Month: October 2007

Dispatches from Yellow Springs Save Antioch Group

 A handful of townies, students, faculty andstaff met in the Coretta Scott King Center on Thursday 27th September for what will now be a weekly meeting of organizing and information exchange. The two main items on the agenda were Founder’s Day and Homecoming preparation. Students planning Founder’s Day expressed their wish to have the Yellow Springs community participate to the event. “We wanted to make sure that everyone could participate so we made [the parade] start later in the afternoon’”  said Antioch student Molly Thornton, who helped organize the event. The parade will be leaving the stoop at 4:15 p.m. and its itinerary includes the main axes of Yellow Springs.

Group coordinator and alumna Judy Wohlert-Maldonado expressed concern at the potential lack of lodging for Homecoming weekend. The Board of Trustees Meeting of the weekend of the 26th/27th of October will be heavily attended by alumni, and in parallel the Peak Oil conference will take place, thus overbooking accomodations around the town of Yellow Springs. Though talks of opening South Gym to alumni and their sleeping bags are in motion, Wohlert-Maldonado called for all community members, especially college faculty and townspeople to open their homes to visiting alumni.

The next Yellow Springs organizing meeting will take place on Thurs. Oct. 4th  at 7 p.m. in the CSKC and is open to all community members who want to make signs for the parade and discuss the referendum.

They Too Were Once Young

Bob Devine- Professor of CIS and Communications

Where were you when you were 20?
It was 1964, and I was here at Antioch College.

What were you studying?
I was into literature, and some education. I wanted to teach English.

What changed your interest from literature to media arts?
Here at Antioch I was exposed to some incredible films, and there were also many filmmakers here. Seeing all of this, I realized film is a lot more interesting than literature. Continue reading They Too Were Once Young

Dances With Vacuums

“Giraffe or Oyster?” asks the masked dancer. “Tales,” commands the sergeant, after flipping a coin. “No, Heads!” protests the dancer as she proceeds to assume the oyster position. At first glance, you may not think that this is dance. You may even feel a bit confused as to what on earth is going on. Then you realize: this is Antioch – organic, improvisational, and chaotic yet somehow orderly – it’s exactly as it should be.

The lights were kept at a dim setting in the South Gym Monday night for Antioch’s-a-Happenin’. Performers and viewers – encompassing students, faculty, alumni, community members, and locals – casually conversed while the performers imagined prospective movements to fill the space between the sparse pillars of structure.

The dancing that night was entirely non-traditional and 90 percent improvisational. In fact, the whole production only had about three hours of preparation. The oldest male dancer, a dance enthusiast from Columbus, learned of the event just a couple of days before and volunteered last second.

The first dance, the wave dance, underwhelmed me at first because all it consisted of was performers walking, running, and crawling forward and backward on stage. I judged too soon; it wasn’t too long before I witnessed a well-aged woman limbering quite elegantly throughout the space, followed by an interpretive vacuum duet dance, that for some unidentifiable reason made the entire audience giggly.

In another satisfyingly quirky act, the audience was asked to reduce their emotion vocabulary to sighs (depression), screams (panic), “oh no!”s (despair), “huh”s (cynicism), and “whatever”s (apathy). Then we essentially had a verbal drum circle, or beat-box orgy, with our new vocab.

Other dance performances included a wind-structure dance where each dancer took turns communicating with one another by moving into a shape and making a face at the people in the shape.

All of the dance pieces were, of course, serenaded not by pianos and long violin notes, but by cowbells, Congo drums, and the oddest trombone noises you’ve ever heard. Despite the weird sounds, the event was a happenin’. With an ample number of dance lovers willing to pay the five or ten dollar entrance fee, and splurge on “Save Antioch” merchandise, the event brought together a total of 200 dollars for the College Revival Fund.

Vegan Recipe of the Week

Cody’s Bestest Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup vegan butter (my favorite is earth balance)
  • 1 egg equivalent (powdered egg replacer or other substitute)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp vegan milk (soy, rice, etc.)
  • 1 1/3 cup flour
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/8 cup coconut flakes
  • 1/8 cup crusher walnuts
  • 1/8 cup raisins

Preparation:

First preheat oven to 350. Then mix together all of the wet ingredients followed by the dry ones. Then add your “chunky” ingredients. If you do not like or have chocolate chips, coconut, walnuts, or raisins, you can alter to your liking. Place small balls of dough on an oiled cookie sheet and bake until done. If you can handle it, allow them to cool before eating so then don’t fall apart.

If you have a recipe to share, please email it to salper@antioch-college.edu

Contracted Security to Alleviate Workload of Remaining College Guards

A year of continuing job cuts, following Board mandates in February and June, has accustomed the Antioch College community to seeing its resources drained.

This week, however, the school is contradicting this trend with the addition of six new security guards. Contracted guards Valeria Maskney, Damon Harris, Alexis Smith, Deena Pryor, Michael Grant and Maurice Henry, have joined the three remaining unionized security officers Paul Clemens, Tom Joseph and Mike Piper, to collectively fill the hours of a an earlier cut position.

In February, one unionized officer was laid off due to budget cuts, leaving not only a great deal of slack for the other security guards to pick up, but also leaving them with no time for vacation or time to be sick, according to Milt Thompson. This cut also led to a lack of security coverage at night, leaving students to fend for themselves.

Continue reading Contracted Security to Alleviate Workload of Remaining College Guards