Farewell, Antioch.

If you're an 18-year old vegan anarchist about to graduate high school and looking for a secluded place to matriculate, a social conservative looking for an example of the excesses of "liberal academia" to bloviate about or just a fan of offbeat liberal arts colleges, your world got a lot smaller this week with the announcement that Antioch College will be closing its undergraduate campus, perhaps permanently.

Outside of academic and social activist circles, Antioch's biggest claim to fame (or infamy) is it's controversial student-created "Sexual Offense Prevention Policy", which addressed campus concerns about sexual assault and harassment by defining consent as "willingly and verbally agreeing to engage in specific sexual conduct" and declaring that "each new level of sexual activity requires consent". This new policy sparked a media circus about "sex police" and "kissing contracts", which peaked with a Saturday Night Live sketch that I would have embedded in YouTube format if Viacom didn't have such good copyright lawyers.

Antioch's famous alumni include civil rights activist Coretta Scott King, "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling, evolutionary biologist and Simpsons guest star Stephen Jay Gould, former lead singer of The Gits Mia Zapata and approximately one half of They Might Be Giants.

Oh, and if you've been wondering "Why the fuck does Dave Chappelle live in Ohio?", it's because both his parents worked at Antioch.

Antioch is perhaps less known for its unique academic quirks such as giving "narrative evaluations" instead of letter grades and requiring students to leave campus and do some actual work, and for it's annual "Camelot" bike race, which entails students riding crappy bicycles in a circle while other students pelt them with garbage, rotten food and roadkill until the last person to give up and/or vomit wins.

Yes, really.

Antioch's tradition of being in favor of that whole social change thing dates the school's founding in 1852, when the founders not only declared that Antioch "shall afford equal privileges to students of both sexes.", they actually hired a female professor and decided to pay her the same as her male colleagues. Shocking, I know.

The spirit of the school was first summed up by it's first president, abolitionist and all-around educational reform badass Horace Mann when during his final commencement speech he told Antioch students that they should "be ashamed to die until you win some victory for humanity."

Not to be outdone in the hyperbole department, later generations of Antioch students would take to calling their school the "Bootcamp For The Revolution". More cynical students would describe it as "Summer Camp For The Revolution". Alas, only one of those slogans was featured on an official Antioch shirt.

So it's no surprise that students, alumni and other fans of Antioch such as the former Dean of Students aren't letting their school close without a fight, and are both vigorously disputing the Board of Trustee's motives and actions and trying to save their school.

Unless of course, they're bashing Antioch's "facist culture" and saying it's only fit for "conservative democrats".

So while conservative pundits gloat like the douchebags they are and conservative colleges continue to thrive, it looks like I'm going to have to resort to Gomorrah Tech for my "College Most Ironically Named After A City From The Bible" needs.

Uncongitive decided to rip-off this italicized postscript thing not just to seem all pretentious and shit but to also mention that while he's not an Antioch alum, he did marry one that he met at a really shitty punk rock show on campus ten years ago. It's a long story.

This story is interesting and entertaining. Which left me incredibly confused until I noticed there wasn't a NEWS: tag at the top.

Agreed. Great work.

Submit that shit next time, yo.

They won't re-open... IMO. Its really sad actually, I grew up at/around Antioch, have had many friends pass through its doors, and spent many a night fucked up there.

My fear is actually the long term effects on my town, the loss of revenue from students, alumni, and other events, like the writers workshop.

Addage for another Antioch factiod: They were the first university to BAN armed service recruiters from their campus during Vietnam.

I live about 20 mins from Antioch and am quite sad about the closing of the school and also wonder what the hell will happen to Yellow Springs? I mean they have a great artist community that is hard to find in Ohio and without the influx of young minds adding to the atmosphere I wonder if the spirit of Antioch will die out and become over run with democratic yuppies.