Beginning with applause and admiration for literally every one on, around, and off campus, and ending in voiced disappointment over the cutbacks on hot breakfast, this year’s fi rst community meeting covered a lot of ground in a little time (sort of). McGregor 113, fi lled with a lot of old faces, and several new ones, was immersed in applause and a recurring sense of Antioch pride every few minutes, which helped to lead to its lengthy two hour session. Continue reading Dispatches from Community Meeting
Author: Record Editors
Letters from the Editors
Dear Community,
Nostalgia, for some a warm and fuzzy word that expresses honor for the wisdom of your predecessors and respect for the past; for others it’s a synonyme for backwardness and lack of adaptability to the new.
It is putting on a pedestal the imperfect because it conveys a feeling. It’s what fuels places like Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, where the the cherished traditions and glorified experiences of the father become the promises of the son and his daughter after that. History and memory in these places are captured in historic buildings that never crumble. I can only assume that on a campus where the choice is between moving into Dickens’ or Byron’s old room, black mold and poorly done grafity is not an issue.
Nostalgia is allowed, it seems, encouraged even when it is backed-up with ever impeccable buildings and supplemented with state of the art new computer labs, as if to prove that one has not stayed behind.
But what if the buildings are crumbling? Recently, the media with willing quotes from those who should defend us, has all to often made a parody of Antioch. Our decaying buildings become indicative of our loss of academic rigour, piercings and tatoos a reason to declare our spiritual demise. What we are left with is nostalgia for better days long out of reach.
If attending the meeting in Cincinnati has done one thing, it is to counter this. Those attending showed that we are rich in thought and spirit, we were intelligent and compassionate, eloquent and creative and we hold on to what our predecessors have left us with because have made it our own and we value what it entails. To speak with the words of alumnus Larry Rubin “To say that our product is based on nostalgia shows a misunderstanding of what we are about and it shows a misunderstanding of what education is about. It is about collective memory, not condos.”
KJ
Dear Antiochians,
At Saturday’s Cincinnati meeting, many community members expressed their satisfaction at finally being able to meet the members of the Board of Trustees. The pleasure to be able to interact face to face with the people behind the institution was genuine and candid. An exterior observer might wonder why, considering the circumstances… But Duffy explained it well at the stakeholders session: “Antioch is an intimate place; our students care about intimacy”. “We want to have a relationship with you”, he declared to the Board in our name.
Antioch is a place that favors intimacy; and the question has already been raised: if the college does stay open, how big should it become? Nostalgics of the late 1960s ‘golden age’ sometimes hold the 1500-2000 students model in reference. Toni Murdock, in her recent PhD Commencement speech, refers to her “dream” of a “virtual commons” as the university of the future. This idea goes in the direction of current patterns of globalization—as described by her principal reference throughout the speech, Thomas Friedman—in which the physical space becomes increasingly disregarded, at great loss for the local.
The Antiochian values of bottom up action, shared governance and community solidarity are contrary to that vision. They call for resistance against any such attempts at uniformization and dehumanization. They call for the recognition of the collective through respect for the individual, and the sacredness of personal interactions.
Whatever a future Antioch College may come to be, I hope that it will always remain an intimate community. The so often undermined power of intimacy sometimes resurfaces despite it all, and authentic interactions might still hold more value than is usually attached to them. We can look for proof in the outcome of Saturday’s meeting.
With Love,
-JK
Orientation team welcomes new students to Antioch
8 AM in Main Building’s front hall. Students, faculty and staff all wearing –more or less customized—black Antioch t-shirts are running around carrying giant ice cube packs, last-minute flyers, and signs bearing the words: Orientation This Way. Anticipation is palpable; the number of students who decided to enrol at Antioch “despite it all” is a source of amazement to many. “They are welcomed with open arms, we want to make them feel we are unified as a student body”, commented Shea Witzberger, 2nd Year Student part of the Orientation Team. Few had predicted such a large turnout, and 20 supplemental welcome packages had to be prepared at the last minute. In fact, said Angie Glukhov, Director of Admissions, the numbers had changed every day up to the very last hours; “We got a student who called us yesterday telling us they were coming today”.
This unexpectedly large incoming first year class—75 according to the most recent count– could hardly have been expected when the news of Antioch’s suspension of operations came out in June. “We tried to contact students immediately, but it was a difficult process”, recalled Glukhov. Dealing with bewildered, shocked or angry prospective students, parents, and high school guidance counsellors is a task that the Admissions/Office of Transition staff has had to face heads on this summer, being the primary contact for all complaints and inquiries.
Regardless, the Orientation committee eventually resumed the task it had started in December. “We had been ahead of schedule, but when the announcement broke out we stopped in our tracks for a while”, commented Eli Nettles, Chair of the Orientation Committee. A few accommodations had to be made to adapt to the situation. Orientation was moved from the South Gym to Main Building in order to make it more comfortable to a shrunken number of incoming students. For the most part, however, the pre-unravelling plans—such as the goodies bags– were kept in place.
Last year’s Orientation was soon re-baptized “Disorientation” in reference to the overwhelming amount of information that was poured on the incoming first years at the time. Yet this year, the planning seemed to be lighter. “It was very important to me for students to have free time to breathe in between the Orientation activities”, emphasized Nettles. Moreover, several traditional parts of the orientation schedule, such as the math and writing evaluations or the introduction to co-op communities, have been cancelled due to the current situation of the college.
Community Government’s involvement in Orientation has been greater than in previous years. “We originally decided to take on more work because we thought we would have more time in the summer with no students on campus”, explained Community Manager Chelsea Martens, “of course with the June announcement it didn’t turn out to be that way”. Nonetheless, CG remained an integral part of the Orientation Committee; prompted by Counselling Center Director Linda Sattem, they organized the distribution of Antioch canvas bags containing notably the new and updated Survival Guide. “We aimed to provide new students with an introduction to Antioch on a more personal level”, stressed Martens, “We also wanted to make sure we bridged the infamous gap between first years and upperclassmen”.
Although the decisive involvement of first year students at the morning session of the Cincinnati Board of Trustees meeting of the 25th was a cause of admiration to the rest of the Antioch Community, it was not encouraged by the Orientation Committee. Rory Adams-Cheatham, Community Events Managers recalls that proposals to include a trip to the Cincinnati meeting and a potluck with alumni to the orientation schedule were rejected by the committee. “There was concern that incoming students would feel pressured to get involved in the efforts to save Antioch” explained Adams-Cheatham. The fact that despite having a full-packed activity scheduled on Saturday, as many first years spontaneously chose to wake up at dawn to tell the BOT how they felt about Antioch is testimonial to the success of the Orientation team in introducing the students to their new college.
Alma Matters
By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans
For Joan Meadows, former library assistant, the last five months have been turbulent. In February she was one of four library workers burdened with the task of keeping a highly understaffed Olive Kettering Library running after the unexpected death of Joe Cali. Now she is filing for unemployment as one of 20 staff members who were the first to lose their jobs after the announced closing of Antioch College by its Board of Trustees in June. The board claims continuing financial deficit on the part of the College as reason for its decision.
College Faculty file law suit against BOT
“I feel stupid for not having seen this coming”, exclaims Lynda White, class of ‘88, “It frightens me that this is the way they are going to handle everything now: a big quagmire and not telling us anything. I’m very upset”.
It is 8:10 PM Eastern Time, and the alumni that have gathered in a small East Village theatre to watch the Board of Trustees’ Q&A broadcast are upset indeed. Antioch University Chancellor Toni Murdock just announced the cancellation of the event. The official reason? Antioch College faculty have just filed a permanent injunction against the BOT. “We are now unable to comment on the lawsuit or its subject matter” declared Murdock.