posted 2007/06/13 at 15:57
Antioch College Suspends Operations to Design 21st Century Campus (Antioch College)
Even though I was only in Yellow Springs itself for less than six months, I can't begin to put into words how profound my experiences at Antioch were. I had just come off of nine soul-crushing years at a private school here in Toledo where I had everyone from students to teachers to administrators tell me that everything I thought was wrong and that I'd never amount to anything my whole life, and I don't think I ever made one real friend among my peers at that school. (I was friendly with a few teachers, but more than a few teachers there actively campaigned to have me thrown out of the school for every reason they could think up.) My time at Antioch was really the first time in my life where I felt like I fit in and belonged, and if nothing else I went from being a big rebel figure in the eyes of that private school, to being a fairly mundane figure by the Antioch student body's standards.
Although I think I've always had strong political leanings, and although my time at Antioch was punctuated by the Republican congressional landslide of 1994 and a resulting clash between Antioch students and Columbus police at a protest over proposed Republican education cuts that would have likely killed Antioch then and there, I wasn't that involved politically while I was there. I think I was too concerned with other areas at that time; for one thing, I threw myself into my music studies, and this was around the time that two of my all-time favourite artists released what I still consider to be their best albums: Tori Amos' Under the Pink and Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. I also fell in love with one of my fellow first-year students there, who gave me my first kiss. Although the Columbus clash definitely got me involved with political stuff, it really made me more angry than anything, and because I never returned to Antioch after that first year, I didn't really learn how to harness that anger usefully. I think that's the main reason why my writing in those years while I wasn't in school was punctuated by all those strong emotional outbursts that I never really learned how to control until I went back to UT and immersed myself in English and rhetoric studies (and GLBT politics).
It's hard not to be selfish here, but I think that after I started my graduate studies in English, and after I realized just how much I loved teaching, I think that the job I daydreamed about the most was teaching at Antioch. When I started getting turned down from some of the teaching jobs I applied to after graduation, I started applying for other, non-teaching jobs at Antioch, simply because if I couldn't get a teaching job at Antioch (they haven't advertised an English position since I graduated), and if I couldn't teach elsewhere, then I wanted to have at least some job at Antioch. Not only do I continue to be grateful to Antioch for all that my time there taught me, but I remain as committed as ever to the social justice issues that have been at Antioch's core for so long (let us not forget how important and vital Antioch was in the Vietnam era), and being a representative of Antioch, even if I wasn't able to help its students learn how to use their own writing to change the world around them, would have been nice. I guess that now that dream of mine will have to be on hold as Antioch restructures itself and, hopefully, rises from the ashes to reclaim some sliver of its old glory.
It's been hard not to think about all my memories of Antioch here. I can remember endless nights in the Student Union playing Mortal Kombat II and the just-released Twilight Zone pinball game (Rod Serling was an Antioch graduate), the best pinball game ever as far as I'm concerned. I can remember drinking copious quantities of Barq's Red Creme Soda and Fruitopia, and how one angry student smashed the Fruitopia machine and scrawled on it in black marker, "ORANGES DO NOT A REVOLUTION MAKE." I can remember getting my first contact buzz when some students lit up during a showing of Dazed and Confused in the auditorium, and then waking up in the middle of the night puking with a rash all over my face and arms. (Marijuana allergies run in my Mom's side of the family.) I can still remember all the things Dr. John Rinehart taught me about composing music, and all the wonderful recitals we had while I was there. More than anything, though, I remember what a salvation Antioch was for me, and I fear now that for other people like me, there won't be an Antioch for them to find refuge at, at least for the next few years.
Given how vital and important Antioch was during the last great war that tore this nation apart -- Antioch at one point had a dozen campuses -- it boggles the mind that now they're being forced to suspend operations like this. I know all too well how much higher education costs have risen in recent years, but for Antioch to close down now, when this country needs places like Antioch to help prepare future agents of social justice, makes me at once incredibly sad and incredibly angry. Even though I know it's not likely to happen, I can't help but hope that someone will throw enough money at Antioch here to allow them to avoid this long suspension and restructuring.
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon