[Alumni-chat] A short rant/reflection

[Rowan (rowankaiser at gmail.com)]

Thelma, I'd rather not get too into the precise details of how it went down. It was a situation built by gossip and demagoguery, and turned too personal in a hurry. Though I will say that hearing of the scene in the Antioch Adventure for the RepentCil struck me as pretty damn funny. Hardly recent Antioch, then.

In terms of peer pressure dynamics, do they play a part? Of course. Do they at any college? Of course. Antioch's are more politically motivated. I've heard a lot of theories for the situation, but I think it was a perfect storm of a few things: Antioch's small size, as SisterSara said, the nature of identity politics, 18-23 year olds finding out new, interesting political ideas and having a platform for them, the Iraq war, the specific personalities of a few of the major players, and the absolutely ghastly weather. Perhaps most importantly: this was the year after the Financial Stabilization plan went through, which gutted student services, especially the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Combine that with an ineffective Dean of Students, and you've got a recipe for toxic.

A few weeks ago, Bob wrote somewhat obliquely about that term, I believe, saying that there were "teachable moments" that nobody stepped up to teach. Perhaps true. On the other hand, it inspired me to look at the history of radical racial politics, and I graduated the next year with a senior project on Stokely Carmichael and the Black Power movement. Though I also stopped going to Community Meeting and decided against running for Community Manager despite being quite tempted.




>In a message dated 8/27/2007 3:26:34 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
>tgseto at hotmail.com writes:
>
>Identity  politics of the sort I've heard about (and watched) at Antioch
>aren't  about reflection but about following a party line.
>
>Rowan.  You're  a smart dude.  Is there no truth to the perception that peer
>pressure  and in-group/out-group dynamics have played too large a role
>on-campus?
>
>Thelma
>
>
>
>Thelma, I think identity politics at Antioch in recent years is what it is
>because the student body is just far too small.  There are no niches of  good
>social alternatives so those who don't feel part of one sort of identity  can
>easily associate with another group.  This becomes particularly  difficult when
>the institution is constantly in one sort of crisis or  another.  I think
>this accounts for what I see as fairly "cultish" types of  culture.
>
>
>
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