Antioch College votes to oppose U.S. war on Iraq

The Antioch College campus overwhelmingly approved a referendum Tuesday opposing a U.S.-led war on Iraq.

According to Antioch Community Manager Bandy Ellis, 308 votes, or 94 percent, were cast supporting the referendum. Just 16 votes, or 5 percent, were made against the measure. Four people voted “undecided.”

A total of 328 votes — a little more than half the reported number of students on campus — were cast in the balloting, which was held in various locations on campus.

The referendum says that Antioch members are “deeply saddened and angered that the call to war has been made in such haste” and that Antioch “will not support a war without boundaries, without rationality and ultimately without just cause.”

It also asks for international diplomacy and due process to win out over “unwarranted bloodshed and the fervent rush to war with Iraq.”

In addition, the referendum calls for more debate on the war on campus and in the country.

The resolution was originally backed by six Antioch College students who last month submitted an antiwar resolution to the college’s Community Council.

Though the board initially turned down the referendum, ComCil later in an emergency meeting on Feb. 19 agreed to hold a campus-wide vote.

—Robert Mihalek