is messed up� “I got messed up Saturday night�.

My generation (now in our 50+ years) delighted in using “screw� around our elders. “Let’s screw� “Let’s screw around� “Don’t screw with me� “S/he screwed up� “I’m screwed up� “Screw you�. I can still remember my parent’s wincing, trying to correct me, all to no avail. I still use “screw� in many ways to convey many meanings.

The catchall term now is “fuck�. “Let’s fuck� “That’s fucked up� “S/he fucked up� “Don’t fuck with me� “The world is fucked� “Fuck you� “Fuck�.

I believe that part of my wincing when I hear the term (and yes upon rare occasions I have been known to use the term) is that I was taught early in the women’s movement (1960s-1970s) one origin.

As I understand it, fuck in the United States dates to the pre Civil War days with prisoners carving their names and offenses on the cell wall during incarceration. Lengthy offenses were abbreviated; somewhat like what you hear on the crimes shows today. Breaking and entering becomes B & E, and Felonious Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (the official term for rape in those days) becomes FUCK.

The dictionary list several origins including fucken (Middle English, derived from Germanic verb) and fokken (Middle Dutch). For both these the meaning is the same: to strike quickly, to penetrate, to copulate.

So FUCK enters into the culture as a term for rape, and stayed more or less underground for decades (although frequent in pornography), a vulgar term understood by all and used by few. As with other terms it made the jump to mainstream culture, with more ease into youth, alternative and alienated cultures. I remember the days when fuck was first being used more often and publicly, and it was always a word to attack, to harm, to embarrass, to verbally rape.

I know that when fuck is used today it is a catchall word, having lost its offensiveness to many. Yet, those who use it frequently have to understand why some of us still flinch, or get offended when it is directed at us.

Can’t wait to hear what the next generation says to you that makes you flinch. And the beat goes on…….

Linda Lee Sattem, Director, Counseling and Wellness Center

Lunch With President Leaves Bad Taste in Student’s Mouth

By The Cooperative Council for a Non Wack Social Scene 

This past Monday I had the pleasure filled opportunity of participating in a lunch date with our distinguished president Steve “the bulldog� Lawry. This opportunity was one I did not take for granted, as up until yesterday Steve was the sort of legendary character I only found myself within spitting distance of in my dreams. I do not think it would be a stretch to describe him as elusive. I mean I never see him at community meetings, or meals, he never knocks on my door, never stops by just to say hello, not that I’m hurt or anything.

The mood of the meal was a little bit tense as first year students frothed at the bit to ask Steve questions about issues concerning their everyday realities, such as the disappearance of friends, any upcoming curricular changes, or any sort of hint as to the college’s future. I had the fortunate opportunity of getting to actually eat food two people away from Steve. Yes community, Steve Lawry eats. In fact it can be noted he likes beans, mixed with peas if anyone wants to cook him a meal to get in his good graces. I got to know him a little better as we chatted about his background, and he very diplomatically asked us about ours. Turns out Steve-o received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he enjoyed the “lively, open and diverse (campus) with much choice in terms of outlets for expression.� Second year transfer student Erin Cizeski inquired as to the difference in campus culture between such a big school as U.W., and a little Liberal Arts institution such as Antioch and Steve remarked “Everyone should be open and welcome, Sexuality is a choice, no group should dominate. Straight culture dominates, but a campus should be open. There is less conflict in a big school, everything can be taken in its embrace. At Antioch it is intensified, people feel strongly and want to challenge others, to make them uncomfortable. We need to challenge and question what is an appropriate level of discomfort; none of us have all the answers.� This statement would be contradicted later on in Steve’s formal Q & A forum, as he was often heard making empirical “I� statements in regard to his opinions on drug use and “radical identity politics� I have compiled the following list of Steve’s responses to student’s questions about the recent expulsion spree, and the subject of identity politics:

“I can’t speak to the issue� (*note to future students who plan on attending these forums; he will not speak to this issue, continuously asking the same questions with fancier wording will not fool him.)

On the subject of the well being of the expulsees:

“I have larger responsibilities to the overall campus climate. Drugs are corrosive, Marijuana deadens peoples minds� or how about :

“I am the President. I am responsible for the intellectual experience. Drug use is corrosive in my opinion, that’s the way it is.�

Steve spoke to a room of Antioch students of his vision of an idyllic Antioch student- “ An Antioch student walks a different path, asks tough and difficult questions, lives a meaningful life not a consumerist or nihilistic one. They want to contribute to the betterment of society.� As long as they don’t smoke pot, or make people uncomfortable with wild displays of deviant sexuality and identity politics, which was the sentiment I got from the comment; “Sometimes I feel there are Antioch students out there who should be here, but are intimidated by drugs, or the insistent argumentative stridency (of the student population) sends people off.�

Transfer student Preston Krafft had to say of the event “ I don’t think he communicated effectively what he wanted to about the drug policy, and the core programs. I felt what he had to say was reasonable, he just didn’t articulate it in a way a younger generation would understand. He used his stature as president as a way of garnering the final say on the topics questioned. Saying “this is the way it’s going to be, and I back this up because I am the president� would make perfect sense to someone of the baby boomer generation, but for the student population that’s a major turn off. He should have tried a more humble approach by asking for our cooperation, not demanding it.�

I apologize if this article doesn’t speak much to the actual content of the question and answer period of Monday’s forum, but unfortunately I don’t feel there is much to speak to. There was a lot of emotion in the room, people feeling like they had been wronged and wanting to have their voice heard to which there was a lot of very defensive responses from Mr. Lawry. He made it clear that his responsibility is to the college’s financial future, giving the sense that the 3rd and 4th year students are disposable and being shepherded out, where as our class is a kind of testing ground for policy and curricular change to benefit the next wave of Steve’s utopic versions of nonoffensive, drug free Antiochians.

I do feel like this luncheon was a good start to bridging the gap spoken about during the meeting between the students and the administration. The general feeling on campus is that Mr. Lawry isn’t very receptive to student voices, so I send out this plea to you community: If you have an opinion on the current state of affairs, go to Steve. He made it very clear at the end of the meeting, that we were all welcome. He urges us to stop by his office and make an appointment with Nancy Wilburn. In fact he can be quoted as saying “Everyone is welcome, and I’m always happy to meet with students.� I feel it is out civic duty to participate in the wonder that is shared governance, and if you have a problem or concern call up Nancy Wilburn, let her know Steve sent you, and schedule a meeting. Steve made us an offer, let’s hold him to it.