Category: news

Applause, pleas at farm forum

In some ways last week’s public forum regarding the Antioch College farm was a pep rally for environmental sustainability and the resurgence of a unique liberal arts college. Upwards of 200 villagers attended the event in the Bryan Center gym on Wednesday, May 7, mostly clapping and cheering for the seven administrators, staff and student representatives who spoke of the model production farm and planned solar array on the 36 acres known as the college golf course.

In other ways, the forum appeared to be a standoff between the farm proponents and a smaller group of villagers, mostly neighbors of the farm, who continue to state their belief that the golf course is an inappropriate place to raise animals and should remain the open space that has benefitted the community for the past several decades.

For both farm supporters and detractors, long-time villager Richard Cook asked a provocative question: “How do we integrate the village of Yellow Springs” into the college’s plans for this property central to the town?

For its part, the college had a well rehearsed answer in the seven presentations laying out its plans for a small, tightly managed vegetable and animal raising operation to feed and power its campus and develop “new and better ways” of farming, eating and living. College President Mark Roosevelt, physical plant director Reggie Stratton, Glen Helen Ecology Institute Director Nick Boutis, farm manager Kat Christen, admissions director Micah Canal and several students spoke about the reasons the farm is a necessary academic and environmental focus for the school and needs to occur in the location of the golf course.
“It’s abundantly clear that the way we live in America is not sustainable … it’s our obligation to address these issues — to take them on in an Antioch manner and serve as a model for others,” Roosevelt said, to much clapping throughout the room. “The location is pedagogically important — this is not an ancillary activity for us.”

In addition, the college had a small panel of several faculty members and Brett Henderson, of Miamisburg’s Solar, Power & Light, which is developing the solar array, to help field questions and comments from the audience.

Antioch almuna, Yellow Springs native and college neighbor Jalyn Roe spoke about her deep professional and cultural connections to the college and also about feeling disrespected when the college failed to consult its neighbors regarding the farm’s location. Her support for the college is unrelated to her opinion that the farm, while good, doesn’t belong on the golf course, she said.

“I am a villager who gets this — but not on this particular open space property,” she said. “The farm and sustainability are excellent ideas but with so many stakeholders involved, we need to reach out and see where the best spot for this project is … I doubt seriously that students and faculty wouldn’t support 50 acres outside the village.”

But Antioch alumna Lynn Sontag said the college had tried that approach with its farm along Grinnell Road, which she helped manage in the early 1980s. And retired Antioch professor Peter Townsend agreed that few students made the relatively short trip to that off-campus farm, a situation that would repeat itself today if the farm were moved from the current location.

“If the farm isn’t on campus, it isn’t gonna happen,” he said.

But what about animal smells and noises, villager Steve Hetzler and neighbor Betty Ford said, with Ford asking, “How would you like to have cow and pig waste in your back yard?”

And how about the college’s original commitment to protect natural resources, neighbor Lauren Miller asked with a plea to purchase part of the golf course.

“Antioch College said it had an opportunity to use the golf course without destroying resources, but the natural resource of land was left out,” Miller said. “And your plans keep changing — first there was a dog park, now there is no dog park — when your plans change it’s hard to trust you.”

Glen Director Boutis asked villagers to withhold judgement until the results were clear.

“We’re not here to say, ‘trust us,’ but give us the opportunity to earn your trust,” he said.
Boutis pointed out that the supposition that having animals on the farm would result in harm was unproven.

“We are managing the farm in a way that that doesn’t happen … so that the farm doesn’t create ecological harm to the environment and to the community.”

Many villagers applauded the unique work the college is doing for the environment, energy conservation and for the community. Anisa Kline is excited to be able to walk to the farm and show her baby Layli the animals — “That’s why we live in Yellow Springs,” she said.

Community Solutions Director Pat Murphy asked if the college had approached the Department of Energy for funds to publicly promote the farm project. Nadia Malarkey feels the farm is needed to educate people about the ecological disaster industrial farming practices and energy consumption have created. Michael Jones is sad to see the tranquil open space erode but likes that the farm “is cultivating a sense of intimacy with the town” and hopes the farm will revive an old idea for an Antioch culinary institute to “exalt” its harvest.

Villager Ed Amrhein, parent of a current student, said, “I’m with you all the way — I’m with you and I’m delighted to see the plan articulated so clearly.”

Regarding the solar array, neighbor Steven Roe asked if the college had considered alternatives to the golf course. According to solar rep Brett Henderson and facilities director Reggie Stratton, the cost of moving the solar off campus or onto existing rooftops would make the cost prohibitive for the project’s investors.

“Unless we cut down every tree on campus and restored every roof … and then we’d only get half of what we need” to power the college and the geothermal HVAC system, Henderson said.

Others asked about the power arrangement with the Village, with former Village Manager Laura Curliss voicing her concerns, including using a prime location for a purely utilitarian cause and changing the feel of the once open and natural field in town.

In terms of the power contract, according to Stratton, the college negotiated with the Village a net metering arrangement in which the college will initially supply 50 percent of its power from the solar field (with excess going to the village grid). The college will also absorb the $10,000 in annual “demand charges” the Village will incur because of reduced power demand. Henderson believes the deal will “more than make up for” the loss in Village electric revenue, and though the Village has a power contract for 84 percent of its power from renewable sources, Stratton wants a truly green energy source for the college, not green energy credits.

“The electrons coming across the grid [to the Village] are coal and gas based,” he said. “We want energy we know and can verify.”

To the initial question from villager Richard Cook about how the college and village will work together on the farm project, Roosevelt said this:

“Our future and your future are intimately tied; we know there are some things in this plan that some of the neighbors object to — we know that and we worry about it,” he said. “But we think that 95 percent of the time our interests are going to be in common, and we believe that we and the village will succeed. … It won’t mean it will always be kumbaya, but it will be respectful.”

Wellness for body, mind, community

In its former life, the Antioch College gym had lots of windows but most were covered with boards. Now, the boards have been removed and the windows upgraded. Light streams through the 26 large, newly-visible windows in the building’s east and west wings (formerly the east and west gyms) while more light cascades from the swimming pool’s south wall of glass, as well as from new windows added to the pool’s north side. And light pours from new windows into the multipurpose room where yoga and tai chi classes will be held, as well as in studios soon to be available for classes and other gatherings.

Nearing the end of its $8 million, yearlong renovation, the new Antioch College Wellness Center will have an abundance of light. And that light serves many purposes, according to project lead Dorothy Roosevelt. It illustrates the revived college’s goal, in restoring its aging facilities, to highlight the strengths of a building while upgrading for improved functionality and energy use. The light conveys naturalness, spaciousness and openness, the qualities that leaders seek in the new facility. And light can also be seen as a symbol for the revived college.

“It’s a metaphor for an opening up, an expanding,” Roosevelt said in a recent interview. “It’s the college expanding into the community.”

Hasek new director
Roosevelt and Monica Hasek, the newly hired director of the center, were clearly enthused to take a visitor on a recent tour of the facility, which is expected to open in late summer or early fall. Walking in from the front entrance, a visitor first sees the lobby, soon to have couches and chairs arranged into groupings that provide spaces for people to come together, or just to hang out. Healthy snacks will be available and unlike many fitness facilities, there will be no piped in music or TV. Rather, at best, there will be, along with the sounds of people jogging or playing ball, the low hum of human voices, sharing ideas.

“I’d like things to bubble up here around wellness in the broadest sense, not only physical but social and emotional, and the wellness of the community,” Roosevelt said.

It’s a place where students and villagers, the old, the young and all in between, will be welcome.
“We’re excited to strengthen the connection between the village and college, to provide a meaningful way for people to come together around wellness,” Roosevelt said.

The recent hiring of Hasek, for 10 years the owner/director of Yoga Springs, as the center’s director was a step toward strengthening that bond between college and community, Roosevelt believes.

“That Monica is a villager is fabulous,” Roosevelt said, citing also Hasek’s business experience, energy and expertise around wellness and enthusiasm as strengths she’ll bring to the job.
Hasek, who is married to Yellow Springs News co-owner Robert Hasek, is also a professional interior designer and realtor. She takes the place of Becky Harrison, who was hired in February to head the facility but left two weeks ago. Harrison was not a good fit for the job, according to Roosevelt, even though the college followed an extensive search process before hiring her. When Harrison left just two weeks ago, college leaders wanted to move quickly to find a new director to keep the project moving ahead. And Hasek, with whom Roosevelt had met several times to discuss visions for the facility, seemed the obvious choice.

Thinking big is one of her passions, Hasek said, and she brings to the job a vision of Yellow Springs as a wellness destination, which she has nurtured for many years in her capacity at Yoga Springs.

“I feel I’m a pioneer in the community in bringing wellness practitioners together,” she said. Having collaborated with local yoga teachers for the past 10 years at Yoga Springs, she’s ready to expand her vision to create beneath one roof a central location for a wide variety of wellness trainers, facilitators and educators.

Initially, though, Hasek will have a full plate keeping the center on track, with programming activities, scheduling, ordering equipment, hiring an assistant director and filling several part-time positions and developing policies and procedures. She and Roosevelt are also working to create a membership cost structure, which they hope to keep competitive with regional wellness facilities. And Hasek will also soon launch fund-raising activities for the center.

It’s a lot of work, but it didn’t take long for Hasek to say yes to the job offer.

“When I got the phone call, I couldn’t resist,” Hasek said of the opportunity to “expand what I was already doing and create a broader wellness community.”

Flexibility is key
What villagers care about most is the pool, Roosevelt and Hasek agree, and they believe Yellow Springers will be pleased with the result of the year-long renovation. The new pool is seven inches longer than the old, to meet standard Olympic length, and a therapeutic whirlpool has been added. The room has been upgraded in many ways, with new lighting, new windows and the new glass wall to the south, out of which swimmers can see an expansive view of the outdoors, including a patio with tables and chairs.

The former east gym, once home of local volleyball leagues, will be the new home for basketball, volleyball, pickleball and badminton games. Boards were removed from the 14 ceiling-height windows, and the windows upgraded, among other changes. New to the whole building is the open floor plan, which allows those in the lobby to watch what’s going on in the gym. As much as possible in the new center, walls were removed to provide open space.

“The idea is to create a community center where you come to see others, a way to draw people together,” Roosevelt said.

The former west gym, once home of basketball leagues, is now the fitness area, which will house fitness equipment along with a walking/running track around the perimeter.

In between the east and west wings, a multipurpose room with a sprung dance floor that can hold 40 people will be available for a variety of uses, including dance, yoga, tai chi and aerobics. Like many of the center spaces, it is designed to fit many possible uses.

“We’re trying to create spaces that have as much flexibility as possible, to meet the needs of both the college and the community,” Roosevelt said, stating that the center illustrates the philosophy behind the whole campus renovation, in which fewer buildings will be used, but uses will be multi­plied, “so that rooms don’t sit empty.”

The building’s locker rooms have been upgraded top to bottom, and the second floor also offers a multipurpose studio space, where classes in such wellness activities as yoga or zumba might be offered. Along with new windows, the floors were refinished and lighting upgraded.

In the whole building, project leaders aim for energy efficiency and hope to meet the standard for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification.

Roosevelt has a masters from Harvard Graduate School in Education in human development and psychology, and spent 10 years working as a researcher for Project Zero, a Harvard Education School program. Her research skills came in handy creating the new wellness center, as she gathered information to aid the planning and building process.

Married to College President Mark Roosevelt, Dorothy Roosevelt first worked in the college admissions office when her family moved to town. But she has practiced, and taught, yoga for years, and when the opportunity to help shape the wellness center presented itself, she immersed herself in the project.

Aside from the satisfaction of creating a new wellness center for the college and the community, Roosevelt is thrilled to help bring the old gym — built in 1929 — back to life.

“I think this building is beautiful,” she said. “I love bringing people together here.”