Author: Record Editors

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.

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Collaborations at the Herndon Gallery

  A series of work collected from the past sixteen years hangs proudly in the photo show “Collaborations” at the Herndon Gallery. The show provides spectators with an overview of pieces by Professor of Photography Dennie Eagleson and her students, taken from larger projects.

There is an atmosphere of accomplishment in the gallery, as this work is what characterizes Eagleson’s experience of teaching at Antioch College. It is the reviving of a complex form of art that does not hang lightly for the casual observer, and this is why it is essential to Antioch. “Nobody comes to Antioch and finishes casually,” Eagleson says.

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Recent Cuts Hit Cafeteria Hard

Recent University budget cuts have the cafeteria facing a serious financial and labor crisis. Cutbacks have caused reduced hours, the elimination of hot breakfast, and problems meeting catering obligations.

Many departments on campus have also experienced budgets cuts due to the declaration of financial exigency of the college, but the cafeteria’s losses have been severe. Since the start of the fiscal year they have lost $100,000 in funding, five part time staff, the cafeteria van and their discretionary fund.

These losses come on top of earlier position cuts, which eliminated FWSP positions, the Assistant Dining Services Manager Greg Frederick and Office Manager Anne Thomasson, and the elimination of the Grab-and-Go lunch program.

The budget reduction has caused a noticeable drop in the quantity of food. People that do not attend meals are subsiding those that do attend. According to Marvin Bohn, Manager of Dining Services, if everyone with a meal plan attended the same meal, the cafeteria would not be able to feed them.

At this time last year, the cafeteria was staffed by over a dozen hourly workers and three management-level employees. Since then, nine of these positions have been eliminated, leaving one manager and seven hourly workers. While the total number of students has dropped slightly, the proportion of students attending meals has remained constant.
Staff cuts have mandated the end of hot breakfast on most weekdays and the occasional lack of staffing at the register. Bohn has been working twelve-hour-days, seven days a week, and has to accommodate staff taking vacation days or calling in sick with no backup.

Less staff members also means less outside jobs for the cafeteria. Last year, the cafeteria increased its budget by offering catering services for various local events, which has not been possible with the staff reductions, furthering the budget problem. The cuts have also limited the existing staff’s ability to attend to some cleaning chores. “The areas used daily like the stoves are just as clean, but other areas like the loading dock and the walk-in floors are being neglected,” said Bohn.

He has had to hire temps at various points and plans to hire temps for the weekend of the Board of Trustees meeting. “Due to being understaffed I have to rely more on outside help than ever before. That cost is being passed on to groups that hold events at Antioch,” he said. The Board of Trustees meeting coincides with the annual Peak Oil Conference, for which the cafeteria provides catering. Additionally, the Board of Trustees receives the 10 percent discount given to University functions.

While the loss of the cafeteria van could seem minor, it can cause major problems. The lack of a designated van has meant that the cafeteria has had to eliminate all off-campus catering commitments, further lowering this year’s revenue compared to previous years.

Similarly, the loss of the discretionary fund has caused problems. One important use of the discretionary fund is buying unexpectedly unavailable ingredients for meals, as meal schedules generally cannot be changed on short notice. Without it, Bohn has found himself with situations such as this last Monday night, when he had hot dogs on the menu, but no hot dog buns due to an incomplete delivery. Students ate their hot dogs on sandwich bread instead.

Both Bohn and his employees agree that the biggest hurdle for the cafeteria has been the lack of staff. “Right now… we could use a little more help,” said Virginia Garrette, UE Local 767 representative. She noted that the cafeteria has previously had FWSP employees, but lost those during the FWSP reorganization last spring. “If we could get some FWSP students just to help in the dish room that would ease up some of the stress that the Caf workers are feeling.”

Bohn feels that there has been some misunderstanding about what the cafeteria can feasibly do with the resources it has been provided. “The rest of the campus has experienced cuts and the same has happened here, which effects the end consumer – the student. That is not how I wanted this job to progress.”

Natalie Martin contributed writing help to this story.