students - THE RECORD

Antioch Students Attend SDS Revival Convention

This Summer, Detroit, Michigan hosted the second national convention of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) since 1969. Between July 27-31 at Wayne State University, nearly 600 students from around the country converged for four days of workshops on direct action tactics, communicating effectively, high school organizing, and media and facilitation trainings around the infamous student organization of the 60’s.

In an attempt to procure a national structure that would provide more transparency and stress accountability within the recently revived SDS, the Antioch delegation Aimee Keener, Rachel Smith, Lowen Gordon, and Jessica Rapchik, sat through fifteen hours of mediated discussion a day.

Continue reading Antioch Students Attend SDS Revival Convention

First Impressions

Between mandatory meetings, the Sexual Offense Prevention Policy, the Racial Discrimination Prevention Policy, partying, registration, going to class, and trying to keep the school open, the first week at Antioch College has been a baptism by fire for the first years.

Students arrived for orientation and move-in on Thursday, the 23rd. They were given an eleven item check list, and went from station to station getting room keys, filling out paper work, and being handed bags of free stuff. Carmen Atlee-Loudon described her first impression of Antioch College as “slightly disorganized but really welcoming.” When Gina Potestio, arrived at Antioch her first thought was “this is going to be interesting”. Eric Kobernik’s first impression of the college was “hardcore.”

After the first day came the mandatory meetings scheduled back-to-back, sending students from one building to another. Friday was the most tightly scheduled, with both the SOPP and RDPP meetings being held that morning. First years were anything but overwhelmed with the myriad activities planned for them. “I was stoked to do everything; that’s why I came here,” said Kobernik.

That evening a community gathering was held to prepare for the Board of Trustees meeting, and at six o’clock in the morning the next day students, alumni, and villagers gathered outside of Antioch Hall to join the caravan to Cincinatti. Among the students who woke up early that Saturday morning, there were more then a few first years, a number of which also had the opportunity to address the board at the morning meeting.

“It was one of the most amazing demonstrations of solidarity among a group of individuals that I had ever seen,” said Jay Casale, one of the first years who spoke to the board on Saturday, “It struck a really deep chord in me.”

The effort to keep Antioch open was very visible to all the first years.Some even felt a little lost in the hustle and bustle surrounding the issue. “It was kind of overwhelming, in the way that you want to get involved but you’re not really sure what to do,” said Atlee-Loudon.

While stopping the college in which you just enrolled from closing is not the normal freshman concern, fitting in is, although first-years at Antioch seemed to be taking that in stride. First years were being shuffled around together, and had plenty of time to socialize, something they found easy, because, as Atlee-Loudon put it, “everyone is so welcoming and friendly that it easy to start conversations.” Even socializing with the upperclassmen (usually represented as big and scary in cliché) came easily to the members of the entering class. “[at Antioch] they want to be your friend, in other schools upperclassmen shit on the freshmen, [but] here it is much more social,” said Kobernik.

Maybe the biggest challenge posed to the class of 2011 is answering the question “Why did you come to a school that you were told would be closing in a year?” This year’s entering class is here to make the most of this year and do everything that is quintessentially Antioch. Students want to get in their last walks in the Glen, engage with the SOPP and RDPP, attend Board meetings, and take advantage of their classes. The climate of solidarity on campus and the exceptional community mobilization since the June announcement might also have weighed in the balance. As Eric Kobernik put it some students are here because of the closing, and they might not have had a shot at such an exhilarating orientation anywhere else.

Orientation team welcomes new students to Antioch

8 AM in Main Building’s front hall. Students, faculty and staff all wearing –more or less customized—black Antioch t-shirts are running around carrying giant ice cube packs, last-minute flyers, and signs bearing the words: Orientation This Way. Anticipation is palpable; the number of students who decided to enrol at Antioch “despite it all” is a source of amazement to many. “They are welcomed with open arms, we want to make them feel we are unified as a student body”, commented Shea Witzberger, 2nd Year Student part of the Orientation Team. Few had predicted such a large turnout, and 20 supplemental welcome packages had to be prepared at the last minute. In fact, said Angie Glukhov, Director of Admissions, the numbers had changed every day up to the very last hours; “We got a student who called us yesterday telling us they were coming today”.

This unexpectedly large incoming first year class—75 according to the most recent count– could hardly have been expected when the news of Antioch’s suspension of operations came out in June. “We tried to contact students immediately, but it was a difficult process”, recalled Glukhov. Dealing with bewildered, shocked or angry prospective students, parents, and high school guidance counsellors is a task that the Admissions/Office of Transition staff has had to face heads on this summer, being the primary contact for all complaints and inquiries.

Regardless, the Orientation committee eventually resumed the task it had started in December. “We had been ahead of schedule, but when the announcement broke out we stopped in our tracks for a while”, commented Eli Nettles, Chair of the Orientation Committee. A few accommodations had to be made to adapt to the situation. Orientation was moved from the South Gym to Main Building in order to make it more comfortable to a shrunken number of incoming students. For the most part, however, the pre-unravelling plans—such as the goodies bags– were kept in place.

Last year’s Orientation was soon re-baptized “Disorientation” in reference to the overwhelming amount of information that was poured on the incoming first years at the time. Yet this year, the planning seemed to be lighter. “It was very important to me for students to have free time to breathe in between the Orientation activities”, emphasized Nettles. Moreover, several traditional parts of the orientation schedule, such as the math and writing evaluations or the introduction to co-op communities, have been cancelled due to the current situation of the college.

Community Government’s involvement in Orientation has been greater than in previous years. “We originally decided to take on more work because we thought we would have more time in the summer with no students on campus”, explained Community Manager Chelsea Martens, “of course with the June announcement it didn’t turn out to be that way”. Nonetheless, CG remained an integral part of the Orientation Committee; prompted by Counselling Center Director Linda Sattem, they organized the distribution of Antioch canvas bags containing notably the new and updated Survival Guide. “We aimed to provide new students with an introduction to Antioch on a more personal level”, stressed Martens, “We also wanted to make sure we bridged the infamous gap between first years and upperclassmen”.

Although the decisive involvement of first year students at the morning session of the Cincinnati Board of Trustees meeting of the 25th was a cause of admiration to the rest of the Antioch Community, it was not encouraged by the Orientation Committee. Rory Adams-Cheatham, Community Events Managers recalls that proposals to include a trip to the Cincinnati meeting and a potluck with alumni to the orientation schedule were rejected by the committee. “There was concern that incoming students would feel pressured to get involved in the efforts to save Antioch” explained Adams-Cheatham. The fact that despite having a full-packed activity scheduled on Saturday, as many first years spontaneously chose to wake up at dawn to tell the BOT how they felt about Antioch is testimonial to the success of the Orientation team in introducing the students to their new college.

Letter from Jean Gregorek in response to Ralph Keyes

Jean Gregorek, Associate Professor of Literature, responds to Ralph Keyes’s “Present at the Demise” published in the Chronicle of Higher Education

Web Editors Note – Accessing Ralph’s letter at the Chronicle of Higher Education website requires a login but Ralph also recently posted this article here : ilfpost.org/?p=230 and this is the link provided above.

The comment thread on this article at the Chronicle is here: chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,39968.0.html

I would like to respond to Ralph Keyes’s essay “Present at the Demise,” which offers his observations on what has led the Antioch University Board of Trustees to announce the closing of Antioch College. I have been teaching literature full time at Antioch College since 1994. While Mr Keyes makes some comments that strike me as valid, on the whole my experience here has been quite different. Continue reading Letter from Jean Gregorek in response to Ralph Keyes

“The most important incoming class”

First-years explain why they decided to come in spite of it all

Ben Horlacher, First-Year, FL

I still remember my fingers trembling as I opened the envelope, I remember scanning the letter head to understand the gist of the words on the page. I remember screaming when I finally figured out the message the letter conveyed, I was necessarily excited about the next four years to be spent at Antioch.

I remember hearing the news from someone else, I remember thinking, “there is no way.” I remember reading every word on the web page, hoping that something somewhere would indicate that it wasn’t happening. I remember not wanting to talk about it.

When I first heard about Antioch, I felt myself drifting into its ephemeral attraction; I knew that somewhere out there was a place for me. I had spent a short lifetime searching for some place to embrace my weirdness in the way that Antioch already has. Having spent my high school years in the South, I was one of three openly gay men at my high school. So when I first visited Antioch I found something I had never known before, a place where I could speak my mind and people would respond not with jeers or cheers but equally informed, and passionately discussed ideas and opinions.

I was not looking for a liberal, or homosexual bastion, what I was looking for was a bastion for diversity. Where I felt my differences added to the community, not separated me from it. So when I heard it was closing, I was crestfallen. I knew that there may be other great schools, but nothing like Antioch. I felt like Adam leaving Eden, my sanctuary had been ripped out from under me like I was the glass of water on the table that had just had its table cloth ripped out so quickly it didn’t have time to fall.

Then the inevitable questions from friends and family: “Do you really want to go to a college that is closing?”, “Does it make any sense just to go there for one year?” In my mind there were no doubt; one year at Antioch was worth one-hundred years anywhere else. So it was odd when people asked me “Why Antioch?” To me Antioch was not the end of a question, but the answer to a question, “Why? Antioch.” The reason I would attend a college that was supposed to close was because it was Antioch.

Alex Borowicz, 1st Year, WI

On possibly the most beautiful day of spring, I first stepped onto the Antioch campus. I was immediately struck by the old and wizened trees shading the campus grounds.

As I waited among the other prospective students collected within Weston Hall I tried to imagine the school covered with a fresh layer of winter snow. The green trees overpowered the idea and I was brought back to the real world as Brad began his pep talk on the school.

Leaving the campus that evening after a dance concert, I remember talking excitedly to my sister about my day. I told her of my time with the Order and Chaos class, the people I’d met, the campus and buildings. The rough state of the buildings seemed nothing to me; I’d lived in places much worse in South America. How could something like that hold me back from an education like this?

As the summer began, I first heard of the new fate of Antioch College. I am not much of a sensationalist, and I took the hit stoically, but so many of the things I had come to Antioch to experience were slipping from my grasp! I would never be able to go on a co-op, or participate in AEA… but I was sure there would still be something for me at Antioch. I soon saw the outpouring of support for the college and I felt a surge of pride at the thought of attending an institution that was so loved, for it is only love that can drive students to follow a school to its death.
It is that sentiment that steadied my hand and signed the check for the tuition deposit. How can one possibly know what this last year of Antioch will bring? Whenever asked about my decision, all I can do is assure my friends that “it will be an interesting year.” I have no doubt of this, and I can only hope that I take advantage of everything it offers me during the next 9 months.