health - THE RECORD

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.

The Following is a Work of Fiction

Don’t come Around Here No Mo or: Steve McQueen Banished From Campus
By Christopher DeArcangelis

It is now nearly sun up as Steve Mc Queen and I pull us to the rocky summit of Mt. Crispus. Steve, clad in hemp poncho and straw hat, eyes gleaming beside a fully formed nose and cheeks for the pinching, cannot help but outshine the sun rising in the East. He pulls himself over the summit, landing on his belly.
“Wasn’t that a mother fucker?�? Steve laughs. But then he turns his face to the rising sun and bites his lips, holding back the pain welling up inside his moved soul.
“If only Antioch could see me now.�?
******************************
Steve McQueen has only his pride these days as he was stripped of his Antioch citizenship two weeks ago. And why? There is no answer. Steve McQueen has maintained a non-threatening, educational presence as he traversed the many yards of our hollowed campus. Who can forget the good times? Who will forget the jolly chuckles of Mr. Steve McQueen?

In the quest to find answers, you must untangle the great gobs and wads of bureaucratic tape that can block even the healthiest arteries of understanding.
I figured I’d work my way to the heart of the matter and attempted a meeting with “Straw boss�? Steve Lawry, El Presidente Guapo de Antioch College.
I approached his door with an air of caution. I was surprised to see his door partially opened, as if he were expecting someone. I raised my hand to knock when Steve’s voice wafted into my ears: “Come In�?
I opened the door and greeted “The Man�? with a hearty shake and a wink. He told me a few jokes, some a little racy I felt later, but none-the-less the sign of a whip smart welfare capitalist.
After the initial meet and greet, we cut to the shit. I mentioned Steve McQueen and Mr.Lowery’s face turned glum as a plum.
“I do not know of this person you speak of,�? he responded.
“What do you mean, Steve? How can you forget? The face? The laugh? Remember when he single-handedly inspired a joyous celebration among those lost in the quagmire of living?�? I protested.
I saw the red overtake Steve Lowery’s normally dour face, the beads of sweat swelling. He tilted his head to face his desk, his hands clenching the edge of his black leather throne.
“Get…Out….�? he muttered, trembling
“Steve, tell me about Steve McQueen! You know who I’m talking about!�? I threw all the papers off of his desk, a justice filled rage of yellow journalist. He shot up to full stature, his towering figure taking up all my space.
“There is no Steve McQueen! Not on this campus! Now, take your fowl and breadcrumbs and stuff it!�? His pointer finger twitched as he held it pointed towards the exit.
************************************
I am eating the freshly picked figs and grapes left over from the summer crop at Steve’s ranch as we observe a falcon gliding on steel winds o’er head. As I watch the falcon I think of Steve’s rise from naïve spring to chicken to a big game hen at Antioch College.

“Yes,�? Steve laments, “Antioch really brought out the best in what I had given to me at the hour of conception.�?
Reflecting on his commentary, I notice his eyes begin to water. Still shaken as his banishment, I feel this must be hard for Steve. Goading him on, I prod:
“ Do you feel like you are the reflection of an ideology?�?
His face turns to me swiftly. Throwing himself upon his feet he shouts,
“NO! I am no more important than you, or this mountain, or the sun!�? His face turns majestically skyward as he basks in the beams of the life giving sun.
“We are all representative of something, and no idea or person is more important or any better than another!�? Steve pulls a rock from the ground, overcome with energy, and throws it over the rocky precipice of the mountain’s apex.
“If we are to understand each other, we must laugh! We must forgive! We must hold hands as we stand on the picket lines to protest the dues paid to intolerance and hate!�?
***********************************
So why did Steve McQueen get kicked out?
“Steve had this sort of natural…panache. He was a gunslinger at heart, but his heart was connected to his mouth. He sort of said what people all knew was true but afraid to hear.�? first year Buster Gently relates. “His voice had the eerie quality. Sometimes it took on the shape of a sultry siren, you know, those maidens on the island that sang so mournfully, yet sexily, but sometimes, man, it was a steel nail chiseling a slab of bedrock.�? “…I think, the administration feared his very presence. This guy just left blood wherever he went, really.�?

“…He was a [charming] fuck. Sometimes I thought he knew about god or some higher shit, But really he was just a hack, I mean, when was the last time you bathed, Steve?�? Kolin Pope, past savior of the world says.

“…He told me about this crazy idea he had involving regular foodstuffs. I think the administration got hip to his plans and cut the cowboy off at the pass, if you know what I mean,�? Ernie, a first year says.

“I heard when I applied to Antioch that plainspoken folk with a natural flair were on the way out. That’s why I decided to go here,�? says Neptune, a First year.
*****************************************
The more people I talk to, the more it seems the nature of Steve Mc Queens unfortunate removal from Antioch takes on that of an oral tradition. While no one can quite put there finger on what happened, including Steve McQueen, we could all construct our own narratives that hold a deeper meaning than any authoritative folklore can provide. This must be the new face of Antioch. We are reverting to folklore and oral tradition in terms of communication between the administration and its students. Instead of concrete reasoning and iron-fisted bureaucracy, we are treated to an informal but classical rendering of the way societies communicated before the advent of the written language. This neo-classical approach will surely help redefine the face of Antioch.

In the meantime, we are faced with a strange void, the void that was once filled by our true love: Steve McQueen.

Blues Fest, Inteview with Guy Davis

Erykha Badu performs at AACW Blues Fest – Photo by: Kari Thompson
By Wesley Hiserman

Last weekend Antioch College hosted the African American Cross Cultural Works’ Blues Fest. The festival followed a Gospel Fest at the Central Chapel A.M.F. on Wednesday and, on Thursday a lecture by Kevin Dean of the Ringling School of Art and Design and presentation by steel drum manufacturer Panyard, Inc.

The AACW Blues Fest started with the Terra City Blues Band, W.G. Blues Band, Karen Patterson Jazz Ensemble, and the Ark Band on Friday. The weekend featured sets by Guy Davis, Sangmelé, Jimi Vincent and Stallion, Nerak Roth Patterson, Mo’ Blues, Goapele, Frédéric Yonnet and Erykah Badu. Badu’s set ended the festival on Sunday a few hours after Yellow Springs mayor David Foubert named September eighth through tenth “African American Culture Week.�? During this event that might be better described as “African American Culture Weekend,�? I got the opportunity to sit down with acoustic blues master Guy Davis. Davis’ original songs are wellwritten and beautifully performed and while playing the oldest form of blues in the festival, he admits that his music is at best a perfectionist’s imitation of the original blues.

“I am not a bluesman, as I’m called. If they call me that, I don’t say anything. What I am is a blues musician,�? he said Saturday night shortly after playing his set and making a guest appearance during roots band Sangmele’s. Davis is the son of two successful actors, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. He never experienced the anguish that normally corresponds to those who perform the same old style blues as he. As he (and his website) puts it, the only cotton he’s ever picked was his underwear off the floor. His understanding instead stems from an emotional awareness of history.

“My blues, I believe, is ancient blues. My spirit recognizes spirits that were here so, so long ago who came to this country in chains. And since that time, even when the chains were taken off by a proclamation of law, there were invisible chains still that held them down economically and racially. The music that I sing comes directly from those people as they came to rise up and go up off the farms where they labored even after slavery in something resembling indentured servitude.

“Sometimes the blues is entertaining, it’s sexy, it’s about a man who’s got a lot of girlfriends. Or it’s about a woman who lives in a man’s world doing the things that men can do. You know, it can be funny, it can be sad, blues can be many things but I think it originates in a cry of the human spirit for humanity, just for treatment as a human being. That’s where I think blues originates and that’s where I think my blues reaches back to.�?

As for what his relationship is to real bluesmen, Davis is certain.

“A bluesman is somebody who came up in the time of Jim Crow and the time of unequal housing, unequal education, unequal health opportunities, job opportunities and such. They came up in a world where the black man was last and the white man was first no matter what else.

“I do not live in that world, although I do see remnants of that world. Some of that ignorance still exists but the world is no longer that and I am not a bluesman. I don’t show up in clubs with a knife looking for a fight. I don’t show up in clubs looking to get drunk because my blues heroes apparently, according to history, got drunk.

“…I could believe that it might help for a man to sing the blues if he has suffered true, deep, utter heartbreak, if he’s been so broke he’s had to beg for money, if his only comfort was newspapers stuffed in his clothing or a warm pint of some kind of whiskey.

“However, remember the world is a progressive experience. The men who came up with the blues dreamed that the world would not truly be like that always and their ancestors, the slaves, dreamt that the would would not be like that always. They wanted a world where their children could grow up and never know what a nigger was, and never know what it was like to be so poor that you had to stuff cardboard into the bottoms of the shoes of your children so that they could walk to school if they could even go to school.�?

As a product of this progressive world some 68 years after the death of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, whose biographical documentary Hellhounds on My Trail Davis played in, Davis is conflicted about what makes a blues musician authentic. The question of race is one area where this conflict surfaces.

“I have differing feelings. If it’s a Tuesday I say yeah, white boy should sing the blues. If it’s a Thursday I say no, they shouldn’t. It’s not really up to me. I don’t think the burden of that choice is up to me.�?

Arguably, the line between a well-off African American and a poor White American is blurred as far as social power is concerned. Davis believes the expression of personal and political blues figuratively corresponds to the changes that occur in the world.

“Think of the Black Panthers, think of the black muslims coming along with Malcolm X. These men were saying what their blues was and they were saying that the world had to change and the world was not ready for change. J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI made sure the world did not change. Yet J. Edgar Hoover and all of his kind mostly have died out. So these changes are coming nonetheless. There was a time when I wouldn’t see a black face when I looked at a television screen and now you see them all the time.

“That is not to say there are not still tremendous problems in the entertainment industry regarding black people and work. But you do see more, you do see progress, you do see change. That means that somebody somewhere expressed their blues.�?

Vandals Supply Steamy Welcome to New Semester

By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans

A recent spree of vandalism that struck the campus last week leaves Antioch to pick up the $3500 bill to pay for the restoration of destroyed artwork and windows, general repairs and labor hours.

The events approximately started on Sunday, September 3rd with bricks smashing the windows of both the president’s and the vice president’s offices, and ended in the flooding of the first floor of the union building early Tuesday morning, after unknown vandals purposely clogged and repeatedly flushed the upstairs toilets. The broken windows in Main Hall were discovered on Monday morning between 11.30 and noon, when one of the bricks was found on the floor of the president’s office. Another was found in the surrounding area.

According to Darrel Cook working at the physical plant, the flooding at the Union didn’t occur till the following night or early the next morning. After clogging the toilets, the offenders urinated into the water, causing urine filled water to leek into the cafeteria. Four workers spent two hours non stop sanitizing the area in order for the cafeteria to open on time for Tuesday morning breakfast. Dean of students Jimmy Williams was especially alarmed about the effects the incident might have on the ability to feed the campus community. “We’re talking health violations here. Those requirements are quite strict. We were close to having to shut the Caf down.�?

In addition to the incident at the Union, vandals found a way into the science building where they left a $2500 trail of damage to artwork in the downstairs hall. The art consisted of digitally re-mastered photographs of the first generation of Antioch alumni from the 1850s. “Those Photographs had only been up there for about a year�?, says Darrel Cook, assistant manager of the Physical Plant in charge of the clean up. “Whoever it was took them down and tried to flush them down the toilet. All artwork was urinated on and smeared with feces.�?

According to Dispatcher Campbell of the Yellow Springs police department there are no official leads so far as to who is responsible. Given the nature of the vandalism, however, both campus crew and administration find it likely to be someone familiar with the buildings and the community.

The Science building is usually locked over the weekend, but with the number of keys in circulation among students that is hardly a barrier. Dean Williams goes on to say: “This is Antioch. This is not a place were we keep busy locking people out. If you want to get into a certain building, you will find a way.�?

Cook says he above all felt discouraged by the incident: “The maintenance crew had worked very hard for the last three weeks to get the campus nice before the new students arrived. It only takes a couple of people some hours to make our lives hell.�?

Dean Williams was similarly disheartened by the nature of the vandalism: “We’ve had vandalism before, but in terms of nastiness it has escalated�?, he says.

Like many students on campus he links the events to the recent policy changes that took place at the college and which threw a rift between many of the older students and the Antioch administration: “The community is broken right now. And all sides are convinced that they are right.�?

According to the Dean the atmosphere was tense at the end of last semester. With the arrival last January of yet another president to lead “the new Antioch�? into becoming a less ‘toxic�? community, debates arose over the use of authority and distribution of power on campus, leaving many students frustrated with the new status quo. “We’ve become a community suspicious of change, partly because we’ve had so much of it these last years�?, says Williams. “People felt devaluated, they didn’t feel they were heard. There was a vacuum and if there is a vacuum something always slips in.�?

Although the issue was addressed at last weeks RDPP orientation for entering students, the reaction of the community to the incident was surprisingly calm. Some interviewed students had heard of the events vaguely, others who were off-campus for several days last week, hadn’t heard of it yet at all. Second year transfer Mariel Traiman was quoted as saying: “When I first saw the broken windows on Monday morning I remember ‘thinking this will be a big issue on campus this week’. I’m actually surprised of how not a big issue it is.�? Indeed there didn’t seem to be much of a ‘whodunnit’- atmosphere amongst students. Lunch conversations tended to focus more on upcoming classes and everyday business than speculations as to the motive of the vandalism and whether the events that took place on separate days were the works of the same persons. “I know that the college portrays the events as one incident, but I’m pretty sure they’re not�?, continues Traiman, who has been living around Antioch the last months before entering as a student this fall. “For me the throwing of the stones was a political act. The rest was just plain stupid.�?

One of the reasons the administration has taken a low-key approach to the incident seems to be not to want to spoil the overall upbeat vibe on campus that came with the arrival of the 150 new students two weeks ago. “That’s why we were so disappointed when it happened,�? continues Williams. “We had had a really good week so far. And then Bam!�? At the RDPP meeting Williams encouraged students to step forward if they had any information, but so far none have. �?I do think it is a problem that people know about it and choose to stay silent�?, he says. He acknowledges that the atmosphere has changed over the previous years, with a low point being last semester. “The culture has gotten a little mean-spirited.�? Part of the problem he attributes to a lack of communication between administration and students. “If people don’t get answers, they find answers. Administrators need to know students. In a place as Antioch that should be really easy. We should fix that.�? The Dean of students nevertheless denounces the choice of action. First year Caitlin Murphy seems to agree: “This is simply not the way you get things done.�?

“The irony is, we used to brag about being really tolerant here�?, continues Williams. “Now we’re less tolerant. This used to be the place where dissenting opinions were discussed, petitioned. Somewhere along the line that got lost. We’re in a time of confusion right now, but I think our problems have an easy fix. This is not a student – faculty problem, but a student -administration issue. We need to get out more, be more approachable.�?

So far the events don’t seem to have put a damper on the new community vibe. Since the College itself isn’t planning a large-scale inquiry into the incident, the vandalism is likely to stay unaccounted for.

Antioch is currently looking into options to get the pieces of artwork restored, but it is still unclear whether that is possible. If not, the 2500 dollars reserved for the restoration will go towards new artwork for the Science Building.

Campus Life Gets a Life Guard

by Christopher DeArcangelis

It had been a groggy start. Head in the shower, clothes on the ground and no breakfast. The class had been one of irritation: “McGregor still has no elevator or handicap accessible entrance and its recent cleaning has unleashed a fierce mold.�? When class was over I couldn’t stop thinking about eggs and mayonnaise. My hunger was trying to take me for a ride.

I ran into Joe and he said “Listen: I cant get into Birch.�? I looked at him and rubbed my guts. I had consumed the coffee stimulant, but no food. I needed Birch for its kitchen.

“Come on, ole Joe. I’ve got a key. “ Joe looked back pensively, not letting me in on his inner understanding. We walked down the path past the dew and craters that compose one of Birch’s main pathways. Joe almost broke his ankle stumbling into the hole in the ground. Examining his reddening joints he remarked,

“Oh, I hope lunch is good.�? I helped him up and we made it up to the door. I reached into my pocket, stained from last night’s Gin, and fumbled for my keys. I found them buried beneath my coinage and whipped them out into the keyhole. Turning the key gave way to nothing; the sweat on my brow now ran down my eye sockets. I began to turn the key more aggressively, pulling on the door handles and muttering oaths.

I had not yet received my new Antioch ID. These new IDs include the ability to unlock the dormitory doors, standing for a new era in the General Safety of Antioch. This also means that until someone walked by with an ID card, my friend and I would be pressing our faces to the glass of the doors hoping to see a concerned face. And there she was.

It was Kim Deal, from the rock ‘n’ roll band The Pixies. She is also from Dayton, a nearby industrial city. She was making her way down the stairs and saw our flustered faces. She let us in through the door with the sympathy of a sailor, saying “Hey, we’re all on this ship together.�?

I said, “Why, with all this good nature about, I can’t help but wonder if you know something I don’t.�? Her eyes widened. Her shining teeth revealed themselves to me as she announced her new position as the Campus Life Guard.

“Campus Life Guard tell me more!�? Joe beckoned. The Campus Life Guard took us aside to the Birch Space Kitchen and began preparing some sandwiches a she explained the various changes occurring on Antioch College that require our immediate attention, as well as the aid of a skilled Campus Life Guard.

“This term is but another in a series of swift changes in policy towards the students of Antioch College. The college moves on with its Renewal Plan, and the Housing website still shows a picture of Birch while leaving it out of its Internet tour of Antioch’s student housing.

Changes that face returning students this term: The necessity of a written proof of illness in order to partake in the Cafeteria’s Food Exchange Program; the lack of a smoking friendly dormitory or hall; the reorganizing of financial aid, of the FWSP; the key card identification system that took years. The understaffed faculty. The Pepto-Bismol nightmare interior of the Antioch Inn Practice Spaces and Hailed Hallway of The Dance Space. The largest first year class in years is also welcomed this term.

This term Antioch will posses the following abandoned residence halls: West, Mills, G Stanley, and Norment. “

The sandwiches were served, along with the proper end of summer cordials. Kim peered out through the Birch Space windows as she elaborated.

Housing

“Gazing about the halls of Birch one cannot find a common space. Instead, the passageway, the hallway, is the common space. Folk hang about as if waiting for the bus or a ride, one leg crooked against the wall, cigarettes in hand.

Fuck not smoking, a bright second year says.

The rooms seem to be in fine working order. Aside from the closet full of ancient piss and the incriminating fleabites that spell “get out.�?

Though things seem to have taken a turn for the worse at Birch Town, its residents still have faith in the future. A fancy bench has made its way into one of the dorms halls, providing what would seem to be an attempt at the creation of a common space.

As for smoking, Ohio and many other states have decided to tighten their brassiere in a collective show of progression by banning smoking in some way or another. In Ohio it has been county by county, and while Green County remains indoor smoking friendly Antioch College does not.

The ratio of smoking detectors to smoking Antioch student has continuously caused unwanted smoke alarm detonations, particularly during the last few terms in Birch. It is rumored that tensions are rising between the Yellow Springs Fire Department and Antioch College. It seems that Antioch has been trying to save face, however, what with the sacrificial offering of the recently abandoned Torment Hall to the Fire Department for training exercises.

The RA of Willet Hall in Birch, Rob the Rev, says: “Over the last few terms their have been a lot of fire alarms going off which I think is straining our relationship with the fire department. I think that in the interest of maintaining the basic safety of this campus and the students it would be the logical course to ban smoking.�?

For the first year class, North has been rehabilitated with all the floors open and ready for business. Dorm life is being kept closely monitored. Near the entrance to Green Hall there is posted warning about the seriousness of underage drinking and drinking in North. Underage drinking and smoking will not be tolerated. Steve Lawry has voiced his personal concern with underage drinking in North.

Whatever you do, don’t buy any minors beer this term.�?

Campus Life

“The Financial Aid restructuring has continued to affect the Community Government and Independent Group’s on campus. The various groups provide resources and outlets for the diverse minds and bodies that compose Antioch College’s student body. These outlets show the true potential of Antioch College as a place for creativity and progress. With their diminished importance and volunteer status, they are threatened to disappear completely without student initiative. Even the Antioch Record itself has been struggling keep a hold of funding.

The first years are on a completely different curriculum from the upper classmen. Their days are spent in class. Most of the steady teachers have been usurped into the CORE program for the first years. For a while the fresh key cards given to returning students did not work in North.

Weekend Dance Space parties have long been a staple of Antioch College nightlife. This term, alcohol will no longer be sold at CG parties. It is sad to see the eradication of one of the most ancient forms of socialization. BYOB is encouraged, but still serves as yet another division between the older and younger students at Antioch College, a school with a very small student body.

The cafeteria has taken a new stance on the food exchange program limiting access to a great idea: take home some of the raw goods that the cafeteria uses. You must have a written notice from a doctor validating your need to partake in this program. At a school that is known for its progressive posturing, you would think the food wouldn’t put people asleep or straining at the toilet! But it does, and the cafeteria remains stigmatized.

Kim Deal really had taken this job full on. My stomach was full, but my head was filled with questions. These questions, like many, desire an answering. I leaned forward on the fancy table and asked, “But Kim, what does anyone think?�? I looked at her plainly, naïve to the whole thing. She reached an arm into her pocket and prepared a mini cassette record to myself and Joe. “In order to better understand the changes, I thought it best to speak with some upperclassmen. Here for your pleasure and understanding are the true testimonials of Rob the Rev, and Emily Thornton Wourms

Emily TW

Q: How has your housing situation changed?
A: When I entered I lived in north and it was cesspool of first year debauchery and I liked it that way. The biggest problem with housing is that they don’t differentiate from the people who do drugs and the people who don’t and because of that people are put in awkward positions where their lifestyle conflicts with people around them and I thought that was a very valuable thing and that school did too.

Q: With the changes in smoking and alcohol tolerance do you feel that the school is changing its stance?
A: Oh yeah, we used to have a semi official harm reduction policy when I first entered and now it seems more like z parental relation ship between the students and administration

Q: Do you feel distanced from the first years this term?
A: Yes, but not as much as last year, which I think is very important and a very good sign. I think the issues over housing last year caused a lot of animosity over the first years and older students. I think having the older students in Birch here they’ve always been since I’ve first got here was important.

Q: Do you think that the role of the older students as potential mentors and friends is being eradicated on campus?
A: I think they are trying to formalize that role. I know they have all these official mentor ship programs but when I arrived here there was a lot of informal mentor ships which in a lot of ways worked better because it entered people lives more it was just if you had a problem with homework you had a name you could hunt down, you actually had these relationships. Maybe they are trying creating this in a more formal way, great, but I haven’t seen that happening.

Q: How do you feel about the lack of a common space in Birch?
A: I’m trying to do my senior project, and someone just moved a couch literally a foot and a half from my front door and I think that is going to be very detrimental to me trying to do my senior project, and this was done to compensate for the lack of a proper common space.

Q :Do you feel that a common space is really better than a couch outside your door?
A: A lot better for me.

Q: Why do you think they took the common spaces out of birch??
A: Probably to try to get rid of the community atmosphere that many older students enjoyed here that was somewhat destructive and somewhat dirty but I think that people are just creating that atmosphere in a narrower place that only intensifies that atmosphere, literally narrower.

Q: How do you feel about the need for a doctor’s note in order to partake in the Food Exchange program?
A: I have a bigger problem with not being able to get a refund for your meal plan and take
the money you would have spent on it. The food exchange program is great and if people
can utilize it I think they should but you should be able to opt out of the whole thing.
Q: What would you prescribe to Antioch if you were a doctor?
A: Hmmm, some antibiotics and some Valium.
Reverend Rob
Q: Do you feel cut off from the first years?
A: I do indeed I feel that the first years are in a bubble within a bubble. At the same time when the first
years were put in Birch last years it was the same thing so, I don’t think its so much a spatial issue as
much as a generational issues, as the older generations tend to cut themselves off from first years
and the first years tend to put themselves in a cocoon, it seems this problem would be inevitable
Do we stand a chance?
“Well Kim,�? I started, “thanks for taking a good keep over the flock. I feel like my place in the community
is still pretty blurry though. I almost feel sick thinking about these changes. What do we do, Kim?�?

She stood up from her seat.
“The upperclassmen and first years are presented with some daunting challenges at a college
typically known for its strong community and support of radical thought. The leaves will all being
to fall and time will pass. A healthy diet and good sleep remains important, as well as dancing
and the occasional well supervised consumption of a cold beer and a book. It is up to us to get
what we want, or do what we want. As this term unfolds we will see just what’s in store for us.�?
She then jumped through the window, glass shattering in slow motion, and walked off to
stand post as the Campus Life guard.