I was surprised by my initial emotional response to the announcement that my alma mater was going to close. I was shocked and extremely upset. I graduated from Antioch College almost 14 years ago, and I still consider my decision to transfer to Antioch as one of the best decisions I ever made. The fact that my school may cease to exist was just incredibly depressing. Continue reading Letter from Bethany Sansing ’93
Tag: IT
Letter from Priscilla (Kip) Klein Zink ’63
I can’t remember when I’ve been prouder of being an Antiochian: proud of alumni who raised $18 million in 125 days, proud of students who refused to bail when the going got iffy and the pipes got leaky. I am grateful to faculty who so espoused the values of Horace Mann that they have hung in when salaries were cut, when names were black-listed during Joe McCarthy’s rampage…and now, when tenure is spelled “tenuous.” I bask in the reflected glory of past Antiochians… Stephen Jay Gould, Coretta Scott King, Eleanor Holmes Norton. Hey, I once grilled a hamburger in the C-Shop for Rod Serling and shared a chemistry class with Mario Capecchi! (I would be delighted to sign autographs.) An anti-bumper sticker person at heart, my little Honda now sports a sticker that proclaims “I ‘Heart’ Antioch College.”
There is much that I regret. Immature below my years, I did not march when we invaded Vietnam. I did not understand civil rights. “What difference does it really make what fountain they drink out of? where they sit in the bus?” (Until my date and I were refused service in a restaurant because we were a mixed couple.) I graduated third from the bottom of my class and had to make up those grades before I even dared apply to graduate school. I was accepted only because of the support of one professor (Dr. Bill John, who believed that nobody can be that hopeless!) and because of my Antioch degree. Some of us are really late bloomers!
I like to believe that I did eventually bloom because of my Antioch heritage.
I desperately need our current crop of students to make up for my shortcomings. They cannot do this if Antioch closes. Not understanding that Antioch was in difficult straits financially, I stopped contributing when I retired. Big mistake. Now I’m in, believing that even the modest contribution I can afford…multiplied by tens of thousands of alumni…can make a difference. When all of the hoop-la dies down, Antioch will still be struggling against financial difficulties. Anyway, understanding that ongoing financial support is critical to the survival of the values that shaped our lives, I am dedicated to spreading the guilt around.
I listened online to the whooping, hollaring, whistles and applause that greeted the announcement that the closing had been suspended. But within hours, the objections and suspicions had begun to emerge…and although they made good points, they may be premature. We were told that there is much to be worked out. I have learned that it pays immeasurably to first listen…and then listen some more. It is crucial that we continue to air our questions and doubts, but let’s give the new plan a chance. It can always be amended.
Priscilla (Kip) Klein Zink, 1963
“Observations on Antioch” – Letter by Ted Goertzel ‘64
November 7, 2007
When I attended Antioch from 1959 to 1964, it was a vibrant, bustling campus known for political activism, although only about 50 of us on each division actually went to meetings and demonstrations. I went to Columbus to protest the blockade of Cuba, to Selma to march for civil rights, and to Wright Patterson air force base to protest militarism. I was arrested right in Yellow Springs for protesting segregation at Gegner’s barber shop, and spent the night in jail in Xenia. Continue reading “Observations on Antioch” – Letter by Ted Goertzel ‘64
Letter from Louise Smith, ‘77 Professor of Theater and alumna
“I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
-Blanche Dubois
Since the announcement that we have been given a reprieve from suspension, the theater department has been immersed and focused on the opening of “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams. All term, I have been struck with the resonances between the play and our situation here. It started when John Fleming, the director, put out audition notices in which he crossed out the word ‘Streetcar” and wrote the word “College” so that the poster read “ A College named Desire”. Continue reading Letter from Louise Smith, ‘77 Professor of Theater and alumna
“It Was Supposed to Make Me Cry” – Letter from Rowan Kaiser ‘05
It was supposed to be the culmination of everything we’ve worked for. It was supposed to be what I’ve given my life to for the last four months. It was supposed to be an explosion of joy, or a session of focused rage. It was supposed to make me cry.
Somehow, that was taken away. I don’t mean lost. I mean taken. I have this feeling of something gone that should have been there. I had visions of the bell ringing, hugging sessions with whomever could be hugged, of lying down in the horseshoe deliriously.
Since I moved here, my primary focus was building up for Homecoming weekend. Getting the signs ready and distributed. Inviting the alumni. Preparing the community. I lived for the hour we spent on the Stoop, waiting for information, people-watching, distributing the nervous energy to and from all those present who had made the pilgrimage to see the fate of their college.
If we’d received this announcement then, these exact same resolutions and agreements, we’d have had the explosion of joy we wanted. But we had a week of anxiety, of paranoia, of just not knowing what the fuck we were supposed to do or how on earth we were supposed to feel. There was a hole where those emotions were supposed to be. I couldn’t cry when the suspension was announced as lifted, I couldn’t even stand for the round of applause.
At some point, I’ll devolve into nostalgia and kitsch, into narrating what’s happened. Ahhh, I remember meeting you that day, we had no idea what was coming, what a fine job we did! That could have been after the tears, before the party. But no time for that, it’s all business. We have to move fast into the power vacuum. I have to find an effective place for myself. Full speed ahead. No time for release.
It was supposed to make us cry. But they took our tears. I guess making us determined will have to suffice.
Rowan Kaiser ‘05