S7 E1: How Can Universities Support Democracy? With AW4D, Antioch Tries Many Ways

Jasper Nighthawk [00:00]: This is the Seed Field Podcast, the show where Antiochians share their knowledge, tell their stories and come together to win victories for humanity. I’m your host, Jasper Nighthawk, and today we have a special story about Antioch Works for Democracy. This is a new initiative that just launched, and we thought that the launch of Antioch Works for Democracy gives us a great opportunity here at the Seed Field Podcast to do something a little bit different. So for today’s episode, we’ve put together a story more like what you might hear on NPR, with the voices of some of the different people behind this initiative describing it to you. So to start off, what is Antioch Works for Democracy?

Laurien Alexandre [00:54]: Antioch Works for Democracy is really a multi-pronged, multi-month set of activities that support scholarship, research, education and practice for Antiochians across the country to engage in all forms of activity to strengthen and ensure an inclusive democracy.

Jasper [01:19]: This voice you’ve been hearing describing what Antioch Works for Democracy is, that’s Laurian Alexandre, one of the key organizers of this effort. 

Laurien [01:28]: I’ve been at Antioch for close to 35 years. Most currently I’m working on communication efforts for the university, and within that, have the exciting role to help design, imagine and manage the Antioch Works for Democracy effort. 

Jasper [01:46]: Antioch Works for Democracy has been in the works for the last six months or so. And full disclosure, I, Jasper, was part of the planning committee. So the way that we’ve set it up, it has six pillars. A voter registration drive, a series of speakers and panels, the Fund for Democratic Initiatives, a space we’re setting up to hear each other’s voices on these issues, and sharing resources. For the rest of this episode, I want to walk through these pillars. And let’s start with the first one, which might be the most important, voting.

Laurien [02:18]:  So the first pillar is getting out the vote. And we have contracted with an independent third party called TurboVote to create a site for Antiochians no matter where you live. You can register to vote if your state allows online registration. If not, there is information about where to go. Once you have registered or check your registration, then you will get reminders to get out the vote. So this was our way of trying to ensure that faculty, staff, students and alumni, you don’t need to have an Antioch email, can register to vote. 

Jasper [03:01]: Anyone can use this tool just by visiting antioch.turbovote.com. And if you didn’t catch that, or you didn’t have a pen handy, we’re going to have a link to that and everything we discuss in our show notes. Now before we get to the other five pillars, you might be wondering how this initiative came to be. After all, most other universities haven’t set up special initiatives promoting democracy in this election year. To hear why Antioch is taking this path, we went ahead and asked the person who best knows the answer.

Chancellor Bill Groves [03:34]: I’m Bill Groves and I’m Chancellor of Antioch University and Executive Vice President of the Coalition for the Common Good, an affiliation between Antioch University and Otterbein University. Most of higher education simply isn’t prepared for the time. And I wanted Antioch to be a model for higher education as to how we might do a better job of developing citizens who can support democracy. You cannot have social justice in an authoritarian state where people have no voice and no right to vote and elections mean nothing. And you probably can’t have a strong democracy without social justice. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a partisan issue, it’s not necessarily a presidential issue, it’s a lot of things. Do people have the right to vote? Did they get to vote? Were we getting out the vote? All of those things. So I reached out to Laurien Alexandre.

Laurien [04:31]: Chancellor Groves called me one evening and said, “Laurien, I want to be sure when we get to November 6th that all of us can say Antioch did everything it could have done to ensure this democracy. So go think of some ideas.” And over the next months, I worked with a team including Jasper and Karen Hamilton and Margaret Morgan. We had conversations with faculty and staff. I spoke with external experts on what higher education institutions are doing. And we came up with what we call Antioch Works for Democracy. 

Jasper [05:14]: So that’s how Antioch Works for Democracy was started. It came out of a desire to serve the country by doing what universities do best, educating, talking, discussing, and taking action. This leads us perfectly to the next pillar, education for democracy. This consists of over a dozen speakers and lectures and panels around different topics related to democracy and a book club. Here’s Chancellor Bill Groves again. 

Bill [05:43]: We have lined up a really nice group of authors and nationally known figures to speak on the various issues that relate to democracy, including women’s rights, voting rights, etc. 

Jasper [05:55]: One of these events is going to be a panel organized by the university’s anti-racist task force. Let’s hear more about this from the co-chair of the anti-racist task force.

Stephanie Helms Pickett [06:05]: My name is Stephanie Helms Pickett. I use she/her pronouns and I serve as the head of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging at Antioch. The anti-racist task force will create an event to focus on the electoral college, bicameral legislation, gerrymandering, and voter disenfranchisement. So the way that we intend to offer this event is to invite a speaker, one for each of the topics, and then have a consideration of how do those topics both correlate individually to what’s happening today. I thought it was really critical and important that we go over each of those concepts individually because one out of four you may know, the others you may not be as connected to. 

Jasper [06:59]: This panel is currently scheduled for September 17th. Beyond panels, there are also going to be individual speakers who will address the Antioch community. Here’s Chancellor Groves talking about one of those.

Bill [07:11]: Our first speaker will be Gloria Steinem. She will speak on the women’s rights movement and what she has seen over her 50 years. I am really excited to hear the interview with her and how she feels about this push back to the 1950s in the women’s rights and reproductive rights area. 

Jasper [07:32]: Other speakers will include a panel called Youth Saving Democracy that features two youth activists. There will be an event where Antioch alum and Board of Governors member Janet Dewart Bell reads from her recent book, Blackbird Singing, inspiring black women’s speeches from the Civil War to the 21st century. There will also be a presentation and discussion about issues facing Latino voters that’s going to feature Clarissa Martinez de Castro of UnidosUS. And there will be a lecture from noted democracy scholar Stephen Levitsky. This is just a flavor, you can see the full listings on the Antioch Works for Democracy LibGuide. I also mentioned that there’s going to be a book club. We’re calling this Antioch Book Conversations for Democracy. The acronym is kind of cute, it’s ABCD. But the books under discussion are quite serious and they include Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s study of authoritarianism, Strong Men Mussolini to the Present, and we’ll also be discussing the book Democracy Awakening by the noted historian and newsletter writer Heather Cox Richardson. These are open to all current Antioch students and employees, and they’re being supported in a big way by Antioch’s libraries.

Christine Forte [08:52]: I’m Christine Forte. I’m Antioch University’s head of libraries. There are five books that were chosen for the Antioch University community to read together. And we have purchased print copies of all five of those. And where possible, we have e-books and even in some cases, audio books that everyone in the Antioch community can check out. If you happen to be in locations where there are Antioch libraries, please come in. We have a display of these Antioch Works for Democracy books, and you’re welcome to check them out. And if you’re not, and what you would really like is a print book, I think almost everybody in Antioch University knows how to get them delivered to their home through our We Deliver Interlibrary Loan service. Please do that. If you have any questions about using e-books or audio books at the Antioch University Library or if you have hit some sort of stumbling block as you’re trying to access one of these five books, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our librarians or put a question in our Ask the Library service box.

Jasper [10:03]: We’re going to have a link in the show notes to the Antioch University Library’s website and the We Deliver service, which I can attest is a fast and easy way to get books delivered right to your home. So between the speaker series and the Antioch book conversations for democracy, that makes up education for democracy. The next pillar that I want to share is the Fund for Democratic Initiatives. This is a pot of $25,000 that Antioch’s Chancellor set aside to support grassroots events, organizing and initiatives, and they’re coming out of every campus and school here at Antioch. Here’s Chancellor Bill Groves on the thinking behind this.

Bill [10:45]: Rather than try to define what might be done in that space, it was really an opportunity to ask our faculty and our staff to think about what their communities might need, since we are national and in very different communities across the country, and to make proposals on what they might do and to put a project together. 

Jasper [11:09]: We recently held an event to recognize the awardees of this funding, and we got to hear from many of the organizers about what they’re planning to do over the next four months.

Kimberly Hardy [11:17]: I am Kimberly Hardy, and I submitted from the School of Education ED program. We are working in South Jackson, Mississippi, and today in the South Jackson area, there are many adults who are not registered to vote. So we’re partnering with two schools where the middle school and elementary school students will have a four-part contest, art about democracy, a speech contest, poetry contest, and also an essay contest. And then at that event, we found that that’s when our parents come out, when their kids are performing. And so we’re hoping that our middle school and elementary school students will absolutely learn about the democratic process, be really passionate about it. And then as the parents come to the event, we’ll be helping our parents to register to vote.

Tomoyo Kawano [12:04]: I’m Tomoyo Kawano, director of the Dance Movement Therapy Master’s Program, and I am here today with our first year Dance Movement Therapy student, Olga Liakismazi.

Olga Liakismazi [12:20]: Thank you, Dr. Tomoyo. So the grounding principle that our proposal is really based off of is that one of the threats to democracy is our community’s inability to collaborate across perceived lines of difference. And if we want to move towards that type of inclusive democracy, what we need is to be able to build our capacity to collaborate. And so our question with this proposal is, can focusing and integrating body activities and bodily experiences to a dialogue process increase individuals’ capacity to be open to ideas that are different from their own? And the way that we’re going to test this is we’re going to be inviting community members from the Seattle area, along with Antioch students and staff, and we’re going to be choosing polarizing issues to discuss together. And in addition to a classic dialogue setup, we’re going to incorporate these movement exercises in the beginning and throughout to really test how embodiment affects our process of hearing from one another. 

Ryan Kasmier [13:20]: Antioch Santa Barbara has a distinction of being an HSI, a Hispanic-serving institution. We meet that metric by having enrollment of 25% Latinx students or more. In Santa Barbara County, the Latinx community has exhibited a really low voter registration and turnout. Many of you are aware that we had a Latinx concentration in our master’s in clinical health and psychology program. So Kayla will talk about that in a little bit. But to address this, we proposed a public dialogue on local ballot issues and their impact on the Latinx community that will provide really an essential opportunity.

Kayla [14:01]: Our expectation is to obviously educate the community and also allow our Latinx mental health students to engage productively with that community where they will serve as future therapists, increase voter participation and contribute to making a more informed electorate. Overall, our goal is to engage with the community, both that we exist on the Santa Barbara City College campus and those that our students will serve in the future. 

Jasper [14:28]: So that’s the Fund for Democratic Initiatives, and I think it dovetails really perfectly with the next pillar in Antioch Works for Democracy. I know this is a lot of different brand names, but stick with us. So this next pillar is Days of Action for Democracy. This pillar only directly impacts Antioch employees. But for those of us who work here, between now and the election, Antioch is inviting us to take a day a month off from work so we can volunteer in our communities, work on democratic initiatives and otherwise bolster our democracy. Here’s Laurien Alexandre on the thinking behind this. 

Laurien [15:09]: It is common practice in higher education to have a day of service a year for employees. We’ve gone way beyond that. And in July, August, September and October, every Antioch employee will be able to have up to a day a month, each month, to engage in civic work and in efforts to build a more inclusive democracy in communities at the state, local or federal levels. If one is a part-time employee, that time is just prorated. But every Antiochian will be able to take time away from work to build this democracy.

Jasper [15:52]: I do want to note that we can’t use this time to volunteer for partisan organizations or for candidates. So there is a little review process to make sure that none of our days of action endanger Antioch’s non-profit status. And this actually brings us to our last two pillars, which are a little bit smaller than the ones we’ve been going over. So we’ll get through them quickly. The first is resources for democracy. Here we are working with Antioch’s libraries to pull together useful resources to learn about democracy and also to find ways to get involved. So to that end, we’ve made a list of non-partisan organizations that will be of interest to everyone, but especially for Antioch employees trying to figure out where they can use their labor as they take their days of action. You can consult this list. It’s going to be on Antioch Works for Democracy’s LibGuide. You can find that at libguides.antioch.edu/aw4d. That’s a numeral four. And of course, if you didn’t catch that, we’re going to link to this in our show notes. So that’s resources for democracy. And the final pillar is voices for democracy. Here we’re making space to come together and celebrate the work that we’re doing, but also to think through the issues that are directly affecting higher education and democracy and telling our personal stories of what democracy means to us. This is going to take the shape of chancellor’s statements, news stories on Common Thread, and also personal essays from around the Antioch community that we’re publishing through the Antioch Voices series. So that’s it. That’s Antioch Works for Democracy. And it’s just getting started. We have so much planned for every week between now and the election in November. There are going to be so many ways for all Antiochians to get involved. And by all Antiochians, that means students and alumni and faculty and staff and everyone who makes up this university. Wherever you are, we hope to join you in this effort in the months to come. Here’s Stephanie Holmes Pickett one more time.

Stephanie [18:10]: We need people to be invested. We need you to turn out. We need you to give voice, particularly for people that are associated with an institution like Antioch. This is within the bedrock of who we are. If we care about any kind of oppression, then we know that being active in our societal framework is being responsive to our mission and walking out who we are as Antiochians. 

Jasper [18:46]: The best place to learn more about Antioch Works for Democracy is by visiting our libguide at libguides.antioch.edu/aw4d. And if you’re trying to figure out how that’s spelled, just go to our show notes. We have a link. We post these show notes on our website, theseedfield.org, where you’ll also find full episode transcripts, prior episodes and more. The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University. Our editor is Johanna Case. I’m your host, Jasper Nighthawk. Jen Mont is our web content coordinator. Stephanie Perrettes, Lauren Arianzale, Grace Kurfman, Danny LaPointe, Lisa Wisner, Tyawanna Davis, Diana Dynerman, and Natalie Obando are our work study assistants. Additional production help came from Karen Hamilton, Laurien Alexandre, Margaret Morgan, Bill Groves, Adrian Applegate, Jamila Gaskins, Amelia Bryan, Ashley Beavers, and Melinda Garland. Thank you for spending your time with us today. That’s it for this episode. We hope to see you next time. And don’t forget to plant a seed, sow a cause, and win a victory for humanity. From Antioch University, this has been the Seed Field Podcast.