By Natalie Martin
After the obligatory approval of the previous week’s minutes, ComCil heard a petition from student Meghan Pergrem regarding the upcoming CG officer elections.
During its last session, Comcil decided to set October 26th as the application deadline, which Pergrem felt did not give potential candidates enough time to process the information from the October 25th Board of Trustees meeting. After some debate about whether or not to shorten the amount of time dedicated to campaigning or the time ComCil reserves to interview the candidates, it was generally agreed that the application deadline should be pushed back.
A long and somewhat heated discussion ensued regarding the deadline and whether it should be extended one week or if the whole election should be postponed until next term.   Those who believed the election should be postponed until next term argued that the extended deadline will increase the pool of students who will apply. They stressed that some form of electronic voting could be used for students who graduate in December. Those Comcil members opposed to this idea argued that the level of participation will be much lower with an electronic vote and that holding the elections is a symoblic show of support for Antioch.
A motion was proposed to extend the application deadline and interview dates one week, to November 2nd and November 8th respectively, and not change the other agreed upon dates. Discussion continued for some time after the motion was made, until Comcil member Scott Warren made a motion to call the question. In doing so he moved the discussion to a vote.  After some confusion over what ComCil members were voting for, the result was a rare split – five in favor of the motion, and five opposed – requiring that ComCil Chair Fela Pierrelouis cast a tie-breaking vote. Pierrelouis voted in favor of the motion, and the CG election deadlines were extended one week.
Category: Articles
Individual Articles
Community Day – Fall 2007
“It’s Now or Never†Denver Meeting Sets Benchmark: $8 Million More by October 25th
The development office of Antioch College has two weeks to raise an additional $8 million that will be readily available by June 2008, in order to convince trustees to lift the suspension of operations at the school that is scheduled for the end of the academic year. This is the benchmark established during a closed meeting held in Denver last week between members of the Board of Trustees and the Alumni Board, said Director of Institutional Advancement Risa Grimes on Wednesday.
“It’s now or never,†Grimes stressed from her new office in the recently reopened Weston Hall on the college campus. According to Grimes, the alumni initiative, thus far, has raised 12 million dollars in cash and pledges, of which $4 million are expected to be liquefiable by the end of the current academic year. This currently leaves the college around $8 million short of achieving the benchmark of $12 million in funds that will become immediately available for spending at the end of the current academic year in June 2008.
Founder’s Day 2007: Party Like it’s 1853
On October 5th 1853, Horace Mann delivered his inaugural address to three thousand spectators converging on an Antioch campus then still in the making. Horace’s wife, Mary Mann, described the throng as “a motley multitude that would have made a splendid show if their costumes were as brilliant as they were various.†In appreciation, Horace delivered a two hour address, which the prominent Unitarian clergyman T. Starr King described as containing enough inspiration to make a college flourish in the Sahara.
154 years later, we’ve still got the costumes, the motley multitude, and the college that’s flourishing in Saharan conditions. And on October 5th 2007, we partied like it was 1853 all over again.
Founders Day 2007 kicked off with a speech in the Inn by Jim Malarkey, Professor of Humanities at Antioch University, entitled “The Dazzling Vision and Relentless Passion of the Founders.†Shortly after, the silk screening group got to work on its mission to cloth the entire campus in Antiochian uniform. Old clothes turned art through the DIY application of slogans and symbols. So much for wearing your heart on your sleeve; on Founders Day, community members wore their values on their bandanas, pants, skirts, and underwear.
Continue reading Founder’s Day 2007: Party Like it’s 1853
Dispatches from Community Meeting
If Horace Mann’s vaunted credo weren’t so fitting, “Work hard; party hard†might do the trick. So when attendance at Community Meeting waned, one of the parties in Antioch’s Holy Trinity was trash-talked by several community voices.
The Black and Tan Formal, of one of Antioch’s cultural cornerstones, was criticized by several community members for potentially depressing student attendance at important and expensive Community Day events.
Student and former Community Manager, Levi B. Cowperthwaite wanted students to consider monitoring their partying and regulating their workload so that they could participate meaningfully in events planned for Community Day, including guest speaker Allan G. Johnson’s 10:00 a.m. presentation.
Cowperthwaite observed that students have treated the past years’ Community Days as time to recuperate from the previous night’s partying or to catch up on homework.
Associate Dean of Faculty, Eli Nettles said, “I’m terrified Allan’s going to show up and there are seven people here.†She then said that she’d be honored if the date of Black and Tan was changed.
Nettles also said that an anonymous donor gave $5,000 to bring Johnson back to campus, because in light of the suspension of operations, Antioch couldn’t afford Johnson’s price tag.
“Since I was a first year, I though it was unfair to Community Day to have Black and Tan the night before,†said third-year Rachel Sears.
Events Manager Rory Adams-Cheatham was a staunch proponent for the party to remain the night before Community Day, “It’s the best party of the year a lot of the time…Antioch used to be the people who partied the hardest worked the hardest.â€
But she conceded to the concerns raised, “I want to do what you all want…Come talk to me.â€
And elsewhere in McGregor 113…Community Member of the Week was awarded to a talented cadre of current and former students, Dennie Eagleson was in two places at once to equalize Allan Johnson’s levels, CGC gave an update on Antioch’s next best thing, and announcements revealed that Antiochians are preoccupied with identity, sex, and war.
Community Member of the Week was awarded to fourth years (trivia with) Beth Goodney and (“lost in the Glenâ€) Julian Sharp. Nobel Prize Winner Mario Capecchi ’61 also got a certificate and most probably a hit-up for a donation.
Author Allan Johnson is coming to talk and do workshops on Community Day. A video of his presentation last term was projected on the wall.