Over 30 Washington area Antioch College alums met yesterday, November 11 to discuss recent events and plan future activities that can help Antioch College in this transitional period. An almost unanimous vote of the 33 people in attendance agreed with the list below of concerns resulting from the recent Agreement in Principle between the Antioch University Board of Trustees and the Antioch College Alumni Association Board of Directors and the 11.2.07:2 Resolution of the University Board of Trustees.
As individuals, we will not give money to the College Revival Fund, Antioch College, or Antioch University, nor do we believe other large donors will fulfill their pledges, without the following conditions being created. Continue reading Resolution of DC Antioch Alumni Group Meeting on November 11
Tag: dance
The Importance of Student Spaces in Creating Community
This text was originally published in The McGregor Voice, Fall Issue 1
I could complain about the small student lounge haphazardly located on the second floor. I could complain about our ongoing lack of “the library.” I could argue about the ways in which the new building does or does not meet my needs as a student.
But I would be giving “the building” too much credit. Running on an “if you build it, they will come” mentality has left us heavy on style but shy in substance. This building, the original buildings, any building is but a shell. It is not the building that shall define us, it is what we do with and within it that will determine the nature of our experience and the quality of our education.
Upon entering the main doors I would expect to see a student space of chairs and tables rather than a cluster of neat merchandising of spirit wear and accessories. A central space—together with the outdoor area—where students get to know each other beyond the classroom.
I would like a space reserved for our use until the library is ready—a room apart from the lounge for study such as an empty classroom or meeting room where those of us who use the time to work can do so—apart from the smell of microwaved leftovers. Most importantly, I would like to see Antioch University McGregor designate an Office of Student Affairs which could serve as a home for the McGregor Voice and other (up and coming) student organizations, and could fulfill other student needs as they arise, such as study groups or special meetings. Ideally, the University could create a FWSP job or staff position to develop the Office of Student Affairs as a resource for all.
I choose to attend a liberal arts institution, and I am seeking a certain level of engagement with my peers. Though many of us are busy working professionals or juggling some number of other full time commitments, I think most of us enjoy the learning process and are “fed” by our shared experience in the classroom.
My own McGregor experience has been excellent in many ways: my instructors have been top-notch, engaging, and truly accessible. My classes have a synchronicity that is often surprising, and I have reveled in the interdisciplinary focus of the curriculum.
But in terms of student services and student leadership, this branch of the University is in its infancy. What are the needs of the McGregor student body? Does each program have it’s own culture? What do we have to offer each other?
What are the things one typically associates with a liberal arts education from a private university?
How about in-house scholarships that decrease the cost of attendance while offering incentive for student leadership, community involvement, and academic excellence?
How about student organizations that offer opportunity for involvement that fosters our learning and helps grow our resumes for future endeavors?
How about advanced opportunities for internships, and the ability to take advantage of curriculum or special programs at the other Antioch University branches?
It just might begin with a central student space, not because it is pretty and modern, but because we commuters may begin to sense that we are a community of students with a potential for creating whatever opportunity we desire—for our own advantage and for those who will come after us.
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.”
But she conceded to the concerns raised, “I want to do what you all want…Come talk to me.”
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 Glen”) 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.
Dances With Vacuums
“Giraffe or Oyster?” asks the masked dancer. “Tales,” commands the sergeant, after flipping a coin. “No, Heads!” protests the dancer as she proceeds to assume the oyster position. At first glance, you may not think that this is dance. You may even feel a bit confused as to what on earth is going on. Then you realize: this is Antioch – organic, improvisational, and chaotic yet somehow orderly – it’s exactly as it should be.
The lights were kept at a dim setting in the South Gym Monday night for Antioch’s-a-Happenin’. Performers and viewers – encompassing students, faculty, alumni, community members, and locals – casually conversed while the performers imagined prospective movements to fill the space between the sparse pillars of structure.
The dancing that night was entirely non-traditional and 90 percent improvisational. In fact, the whole production only had about three hours of preparation. The oldest male dancer, a dance enthusiast from Columbus, learned of the event just a couple of days before and volunteered last second.
The first dance, the wave dance, underwhelmed me at first because all it consisted of was performers walking, running, and crawling forward and backward on stage. I judged too soon; it wasn’t too long before I witnessed a well-aged woman limbering quite elegantly throughout the space, followed by an interpretive vacuum duet dance, that for some unidentifiable reason made the entire audience giggly.
In another satisfyingly quirky act, the audience was asked to reduce their emotion vocabulary to sighs (depression), screams (panic), “oh no!”s (despair), “huh”s (cynicism), and “whatever”s (apathy). Then we essentially had a verbal drum circle, or beat-box orgy, with our new vocab.
Other dance performances included a wind-structure dance where each dancer took turns communicating with one another by moving into a shape and making a face at the people in the shape.
All of the dance pieces were, of course, serenaded not by pianos and long violin notes, but by cowbells, Congo drums, and the oddest trombone noises you’ve ever heard. Despite the weird sounds, the event was a happenin’. With an ample number of dance lovers willing to pay the five or ten dollar entrance fee, and splurge on “Save Antioch” merchandise, the event brought together a total of 200 dollars for the College Revival Fund.
Patriarchy in a Post-9/11 world
Last Saturday, professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State College and Antioch alumnus, Dan Shoemaker, presented his lecture, “Patriarchy and Post-9/11 Cinema” in McGregor 113. The presentation, slated to begin at 6 p.m., in typical Antiochian fashion, took half an hour and a series of phone calls before attendance was high enough to justify warming up the projector, but eventually the show attracted a crowd of over 30 students.
A graduate of the college with a BA Communication and Media Arts, Shoemaker started off the presentation by discussing his own opinions on modern cinema as a professor of popular culture. “Like most people,” Shoemaker said, “I go to the movies to be entertained and illuminated. Unlike most people, when I see something that bugs me, I write a paper about it.”
Questions of critical film viewing framed Shoemaker’s dissection of cinema and his final conclusions of conspiracy. “Whose fantasy is it? What version of happiness is endorsed? What logic makes it to make sense?” he pondered, while showing excerpts of movies like Million Dollar Baby, and Boondock Saints.
“In the wake of 9/11,” Shoemaker finally suggested, “American people needed assurance, and Hollywood stepped in to provide it.” To back up his claim, he cited examples of classic Hollywood responses to real-world crises; Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. These examples today seem obvious illustrations of blatant propaganda. Shoemaker argued that current cinema is no less propagandistic, if one only knew where to look.
Initially, Shoemaker’s claimed that Hollywood was deliberately putting subliminal, conservative messages into mainstream films were suspect and far-fetched. His specificity in particular was cause for skepticism; Rumsfeld’s reasoning behind the Iraq war promoted in Million Dollar Baby, specters of the Bush administration in The Boondock Saints, and so on. However, as Shoemaker screened a series of scenes from recent and not so recent films to illustrate his points, his theories became increasingly plausible. The promotion of patriarchy and family values can be easily seen in most modern films, but Shoemaker also pointed out examples of hegemony, anti-pacifism, gender role reinforcement, and religious fanaticism. Some of his points were still a stretch to see, but others came to life on the projection screen in McGregor and posed real cause for concern as to the state of cinema today, making Althusser’s quote “The media reinforces dominant ideology,” once again tangible.