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JointCil Moves to Present Referendum to Community

“Unanimous.” AdCil chair Andrzej Bloch thus took note of the result of the vote taken by AdCil and ComCil members, united around the table of Main Building’s conference room on Tuesday morning. A special session of JointCil had been called to approve the submission of a referendum to the Antioch college community; a course of action not required by the Legislative Code, but that would add extra legitimacy to the process according to ComCil student member Sarah Buckingham. “We’re here out of good faith asking you to please be a part of this.”

Before bulking up into JointCil, the heavily agendized meeting had started as a traditional Administrative Council. Director of Business Operations Deb Caraway presented its members with the budget for the current academic year. College COO Andrzej Bloch specified that the budget had been drafted under the auspices of the suspension of operations, and that, in the case of a reversal of the board’s decision in late October, another budget would promptly be presented to AdCil. Union member Carol Braun asked why the budget was presented to AdCil so late, “It seems like it was postponed even before the decision to suspend operations,” she said.

Bloch responded that college president Steve Lawry had been working on the budget until the last minute–the end of April– because of the uncertainty in enrollment numbers for the upcoming year.“It was a moving target,’” he commented.

Several issues were raised in regards to the proposed budget. AdCil faculty member Hassan Rahmanian questioned the process of “eating the endowment,” a decision which, according to him, was not taken in consultation with AdCil. Several members also expressed concern at the consequences of the restructuring of the IT department. Faculty member Patricia Mische suggested that, if the college stayed open, it might be cheaper and more efficient to have an independent IT department rather that sharing it with the University. Finally, the question was raised as to whether it was fair to integrate depreciation into the budget under the assumption that the college would suspend its operations the following year; the deficit might be exaggerated if depreciation was not reassessed.

As no definitive answers were brought to these questions, AdCil resolved to postpone the vote to approve the budget to a subsequent meeting.

At 9:40 a.m. ComCil chair Fela Pierrelouis took over the chairing of the meeting as AdCil mutated into JointCil. The members were presented with the final drafts for a student-initiated community referendum to take place on Monday, October 8th. Two issues are addressed by the referendum; the first is a vote of no confidence against University Chancellor Toni Murdock; the second supports the independence of the college from the auspices of the University.

After the drafts were distributed around the table, a series of questions followed about the specifics of the documents; however ComCil member Sarah Buckingham, who was responsible for the language committee throughout the process of drafting the referendum, wished to make a clarification: “The initial draft was created by one student AdCil rep’ and one student ComCil rep’, and that initial draft went out in all faculty and staff mailboxes, it went out on FirstClass, and it was in the Caf’ both at lunch and dinner on Thursday and Friday, trying to get edits from the entire community, and we received very little input; so I just want that to be out there when people make suggestions like this.”

It was then clarified that JointCil would vote to support presenting the referendum to the community, not to support the actual content of the drafts.

Before voting on the motion to place the documents for a community-wide vote, Andrzej Bloch wished to elucidate who had authored the drafts. Community Events manager Rory Adams-Cheatham replied that the question was illegitimate, as the process involved was one of consensus; “It’s a student initiated community referendum, very much in line with the theories that we’re taught at Antioch,” she said, “it belongs to everybody.”

Dispatches From Community Meeting

Community Meeting galloped hard down the stretch. McGregor 113 was packed by a quarter past and the agenda was front-loaded with guest speakers, the revelation of Community Member of the Week (CMOTW), Beth’s Trivia, and a sluggish announcements segment. A quickly dissembled pulse discussion dismissed attendees by 4:03 p.m..

Manager of Dining Services, Marvin Bohn, snagged Community Member of the Week. Bohn was lauded by the venerable CCR CMs (Chelsea, Corry and Rory) for his service on CafCil and the Campus Greening Committee. A little field research yielded that the apples in the meeting’s fruit bowl were firm this week. Coincidence?

Exiled Clevelander Peter Zummo, a professor from the New York Arts Program, made an appeal to students to join his program. The New York Arts Program offers a 16 credit semester with 12 of those credits coming from an arts apprenticeship.

The irascible Bill Whitesell couldn’t help but inquire as to the big city’s safety reputation. Recounting his experience in the city 30 years ago, he wondered in earnest if students would get mugged if they traveled to New York.

Zummo, a noted trombonist, regaled the community with anecdotal evidence to attest to the city’s current high safety level. Using an epithet in sheep’s clothing, Zummo recalled his personal run-in with a Good Samaritan on the subway. He was promptly clapped for and thanked for coming.

What’s funnier: that CFB funds were reduced by $2,000 or that Horace Mann died of milk poisoning?

The latest CG budget reduced CFB funds to a total $5,600. To request funds, propose your request at Community Meeting. Fill out a CFB request and turn them in to CG by 12:00 p.m. the next day, forms can be found in CG. Then bring your request to CFB at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday in the main building conference room.

Trivia with Beth was a joke. Winners this week get first dibs on that big cake for Founder’s Day. Whitesell correctly answered that great American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne was Mann’s brother-in-law. Natalie Martin won big by explaining that old cows who ate bad grass produced bad milk. Mann drank bad milk, which explains that bad milk in the Caf is a tradition, not a mistake.

In pulse, student AdCil representative Julian Sharp announced that a press conference will be held at Antioch next Tuesday, October. 8, at 3 p.m. –in place of community meeting– to produce the community referendum vote to the media. A debriefing about this event will be held, per the Legislative Code, next Monday evening. Look for more announcements around this event.

Rowan Kaiser ’05, shared his observation that the university structure was approved at a BoT meeting on October 16th, 1977. This means, he said, the university will be celebrating its 30th birthday on college’s community day on October 16th. He recommended the college throw its ill-conceived experiment a party.

Lust With Levi

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I consider myself to be a queer man, but, for whatever reason, I’ve only ever dated straight women. I just got out of a long-term relationship, so I’m trying to put myself back on the market. Recently, I’ve been communicating with a woman online who I found through a Craigslist personal ad who identifies as queer. From some of the things she’s told me, I’m starting to think that she might be a trans woman. We haven’t met in person, yet, but I feel a little nervous and I’m wondering if I should bring it up with her.
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Crushin’ and Questioning

Continue reading Lust With Levi

Antioch Panel Speaks at Wittenberg

“In my mind, Antioch has a soul,” mused Antioch College professor Scott Warren to a small audience gathered at Wittenberg University last Wednesday. Community members Jeanne Kay, Scott Warren, Scott Sanders, and Wittenberg professor and Yellow Springs resident Laurie Askland comprised the panel in order to openly discuss the circumstances regarding the closing of Antioch College.
The panel started off with college archivist Scott Sanders, presenting pieces of Antioch history to illuminate parallels between the college’s current financial situation and those of its past. According to Sanders, the year 1880 saw no graduates and concerned alumni and students met with the college’s Board of Trustees in order to prevent the closure of the college. Sanders also described the events of the summer that led to the announcement of closure as “surprising” and elaborated upon the efforts of friends and alumni of the College to prevent the suspension of operations that is planned for July 1, 2008.

Jeanne Kay, a second-year globalization major at the college, providing a student perspective to an intimate crowd in the Wittenberg auditorium, lamented the wave of “bad press” over the summer, following the announcement of suspension of operations. Kay stated her concerns about limited operations, facilities, and the number of students on campus, but she disputed the sentiment parlayed in newspapers across the country that campus culture has had a negative effect on the retention rate of the college. she pointed to the 100 percent retention rate of the incoming class and the fact that the second-year class has had half of its original students return to campus even after the news of suspension of operations as indicative of the environment of tolerance resplendent on campus.

Scott Warren reminded the audience of the economic implications of the college’s closure to the community of Yellow Springs and the Miami Valley. Laurie Askland, a town representative and professor of Women’s Studies at Wittenberg University described the college as the “heart” of the village. “It became clear to me how much the fabric the community I lived in was linked directly to the college,” she said.

Warren further described the measures currently undertaken by the campus community and Yellow Springs to prevent the suspension and panelists listed their favorite websites for news and background on everything Antioch.

A week after the event, it becomes evident the wave of direct action, generated by alumni and friends of Antioch college since this summer, has found its way to the Wittenberg community. Students that were present at the panel discussion have contacted Wittenberg faculty and facilitators to inquire after ways start campaigns to effective fundraise for Antioch College.

SOPP Office Hosts Conference on Public Policy and Women’s Health

Last Thursday the SOPP office hosted the third annual Women’s Health Month Conference. This year’s topic was “Understanding the Influence of Public Policy on Women’s Health”. Although the conference was not as well attended as in past years, there was a good assortment of health care providers and academics present.

The first presenter, Dr. Wendy Smooth, an Ohio State Women’s Studies Professor, provided an overview of “Women as Policymakers”. According to Dr. Smooth, Women, and especially women of color, carry some of the most progressive legislation and are more likely to list health care as one of their top priorities. Unfortunately, female politicians are still in a very small minority – only two percent of Congress. On the state level, women are more present with around 22 percent of all state legislator positions. Dr. Smooth also covered some power dynamics within political meetings that make it difficult for female politicians to get an equal voice.

Julie Piercey and Laurie Housmeyer from Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio presented on public policy effecting sex education, contraceptive accessibility, and other women’s health issues. In their synopsis, they compared the US with several European countries in numbers of teen pregnancy and numbers of sexual partners, amongst other factors, making it clear that our educational programs and cultural support systems are failing.

Our own Women’s Studies professor, Isabella Winkler, gave a different perspective on women’s health by looking at the interaction between public policy and the GLBTQ community. Winkler posed the question which part of a GLBTQ community would fit into the constraints of a woman’s health conference and continued to challenge public health policy to expose in what ways construction of identity alters health and policy.

In an attempt to help attendees bring concerns into action, Ann Hembree rounded off with “A brief Training on How to Influence Public Policy,” that included guidelines for talking to politicians and ways to become involved.

For more information on Women’s health and how to get involved, the SOPP office can be reached at PBX 1128.