Month: December 2007
Editorial by Jeanne Kay
On September 1st, 2006 I was walking through the streets of Yellow Springs, two huge suitcases behind me, looking for Antioch College. I hadn’t visited before. I didn’t know what any American college looked like. (Actually, I still don’t know.)
I got scared at first. I’ve told the story many times of how I missed the class photo because I was busy sobbing “I want to go hoooome” in Weston Hall. I was twenty one years old and had crossed two oceans, two straits, one canal in the past three years but I was scared to death. It was the first time I had to live on my own, as an adult, in the world. At 16 I had dropped out of school, and at 18 I had raised anchor to flee an unbearable reality and sworn to come back only when I felt strong enough to fight everything that had made me leave in the first place. But I felt completely lost, helpless and had no idea what to do with myself when I first set foot on the Antioch campus. Something had been missing from the trip, apparently, because I didn’t remember why I was here or what in me made me believe that I was up to the task of living in the real world.
Editorial by Kim-Jenna Jurriaans
“It’s a wild place,” I remember my English teacher in University, an Antioch College alumna from the late 70s, saying when talking about the College back home in the Netherlands. In hindsight she could not have predicted just how right she was.
Sixteen months ago I embarked on a transcontinental journey to a small town in Ohio, hoping to reinvigorate a joy for learning I once had. Little did I know that less than a year later, I would find myself amidst one of the biggest stories in US higher education of the last decade. I had taken a leap of faith and it had changed my path forever.
At times, it is still unreal how this national uprising of alumni and campus community –the Antioch Revival, as it has come to be known — came about and just how massive it is. Online listservs are buzzing at all hours of the day and deep into the night, when alumni, having come home from a long day at work and having put their kids to bed, give up on a good night’s sleep to share their expertise in areas like law, fundraising and communications in one of dozens of online planning discussions (some running 80-posts deep in your Gmail inbox), while a volunteer IT team, made up of alumni professionals from around the country, work graveyard shifts to live-stream audio of campus meetings and build websites, including that of the new College Revival Fund, which in the last 125 days has raised close to $18 million in gifts and pledges to keep Antioch College open. Things are simply going too quickly to pause and realize the magnitude of experiences we’ve undergone in such a short period of time. Yet it somehow feels organic; as so often at Antioch, madness soon became a state of normality.
Continue reading Editorial by Kim-Jenna Jurriaans
ACAN Ad #3 – Non-Stop
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This winter break marks a critical turning point in the movement for Non-Stop Antioch. The College Revival Fund has delivered its first $2 million payment to the university to maintain continuous operations of the college, with another $4.6 million promised by December 15, and admissions is open for new transfer students.
We must sustain our momentum and keep pushing to establish autonomy for the college, lift financial exigency, restore tenure, recruit first-year students, and continue full, uninterrupted academic programs and support services.
We must be especially vigilant during the winter break to assure that our campus, its property and community, are kept safe.
We know that current students face the difficult choice of whether to leave in the face of such uncertainty and ambiguity. We are calling to you to stay with us and to fight, as we are with you. We will do everything we can to support those of you who decide to stay. We’ll join you in the struggle to improve conditions on campus and hold leadership accountable. Continue reading ACAN Ad #3 – Non-Stop
They too were once young – Jill Becker – Associate Professor of Dance
Jill Becker – Associate Professor of Dance
Where were you when you and what were you doing at 20?
It was 1969 and I was at State University of New York at Brockport studying as a dance major. I had been inspired to dance since I was about 15 when I saw an Alvin Ailey Dance Theater performance, and I was just blown away.
What kind of student were you in college?
I was a great student when I was dancing, and I was dancing a lot. So my dancing grades were great, but when it came to academics I was like a B student.
Continue reading They too were once young – Jill Becker – Associate Professor of Dance