NB: Internet Explorer is experiencing difficulties rendering standards based content. For best results, download Firefox and experience the web as it is meant to be:
By Eva Erickson
It’s the beginning of round two for the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute, and the Nonsters are back and ready to fight. They come in all different shapes, sizes, and styles including self-proclaimed: smelly nonster (1st year Rose Pelzl ), hermit nonster (2nd year Stacy Wood-Burgess), awkward, yet joyous nonster (2nd year Ashley McNeely), an artsy-fartsy/party nonster (3rd year Shea Witzberger), and even a stick-to-your-ribs nonster (8th year Jonny No). Team Nonster has lost a few teammates since last semester, but has gained many former Antioch students and returnees from Antioch Education Abroad in Europe and Mali, and even a few fresh faces.
Katie Connolly, one of about three totally new students to Nonstop, came here from Chicago after attending three years at Northeastern, and decided she wanted to be in a smaller college with a stronger sense of community and more personal connection between the faculty and students. She’s also interested in learning how to make documentaries and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make one with Anne Bohlen in the “Toxic Tours” co-op. She learned about Antioch through her older sister, Kelly Connolly, who graduated in 2003 and is currently involved with the Chicago Alumni chapter. She also wants to learn the history of Antioch College’s transformation to Nonstop.
Other students, like Shea Witzberger, have returned from their study abroad semester, hers in particular was in Mali, West Africa (for more detail see [Dennie Eagleson’s interview]). Before she arrived at Nonstop, she was keeping in touch with some of her Antioch friends, so she had a pretty good idea about what Nonstop would be like, but “I was impressed when I got here by how lively and impassioned people are. And also, I was impressed by the breadth of classes available. I was not expecting there to be so many.”
There were in fact, about 60 classes originally offered, but many were cancelled due to lack of attendance. Of the classes still remaining, some of the popular ones include: Queer Animals (using Queer Theory to explore the limit between humans and animals), Introduction to Post-Structural Thought (Philosophy), New Continental Feminist Theory, and Palestine in Fiction and on the Ground.
Ashley McNeely, a math and post-structuralism major, is looking forward to Queer Animals in particular “because I’ve always been interested in how our culture views animals … and how I can change that.” Although there are no math classes currently available, Ashley’s relationship with Antioch is decidedly monogamous. “We’re married,” she says frankly. The reason for this is that no other institution would accept her as she is like Antioch does; both Antioch College and Nonstop are almost universally accepting and supportive of queer people. When asked if she’ll stay at Nonstop or in Yellow Springs, she replied, “If there’s work to be done, I’m here.” Otherwise, she’ll “probably go somewhere else, have a horrible semester, and then come back.”
By Rose Pelzl
Atis Folkmanis, ’62, and his wife Judy, ’63, are best known for their puppet pioneering, but did you know that Atis is also one of our Pro Tem Board trustees? In a telephone interview with the Record, Atis reflected on his time at Antioch, and laid out his vision for the future college.
Why did you agree to become a Pro Tem Board member?
Well, originally, before Pro Tem, I gave them a million dollars because, believe it or not, Antioch College brought my family from a refugee camp in Germany in 1949, and of course that’s changed our lives. I went to Antioch and grew up in Yellow Springs. (…) Given the situation I felt there wasn’t anything else I could do but do what I did, given that I had resources. This event was so important in determining the course of my life. If I hadn’t ended up in Xenia, Ohio, and Yellow Springs I would be a different person, you know? Growing up in Yellow Spring, given my background, was a good place.
What’s your vision for the new Antioch?
The vision we have is the vision we used to have. That is when I was going to school in the 60’s. I mean, what we’re planning is not exactly the same, still many of the same teachers. There’s plans to retain the co-op program and over-seas study and so a lot of this is the way Antioch used to be. And I went to school with Mario Capecchi, who won the Nobel Prize, you know. I went to school with Stephen Jay Gould, who was just a great paleontologist. Believe it or not, [Antioch is] still 19th in the total number of students who became PhDs. Given that we’re a small school we produced a tremendous number of very, very good students. And I think we’re going to get the same type of students.
I think people want this type of slightly different place, interactions among your friends, fellow students are very important, and the coop plan and all these. The concept, the most important part of going to college is learning how to think, and Antioch knows how to do that. Clearly there’s the impetus that it will continue to be. So I am very excited about this new thing, and I think its going to work.
How do you think Nonstop will be integrated into the new Antioch?
[Folkmanis declined to comment on the issue.]
When do you think the new Antioch will reopen?
Well, I think the tentative schedule right now is 2010, and given the current economic situation I think that would be the earliest we could do it. And I think it’ll happen.
What was your major?
I was a chemistry major, and then I went on to get a PhD in Biochemistry.
What was your favorite Co-op?
I was in the sciences so, even now probably the people who are on co-op in the sciences get paid a fair amount of money, and actually I could send myself through college because I had such good jobs. I had a job with a research firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and that was probably the most interesting. (…) Living in Boston was wonderful, and it was a very significant job. And I was fairly independent in what I could do and that kind of thing.
What was the most significant thing Antioch taught you?
Self sufficiency. You know, I’m fully convinced that if we had not gone to Antioch we would not have gone to the Peace Corp which we did after Antioch, and we would not have started our business. Because I think Antioch imbued this sense, from our experiences, that we can do things. You think that even though you’ve never done it before you can figure it out. That’s how we felt about the business.
Could you tell me a little more about your business and how it got started?
(…) I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Berkeley, but there’s this street called Telegraph Avenue and people sell their wares, people would make various things, jewelry in particular. My wife started making these Sesame Street-type puppets and started selling them on Telegraph. And in the course of doing that she started getting into realistic looking wildlife animals, and no one had ever done that. They look like the real thing from twenty paces! It was just such a good idea that it couldn’t fail. So that was 32 years ago.
(…) I think the Antioch experience was what [gave us] enough courage and so on to start a company. My feeling is that the Peace Corp background and the Antioch background were very important in that kind of decision.
Thank you so much for being one of our Pro Tem Board members.
I’m very honored to be such. Unfortunately right now things have to be done behind closed doors, and we’re not able to provide all the details. We’re very excited, and there are people involved, specifically Lee Morgan and Matthew Derr, that have been just fantastic, and they’ve been certainly a driving force for the steps forward.
Folkmanis Inc. Wildlife Puppets are for sale at the Glen Helen Nature Center.
By Carole Braun
Nonstop has moved to a space as innovative and arty as the Institute’s aspirations. Its new location in Millworks, 305 North Walnut Street, hosts its official open house on Friday evening, Feb. 6. The new Nonstop space is a work of art and a showcase for renovation with recycled and energy-efficient resources. In contrast to Nonstop’s previous location in a small house on Davis Street, the space provides extra room for staff and more options for students.
The transformation of the site from a plastics factory into the new home of the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute will be completed by February 6, except for the construction of some rolling walls, according to Michael Casselli (1987). Casselli, whose own space is around the corner at Millworks, designed the renovation and is project supervisor.
The inclusiveness of the project was important, said Casselli. Townspeople, faculty, students and alums have worked on the space daily since fall to prepare for the opening. And since Nonstop moved here in December the construction and administrative staff have worked side by side.
The Nonstop space includes a main space, an atrium, a CG balcony, a library, a kitchen and an office area. The main plan was to create a space that is “open– but not totally open—to share heat and light,” said Casselli. Even the heat from the server is siphoned off and recycled into the office area. A Nonstop science class this term will be developing measurement sensors and controls to help balance heating needs in the entire space.
Almost all of the space has been renovated with recycled materials. “Everything but the lighting fixtures,” Casselli said. “The old ones weren’t efficient.” Small skylights called sola tubes dot the ceilings. Domed solar collectors on the roof reflect light through a tube into diffusers above offices. On a sunny day sola tubes reduce the need to turn on lights in areas where there are few windows. Another innovation is layering translucent polycarbonate over existing windows to help heat interiors. The polycarbonate not only insulates, it generates heat from sunlight.
The library, with glowing yellow walls lined with shelves, will have two matching work stations. Casselli wants the space to be “visually balanced so it’s not distracting. It helps with work.” The library will also include matching planters made from recycled material and filled with greenery. A kiosk for email will sit in the corner of the space.
The main space also will feature a kitchen, rolling worktables for student art projects and presentations, a projection area for large groups, and a geodesic dome on wheels for meetings. Manufactured by Antioch alum Bruce Lebel as an emergency shelter, the dome will be used for Comcil, Excil and other meetings. The dome will hold 25 chairs which by necessity will be arranged in a circle.
Overlooking the main space is the balcony CG Office. Community Managers Meghan Pergrem and Chelsea Martens are decorating the space to make it familiar, cozy and welcoming for students. The furniture is arranged reminiscent of the furniture in the old campus CG office. Photographs of Birch and North hang where the windows looked out on similar campus views.
At the end of community meeting last week, members sponged their hands with paint and autographed their handprints on the CG balcony. The area is ringed with chalkboards for community art and graffiti. There is a rooftop smoker’s lounge, a dumbwaiter for delivering items upstairs and space for a future student media workstation. And students are hanging out already, said Nic Viox, first-year student.
“The CG space is awesome,” he said. “And it will be more cozy and homelike once we get more furniture in it.” In addition to being a student, Nic is a member of the construction crew. He’s currently working on completing the main space bench and the roof of the atrium.
