Letters - THE RECORD

Open Letter to Antioch students

I just returned from a weekend in YSO and attended the open forum session with the Board of Trustees. As an alum (class of ’77), I had not been on campus since the late 1990s when I tried to interest my daughter in attending. My experience this weekend reminded me of why I have always loved Antioch and why I stayed after the 1973 strike.

Everything I have ever accomplished of any significance is due to my years at Antioch College (parenting included). I’m often asked how I learned the skills of my profession and I always credit my years at Antioch College. (I own a healthcare consulting firm.) I explain that I learned active listening through participation in AdCil and long meetings held to debate whatever issue was the hot topic on campus (including the ’73 strike). My classes emphasized critical thinking and the synthesis of multiple theories and ideas. During my work study job in the WYSO newsroom, under the careful mentoring of Mark Mericle, I tested my communication and analytic skills. Finally, I gained confidence and independence through the coop program/AEA experiences in Mississippi, New Orleans, Washington DC, and Mexico.

So why did I become alienated from the College from which I loved and took so much?

In part, the complexities of life just took over. Fundamentally, however, my generation received unfair blame for the enrollment decline and financial chaos after the ’73 strike. Perhaps we were the first toxic generation. Many seemed to forget that the strikers, whether we agreed with their tactics or not, actually challenged Dixon’s funding priorities (expansion to over 20 campus locations) and predicted the College would eventually ultimately suffer (for which they were labeled as marginal and fatalistic thinkers). So, as a 1st year student who survived the strike, I distrusted the expansion and move towards a University system from the beginning. I endured the strike – thousands of pounds of garbage piled on the horseshoe in front of Antioch Hall (strikers picketed to prevent garbage pickup), the suspension of classes and meal service, and a deeply divided campus. Yet I stayed.

The first year students I drove to the Cincinnati Board meeting reminded me of myself and other entering students of 1972; excited, curious, inquisitive, polite, and eager to start their Antioch adventure. They sensed this year would provide a very special opportunity to participate in a collective effort to save Antioch College and to understand the dynamics that led us to where we are today.

I admire all of you, both entering and returning students, for making a decision to go down this unpredictable path. Please remember you have the support of staff, faculty, the village, and thousands of alumni who are working towards a common goal. We will not forget you are actually living through this uncertainty and intensity day after day. Believe me, you will not regret it!

In solidarity,

Susan Greene 1977

Open Letter to Antioch students by College Alumna

Continue reading Open Letter to Antioch students by College Alumna

Letters From The Editors

Dear Community,

In writing this I am finishing up the first Record of a year that is said to be the last of Antioch College. The summer was branded by the news of Antioch’s imminent closing; the mere existence of this early issue is the hard copy proof Watching out of a window into a waking New York street, I hear my exhausted coeditor talk in French to my 12 inch Mac while laying the last hand on the layout for the back page. Both the co-editor and the Mac have maneged to amaze me this week in more ways than can be mentioned here. The latter for not melting under the weight of a hastily installed version of Indesign CS3, the former for flushing her acceptance letter to Bard College down a French toilet and deferring her transfer to run a newpaper with me for the next four months. Her learning lay out in one sunny afternoon on a back garden terras in Williamsburg from me of all people was a stellar example of the deaf leading the blind and she pulled off what I could never have managed on my own. Complete chaos, and Antioch at its best.

Dear Antiochians,

As I write these words to you, I am entering my 43rd sleepless hour. Co-Editing this fi rst edition of the Record from off campus and before the beginning of the term has been a hectic yet exhilarating experience.

It has involved flying from Paris to New York City, squatting generous Antiochians’ homes, walking the streets of Brooklyn late at night desperately searching for open cafes with wireless Internet, writing articles at 3AM in noisy bars, and extensively getting lost in the subway. It has involved getting mad at the printer, pulling all nighters, and (last but not least), crash courses in Indesign layout. Despite all these adventures–which have made me feel as if the last fi ve days had lasted three months– I am extremely excited to present you with this fi rst issue of the Record. Many of us have the spent summer between antiochians.org and Pulse, reading every little piece of writing that was published about Antioch. Many of us also became frustrated– if not infuriated– to see our community under public attack, often by commentators who knew very little about what the realities of Antioch life are.

The Record this term will strive to provide a window of fresh air for Antiochians seeking for an alternative community forum. Not one that will blindly defend our interests or fl aunt our identity. But a space of enquiry and debate where the community can virtually meet, exchange, and–most of all– recognize ourselves.

I would like to invite every Antiochian to participate to the Record. React to the articles, send us angry Op/Eds or (de?)-constructive suggestions, step by the office… Help us make the Record a crossroads contributing to bringing together our vibrant community.

I hope this first issue will set the first stone. If so, it was well worth the past few days’ strain and fury .

-JK

ComCil approves Editorial Policy Record awaiting re-installation of online edition

By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans

In a unanimous vote, ComCil on Thursday march 8th approved a new editorial policy for The Record. The two page long document is the result of five months of deliberation and revision and will open the way for the community paper to resume its operations online. Hugs, cheers and congratulations went around the room at the last ComCil meeting before the break, celebrating the approval of a new editorial policy for The Record. Only days before, the Antioch College alumni board, which gathered on campus the previous weekend for its three day spring meeting, made a symbolic statement by adopting a resolution in favor of putting The Record back online as soon as possible. The newly approved editorial policy is key in this effort of once again making the paper available outside of the Yellow Springs community.

Continue reading ComCil approves Editorial Policy Record awaiting re-installation of online edition

A letter from Michael Brower ’55

To: Shelby P. Chestnut `05, Community Manager 2005-2006 and to Daniel E. Solis Operations Manager 2005-2006, and to those current students who may agree with your angry letter:
From: Michael Brower `55, Alumni Board Member

I saw your highly critical letter to Steve Lawry posted on SaveAntioch. org. I did not see the version you published in The Record a few weeks ago, nor the other letters in The Record supporting Jimmy Williams. So I can’t respond to other letters, but I do want to write to protest three things about your letter: Continue reading A letter from Michael Brower ’55