Articles - THE RECORD

They too were once young

Eric Miller–Professor of Cooperative Education

Where were you when you were 20?
I was here at Antioch.
What were you studying?
I was a psychology major. When I entered I was into education, but I switched.
Who was president of Antioch when you were here?
Bill Berenbaum
What was the student’s opinion of him?
The students generally hated him. That was kind of the birth of the university system in 1977 when I was 20. The university system was created under Bill Berenbaum. The writing on the wall that we saw was that Bill was a New Yorker, so he wasn’t here. He would come in once a month for a few days. A lot of the campus policies were ignored back then. He had a manager which was very similar to Andrzej’s current position. He was the main operating manager while the president was away. Students and faculty were not very fond of this arrangement. People complained about it a lot, it was a big issue in AdCil.
What was going on politically in the United States?
It was the Carter years. There was a lot going on in Central America, especially with the war in El Savador. Things were also starting to heat up in Nicaragua and Panama as well. The issues that I mostly paid attention to were going on in Central America. Carter, even though he has a good boy image now being a retired president who was involved with peace issues, was supporting the School of the Americas which trained South and Central American militants here in America. That school is still some what going today.
Were there any books that influenced you at the time?
The thing about being in college [was] you don’t really get to choose the books you read. Just remember I was 20 at the time but I was really into the Carlos Castaneda series. I was really all over the place with my reading.
What sort of music were you into?
Well the late 70’s were not the best for music. Punk and New Age were just coming into the scene. Disco was still around, but the good stuff from the late 60’s and early 70’s was not really happening anymore. I always liked jazz and especially the jazz fusion going on at the time.

Fourth week, None Missing

On August 23rd, 66 new students* unpacked their luggage in North Hall. Four weeks later their rooms might be messier, but none moved out. College Registrar Donna Evans confirmed that as of September 17th, no single drop-out had been registered among the entering class.
A 0% attrition rate has not been known since the days of Bob Devine’s presidency. Director of Institutional Research Doug Wamer stated that perfect retention had not been reached since the Fall of 1998.
In Fall 2005 the attrition rate was 12% for the same period, according to data from institutional research and the registrar’s. In Fall 2006, we had lost 9% of the entering class by fourth week.
Director of Admissions Angie Glukhov ventured several reasons to account for the resilience of the class of 2011. More accurate information was given to prospective students about Antioch as the new curriculum was more clearly defined, and there was better targeting of potential Antiochians. “The last two years, we have been working very hard in admissions to recruit students for whom Antioch is the absolute right choice,” recounted Glukhov. She also mentioned recent community efforts to improve retention; “campus visits, meetings with faculty, creating networks on campus to help retention really made a difference,” she declared. The fact that a preliminary screening process naturally took place after the June decision is also to take into account. “I think the announcement set everyone thinking very hard about Antioch and their educational options,” said Glukhov, “The Office of Transition made sure that everyone knew what to expect if they decided to come.”
Some might see an irony in achieving an exemplar retention rate in the current circumstances. But despite having to make it through their first term of college in an institution with a minimal operations budget, having to work their schedule around the limited open hours of most facilities, taking up to 22 academic credits with a library that is not fully functioning, having to deal with the anxiety caused by an uncertain future, and, last but not least, having to save their college, first years are hanging on. And we might come to ask ourselves, with Registrar Donna Evans, “If we hadn’t had the suspension of operations, how many students would we have retained?”

* degree seeking, full time students (not including exchange)

Mish’s Movies: Paris Je T’aime

Paris Je T’aime is an omnibus narrative, the likes of which haven’t been seen this side of the indie/horror circuit since Babel, which showed at the Little Art last year. Twenty directors were invited to create 6-8 minute shorts around the theme of love in Paris- in essence, writing a cinematographic love letter to the city. Just a glance at the poster was enough to have me twitching in the theatre, dreading the inevitable accordion chords and quaintly plinking piano melody that I anticipating accompanying a Wes Anderson cum Amelie flick about glamorous neurotics falling in love in a sexy, quirky European city. To my surprise, Paris Je T’aime had me liking it in the first five minutes. A series of neighborhood based vignettes who’s first line- in Montmarte, no less- is “Shitty neighborhood!”? I fell in love.
Paris Je T’aime is best consumed as an appetizer plate. A wide selection of everything, from directors (Wes Craven through the Coen Brothers), actors (Steve Buscemi through Natalie Portman), and themes (paternal through unrequited), it’s guaranteed that everyone will find something they love and something they can’t believe was committed to film in this movie. For me, the Cohen Brothers’ hilarious story of Steve Buscemi as a guide-book reliant tourist caught up unwittingly and unwantingly in a fiery Parisian relationship was worth the price of admission. At the same time, I could’ve done with less of that quaint Parisian custom involving white makeup and being trapped in invisible boxes. I’m looking at you, Sylvain Chomet.
Paris Je T’aime is a multifaceted love story, where love is used in the fullest, most inclusive sense of the term. Expect to walk out fantasizing about plane tickets.

Paris Je T’aime is playing at the Little Art on Thursday (tonight!), at 9.20. Run!

Dispatches from Community Meeting

Antioch is starting to come around. Due to great planning from a tireless on-campus leadership core and a focused and talented alumni presence at this weekend’s teach-in, more and more students are joining the effort to save the school. Attendance reports for the event became progressively stronger throughout the weekend peaking with the meeting behind the C-Shop on Monday night that garnered more than 60 students. Riding the swell of pride and hope that students felt this weekend, community members piled in to McGregor 113 for this week’s installment of Community Meeting.
What ensued was a gem. The thank-you section ran through four stacks. CFB proposals moved efficiently. There were over 20 announcements about fresh events and opportunities for the community [for real, you have to go to Community Meeting to know what’s going on at Antioch.] Community Members of the week went to Record editors Jeanne Kay and Kim-Jenna Jurriaans. Trivia With Beth went down like “The Price Is Right,” and Susan Eklund-Leen outbid her opponents in a Pencil-Case Showdown to walk away with the grand prize. And for once Pulse was contentious and controversial for all the right reasons.
The cup overfloweth with thank-yous. The capstone came from 4th year, AdCil student representative Julian Sharp, who thanked the community, he said, “We’re looking out for each other and it feels great.”
AdCil member Julian Sharp gives an update to the community: “The search for Steve continues. He was last spotted near the Pine Forest in the Glen.”

That community spirit manifested itself in Pulse through community members bringing up issues of transparency, honoring governance structures, and challenging the notions for appropriate ways to challenge authority.
4th year ComCil student representative Sarah Buckingham rang the first bell by asking Director of Student Affairs, Milt Thompson about a rumored $50 charge to student accounts for laundry services. Once students arrived on campus this term they found the formerly coin-operated laundry service to no longer require quarters. Students were under the impression that the laundry service was free.
However, Thompson confirmed that the charge was indeed real. Thus commenced a discussion on if the change was ratified through the proper channels. Thompson said he brought the issue to either ComCil or AdCil either one and a half or two years ago.
Associate Professor Nevin Mercede, who sat on AdCil as a student representative when Thompson presented the proposal, said that it was sometimes difficult to teach class to stinky students, and, “Quite frankly we hoped [non-coin-operated laundry] would encourage you to do your laundry more often.”
4th year student David Bishkoff argued that he should be exempt from the blanket laundry charge because he does his laundry about once a term which used to cost him around $2.00. He also wanted to know why he wasn’t notified of the charge.
Former Community Manager Levi B. Cowperthwaite responded as a point of clarification that, “There isn’t really a precedent for being notified of tuition or fee increases.”
There may be more news about this to come…
5th year student Nicole Bayani brought up a question of process to Community Manager Chelsea Martens. Bayani asked if Martens would take a step back in facilitating tough discussions with current Chief Operations Officer Andrzej Bloch. Bayani thought that in last week’s Pulse Martens restricted the space for community members to aggressively interrogate Bloch.
Bayani’s point was that there’s a difference between being disrespectful and being aggressive she said, “Demanding that he [Bloch] answer a question is not being disrespectful.”
There were a variety of views espoused on how to facilitate an effective dialogue and how to ask the most productive question. It was the perfect way to finish one of the most perfect Community Meetings.

AdCil Still in Shambles

Three empty chairs
The absence of Toni Murdock, Art Zucker and Steve Lawry in main building’s conference room at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning might not have been a surprise for AdCil members, but they nonetheless expressed their dissatisfaction. The invitation drafted by the Administrative Council at the first meeting of the term had been transmitted to the University Chancellor, the Chair of the Board of Trustees and the College President (on administrative leave since August 31st) in a formal letter signed by college COO Andrzej Bloch. Bloch reported that the recipients had acknowledged the invitation but that their coming to AdCil would have to be postponed until Art Zucker came to Yellow Springs. Faculty member Hassan Rahmanian was not satisfied by Bloch’s explanation, “I don’t know if the letter conveyed the urgency of the situation. It’s a question of crisis of legitimacy.”

Letter of the law vs institutional values
Bloch asked Rahmanian to clarify the statement “crisis of legitimacy,” as, according to Bloch’s reading of the events, there is none; AdCil is not to be consulted when dismissing or choosing the college president. As to leadership, Bloch specified that he was running AdCil as CAO/Dean of Faculty, which is standard procedure for when a president is on a leave of absence. “There is letter of the law and there is historical consolidation of traditions and values of an institution,” contested faculty member Hassan Nejad, pointing out Antioch’s history of shared-governance, “These are values that we preach, we tell our students to uphold these values, we tell the world that we cherish these values, the feeling is that these values are not being honored and respected by higher-ups.”

Transparency & Procedure
Faculty Member Patricia Mische explained that the crisis of legitimacy as a result from the procedure by which the August 31st events were conducted. “We don’t have faith in what Toni said, I feel like she lied to us, to the faculty, that she is saying things in public that we know are not true” she explained, “so even if she came and apologized, what is done is done but we need to register that procedure.” Student member Julian Sharp also emphasized the lack of transparency as a critical issue, “Aside from being trampled on and such there has clearly been a cover up, (…) the University released press statements that are misinformation, lies” he said, “If Lynda Sirk was working for our college wouldn’t it make sense for her to put out a press release in behalf of the college, saying that in fact our president didn’t step down, he was placed on administrative leave and banned from campus?”

Call to Action
Faculty member Hassan Nejad stressed the need for AdCil to formulate a specific request to the University Administration, as he confessed his doubts about their good faith in engaging in candid dialog. “We are dealing with people who have very little respect, if any, for shared governance process, for honesty and integrity in administration, and for consultation and transparency. That’s my conclusion; I could be very wrong,” he declared.
The possibility of a student action to register formally their concerns to the Board was briefly discussed as a means to emphasize community’s dissatisfaction with Toni Murdock’s actions.

Olive & FPRC
AdCil then engaged in a discussion about the Olive Kettering Library. The 3 year long subscription to Ohio Link is about to end, and no funds at this time are designated to pay for its renewal. Moreover, Union Staff member Carole Braun pointed out that the renewal was conditional upon the continuation of acquisitions—a problematic fact because the Olive’s acquisitions manager has been laid off.
Andrzej Bloch sought advice from AdCil as to whether a Faculty Personnel Review Committee should be appointed. Even though questions of tenure are postponed at the moment, faculty members could still seek promotion. AdCil voted to approve the formation of FPRC.

When AdCil went into closed session, no resolution had been voted on in regards to the governance issues raised during the meeting.