ComCil - THE RECORD

Community Meeting

By Kathryn Leahey

Greetings and salutations, fellow community members! After a two week sabbatical, your source of information on all things community meeting has returned. Yes, you may now collectively exhale. This week’s meeting proved no less engrossing than usual, even involving some controversy over our own beloved editors. First, however, our community engaged in our weekly batch of gratitude and notices. The much-coveted title of Community Member of the Week went to Hassan Rahmanian for his work on both AdCil and the Coretta Scott King Center search committee. Much of this week’s gratefulness was imparted by, to, or among CG. Melody thanked her FWSPies, and Hope thanked Hannah and Jessica for cutting her hair and letting her bitch. Melody was thanked by Antoinette for being the glorious Events Manager that she is. Hope also thanked Melody for taking her to my hometown, Chicago, at some point in the future, for the experience of getting out of Yellow Springs and wandering around her first real big city. Hope, I wish you much Windy City fun – write something on a wall at Gino’s for me. Levi B. thanked his roller coaster incident mates as well as Sarah Buckingham for her work on ComCil. Outside of the Dynamic Three, Meghan Pergrem, who was thanked by Erin Winter for her help with the Art Show, also thanked BAMN. Finally, Jean Gregorek and Jim Malarkey were thanked for organizing the poorly-attended but very moving Guantanamo Bay Teach-In last Thursday.

Next, twenty different town criers announced many things, most of which will have happened by the time this is actually read by anyone. Here’s what you ought to know: I am starting a Latin language and literature group. Likeminded, nerd-identified individuals may contact me via FirstClass. In other news, ComCil and AdCil are currently discussing highly important issues of the RAB and shared governance, respectively. Go to the meetings. Really, go right ahead. Those interested in becoming a CM, Record editor, C-shop manager, or Pennell House coordinator in the near future ought to get his or her application turned in as soon as possible. Speaking of Pennell House, the much-anticipated Art Show, which is taking place at Pennell House, is on Friday beginning at 8pm. Live music, performance pieces, and food will be provided for the more easily distracted of us. Saturday night will see a bonfire and the fire party as well as a late-night bike ride. Various other fire-related events will take place over the next few days, including a meeting entitled “Fire Up Your Crotch�?, an examination of alternative menstrual health. On Monday, Anne Shine, a pianist from New York, will be performing a free concert at 8pm. Tuesday is the Black and Tan Dance, for which Melody still needs volunteers, especially anyone who knows how to make an ice luge. On October 19th, a day-long counter recruitment event dubbed the Uprising Tour will be taking place. October 23rd, Christian Smith from the ACLU will be on campus from 7-9 talking about higher education and the War on Drugs.

On a shocking note, everyone wanted money this week. Haruna proposed $200 for Japanese cultural events while Meghan asked for $400 for Pennell House activities. The strangely exact figures of $421 and $722 dollars were requested for a ceramics event and Fire Week, respectively. Seventy dollars is needed to reimburse the person who replaced the swing in front of North Hall, $150 to provide for the SOPP Community Day dinner, and $100 to bring the formerly mentioned ACLU speaker to campus. Melody wants $250 for Black and Tan while three separate people requested sums of $500, $200, and $150 to bring bands to various community functions.

Next, like ice in a blender, our community was Pulsed. Going into the proverbial smoothie of conversation this week were the topics of the now-infamous “Cowboys and ‘Indians’ Party�? and the new look of the Record’s most popular item, the Declassifieds, a tasty combination that, no less, gave me a headache. When the party was first brought up, the notion immediately sparked a dialogue about the perceived division between upper- and underclasspersons here at Antioch. Our community members pitched such ideas for the remediation of the problem as chem-free socials for first and fourth years, interest groups, attendance of Thursday night karaoke bashes by all involved, a “Big Brother/Big Sister�? program of sorts, and upperclassperson attendance of first-year Core Communities to aid in the understanding between classes. Dennie Eagelson simply asked third- and fourth-years to “assume that [firstyears] have some thoughtfulness before you jump their ass,�? a sentiment surely echoed by many of my fellow freshies The only idea proposed that was criticized was the notion of the two groups actually talking to each other during meals. The notable lack of mealtime communication can be attributed to a disorder known as “Caf Anxiety�? combined with general social awkwardness so prevalent here at our beloved school. After much conversation on the topic, CG thanked all involved for a productive and respectful conversation.

After many left, we then moved on to a topic that did not prove so productive and was not conducted quite as respectfully. Several community members expressed great concern over the reformatting of the Declassifieds section of the Record. Some accused the editors of shaming the community with their previous Letters to the Community, saying that they were taking their frustrations out on the wrong people. Foster countered the claim by telling those present that the section is simply “not bringing out the best in us�? and that reactionary Declassifieds make the paper accountable for things that the writer would have otherwise been too intimidated to state publicly. He admitted that he realizes that the letters may have offended some, for which he apologized, but that he felt valid points were made. He also said that the current haiku policy may change soon if he and Luke find it ineffective. When asked why the haiku format was chosen, Foster replied that haikus are fun, short, and made people think about what they are writing a little more before it is published. Those who have a problem with the policy or anything else about the paper can bring it to RAB, a board that meets on Friday at noon in the Antioch Inn. When the letters and haiku were discussed at the last meeting of RAB, little problem was found with either. Until next week, Antiochians, Pulse among yourselves.

Letter from Carole Braun

Dear friends at the Record and in the Community,

I wanted to clarify the implication in the last Record issue that changing RAB (Record Advisory Board) to REB (Record Editorial Board) would necessitate censorship of the Record. When I taught journalism on campus between 1989 and 1991, my responsibilities included chairing what was then REB. REB, which was composed of previous Record editors and interested faculty, staff and students, created Record editorial policy. Record editors were expected to conform to this policy, but the newspaper was never censored or subjected to prior restraint. (Prior restraint refers to a newspaper being reviewed by someone before it could be published.) Momentum to change editorial policy or question the editors about their responsibilities came from the community and was changed through democratic process. REB was appointed by Comcil. As I recall it, much of REB’s strongest questioning and criticism of current editors about being responsible journalists came from the previous Record editors.

I also was present at an Antioch University Board of Trustees meeting where then-college President Al Guskin defended the Record, its student editors and freedom of speech when Board members complained that the Record needed to be censored or restrained so that its news didn’t offend anyone or spoil the public relations efforts of the College. I was surprised then at the venom of the 1990 Board toward the Record, and I wonder if the current Board is not pressuring the administration for changes.

Carole Braun

Media Arts Technician and occasional adjunct

Horrorscopes 10-13-06

By request, a very special Horoscope for this week’s edition of the Record. Ladies, Gentleman, and Gender-Neutral or Othered persons, I bring you…Horrorscopes. Yes, I predict your death for my general amusement and your torment. Just try not to die this week; I’d rather not get sued.

Heart Heart, Amy Campbell, Horrorscope writer and mysterious mystic – haunting Main Building since Summer 2005.

*Please note that this week’s horoscopes are completely satire and I hold no malice towards anyone, nor am I plotting or actually predicting anyone’s death. Anyone who dies under such circumstances does so completely by coincidence, and not through my actions of writing a horoscope.

CAPRICORN (DECEMBER 22-JANUARY 19)

Life is a bitter pill to swallow, good thing death also comes in convenient pill sized form as well. Have you considered hemlock? I hear all the cool kids are doing it.

Tarot Card: Five of Cups – Suicide via imbibing or consuming of liquids or pills. You may be so incompetent that it’s an accidental suicide where you’ve participated in reckless behavior that you damned well know would get you killed.

AQUARIUS (JANUARY 20-FEBRUARY 18)

Surprise!!! You’re dead!!! Your death will be totally random and quite unexpected. ComCil might have something to do with it, and it will probably be a totally arbitrary decision. Don’t blame me when someone stabs you with a protractor. You probably deserved it.

Tarot Card: Wheel of Fortune – Death by circumstance, don’t walk in front of Twinkie trucks or participate in Breath-play with a chicken anytime soon.

PISCES (FEBRUARY 19-MARCH 20)

You can sleep when you’re dead. Until then, if you sleep the clowns will come into your room, and begin gnawing on your body until you die if you sleep. Needless to say, you’ll die of insomnia, but only after you go crazy and take your friends with you.

Tarot Card: Nine of Swords – When will this nightmare end?! Four years, maybe five, you’ll get your degree eventually.

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19)

*Crush* Your heart is broken. You become extremely morose and die because you refuse to leave your room to eat, bathe, or use the restroom. I hope you live off campus, like we need more haunted rooms.

Tarot Card: Three of Swords – Life isn’t worth living without love, so I’m going to lock myself away and listen to sad love songs until I die.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20)

You’ll die on your way to co-op or vacation. That’s right, as soon as you get the hell away from Antioch you will keel over. Might as well stay here and rot.

Tarot Card: Six of Swords – Row, row, row your boat *glub, glub, glub*

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 21)

You’ll be kidnapped. Unfortunately you aren’t worth much so your wallet will be stolen and they’ll throw you in a ditch somewhere in the hills of Tennessee where no one will ever find you. You’ll crawl around in the wilderness for awhile until a vulture eats your liver. Maybe you’ll fall off a cliff first if you’re lucky.

Tarot Card: Eight of Swords – Tied up and thrown away like a bag of garbage.

CANCER (JUNE 22 – JULY 22)

Somebody gets so sick and tired of your whining that they stab you in the back, multiple times. No one goes to your funeral, and no one cries.

Tarot Card: Ten of Swords – [think Psycho shower scene]

LEO (JULY 23-AUGUST 22)

Like Gemini, you get to die tied up. Unfortunately it’ll probably involve some rather inconvenient circumstances, like dying during kinky sex. There’s no way your parents will be able to take this news, so not only will you die, but your father will have a heart attack and your mother will probably have an aneurysm.

Tarot Card: The Devil – Death by Lust. Makes you wish you weren’t such a pansexual, talk about embarrassing obituaries. And you thought your horoscopes were ba-a-a-a-d.

VIRGO (AUGUST 23-SEPTEMBER 22)

You’ll die peacefully in your sleep, because you led an uneventful life. Loser.

Tarot Card: Four of Swords – I heard Virgo McVirgin died this week. Who was that? Dunno, who cares. Wanna crash the funeral? Sweet!

LIBRA (SEPTEMBER 23-OCTOBER 22)

Don’t fall down!!! You’ll die by falling, probably while you’re telling someone not to fall down. Hopefully it won’t be on your birthday. On a related note, tell Joe Cali Happy Birthday on the 17th, and tell him not to fall down.

Tarot Card: The Tower – Cause I’m freeeeeee, freeeee falling.

SCORPIO (OCTOBER 23-NOVEMBER 21)

You’ll maim yourself horribly and end up bleeding out by the side of the road or getting a serious infection. I recommend not taking up bungee jumping, sword play, or fire eating. Ever.

Tarot Card: Five of Swords – Don’t cry for me, some people have a thing for amputees. Oh god… why is it green and smelly?

SAGITTARIUS (NOVEMBER 22- DECEMBER 21)

You’ve got a battle to fight and you’re going to rush off to your death to fight it! Dying for a cause, how romantic. Hope it’s worth it.

Tarot Card: Knight of Swords – I’m going to save Antioch by strapping a bomb to my chest. *Ka- Boom!*

From The Editors 10-13-06

Dear Community,

Friday the 13th has reared its ugly head in October this year, 699 years to the day from the when this date first earned its infamy. Some of you may notice the shield of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon adorning this week’s masthead, and the last words of the Grandmaster above it all. You may also notice a strange, breasted goat somewhere within the pages of this week’s issue. The creature is a Baphomet*, which some contend is a representation of the Mother Goddess, and it is the worship of this icon which led to the arrest, torture, and execution of hundreds of Templar Knights in France on Friday, October 13th 1307.

I cannot elaborate to deeply on the mythos of Friday the 13th, but I thought it important to mention the original events behind the superstition we observe today, and to provide some context for the symbolism found in this issue. If you want to learn more, or if you want to wildly hypothesize about the fate of the Templar treasure, I’ll be glad to talk your ear off.

Good Luck today community,

Luke C. Brennan, esq.

Dear Community, I want to start by apologizing for the end of last week’s letter. I understand how it is offensive, and for that I am sorry.

I also want to clarify that letters to the community to editors can be anonymous. Also, we do not censor DeClassifieds. The Haiku format does not limit what you can say, only how you say it – i.e. 17 syllable tercets. We do accept multiple, related Haiku and will do our best to print them in the order we get them.

I want to thank everyone who has been working for the Record this term. You’ve all been great. Also, I want to thank those students who have been elected to AdCil and ComCil for their dedication. Finally, thanks is due to the community for the support given to the Record.

Not much space left for me to fill here. I have laundry to do.

Foster Neill
Layout Editor

President Lawry Shows His Teeth

By Wesley Dawson

At the AdCil meeting Tuesday October Tenth School President Steve Lawry began discussion with a document entitled “Principles of a Community Learning Structure.�? Presumably written by Lawry himself, the page subtitled as a “Draft for Discussion�? had all statements and no questions. Community members present at the meeting found the document demonstrative of the President’s desire to change to a more top down school power structure that negates decision making shared governance once had.

The bite in the document seems to be that even though Lawry has been instigating what many older students see as unprecedented change on the school, it is written as an explanation of policy rather than a proposal for change. Lawry’s point is to say that the community government never had any real power beyond advising the real decision maker, himself.

The document asserts that the purpose of shared governance is purely educational, preparing students to “be effective in public life and to represent their views and values convincingly in public affairs after leaving college.�? This is not unlike Student Government models in many other colleges where students hold no power beyond fund raising and throwing parties. One purpose this parallel serves to the perspective of a newer student like myself is to say that Antioch is, and always has been, structured the same way as any other college in the country.

Many students, some of whom who have been at the college longer than the President, disagree with the statements in his document. They say that while the President of the school holds the official power, they have historically taken heed of the community’s wishes and made decisions as a representative rather than an authority. This point of view shared by many members of the community asserts that until the current president, governing power was shared under shared governance.

Teachers present at the meeting were noted as saying that the ability to utilize real power allows students a better opportunity for learning to be “effective in public life�? because it allows them to do so as students instead of just “after leaving college.�?

The document does not refer directly to Steve Lawry but rather to a theoretical President but also includes statements like, “Faculty have in recent years gained greater direct responsibility for curricular matters. This is a welcome and healthy trend and it should continue,�? which, aside from the date, is the only part that shows that Lawry himself wrote the document, and recently. The rest could have been a policy set out years ago by the school administration were it to always have the absolute power Lawry asserts it to have.

According to the President, “AdCil’s role is advisory to the President and the administration�? and ComCil is “a place of discussion and debate on community matters�? not “an alternative locus of authority to the President, the administration or the faculty.�? Older students say that while the President’s statements may correspond to how the school policy is written, it is a new interpretation of that policy that does not take account of how school decision-making has historically worked at Antioch.

If that is the case, the student body faces the question of whether the decree of authority is more important than the ideals of community. President Lawry has already considered this question and made up his mind.