Cheap Glitter and Mixed Feelings, Reaction to the Concept Paper by Lincoln Alpern ’11

[From the Editor: On April 1st, 2009, the Concept Paper for an independent Antioch College was released on antiochians.org. Read the concept paper here.

[Click here to discuss the Concept paper on the Record’s Forum]

I’ve looked over the Board Pro Tempore’s concept paper a couple times since its release a few days ago, and my feeling are, to say the least, mixed.

I have to admit that it all looks very smart and exciting. In fact, there’s a lot of that stuff that I think I could get on board with. They want to enact more diversity initiatives and make the college more international? Great. Require students to develop a working knowledge of at least one additional language? Sure. The Distinguished Faculty program, with classes taught by alumni and friends of the college? Why not?

The Board is committed to a tenured faculty. That’s good. And though it doesn’t say so in the concept paper, I understand they also want union staff. Also good.

They propose a restoration campaign, and want to make the campus more sustainable. I support them in this too, so long as we take said “restoration” measures to have maximum emphasis on utility and minimum emphasis on glamor. Concentrate on the necessities of running a healthy college in line with our values, not projecting a classy image. I think we can all agree that Antioch College is never going to be luxurious, so let’s not throw desperately needed money away trying to make it look luxurious.

I agree with the Board’s wish to lower tuition. In fact, I would like us to commit to a long-term vision that one day Antioch College will be entirely tuition-free, with grants available for travel for geographically challenged students.

I also support the proposal to have students and faculty contribute a certain amount of work while on-campus, which I’m sure would also be a feature of an eventual tuition-free program. This Spring term at Nonstop we mandated a 4 hour per week work policy for students which-though beset with glitches-has on the whole been a step in the right direction.

However, I feel some of the concept paper’s other ideas give cause for concern. Most importantly: the three-year plan.

Anybody who’s seen my comments on Listen Up Antioch and ACAN knows that I think essentially eliminating break time for all parties involved is a spectacularly bad idea. In an emotionally and intellectually charged atmosphere like Antioch’s, students, faculty and staff need frequent breaks for a little change of pace, not to mention rest and recuperation.

Faculty, in particular need time to perform their own research, so they can stay on top of the latest information in their field and so that they can produce their own innovations, as good Antiochians do. Somebody at that DC area chapter meeting also pointed out that staff need time for building maintenance, and there simply wasn’t enough of it last time we were on trimesters.

Reading over the outlines for the curriculum plan, I can’t help picturing students running a three year educational obstacle course at top speed, with no time to rest, and also no time to pause and reflect. The best learning requires that the student have the opportunity to stop and digest what they’ve learned, subjecting it to critical analysis on the way. That’s what Antioch has always stood for. For this, the student requires time; more than three years, possibly more than four. Heck, let’s go back to being a five-year college, if that’s how long it takes to get the job done properly.

And while utilizing new technology to keep students in touch with the community while out on co-op sounds like a good idea, I can all too easily picture the concept being used to cram more work and obligations onto already overburdened students.

The first time I heard mention of this three-year notion was after the “Visioning a College” weekend at Earlham last year. The way I heard it, the alumni were talking about a five-year program and the organizers basically said “There’s nothing eye-catching about a five-year institution, why not go for a three-year program?”

In other words, the idea first came up as a marketing gimmick. When an institution bearing the name “Antioch College” is reduced to throwing cheap glitter over its program to attract students, I’ll know the Antioch I went to, the Antioch I loved, is well and truly dead.

Wake up, people! This is Antioch. We don’t want the students who are attracted to pretty buildings, or to a curriculum which rushes them through their education without time for any actual learning. Let’s have a curriculum which actually reflects our values of introspection and critical engagement.

One argument for the three-year plan is that it will be helpful in lowering tuition. What if instead we utilized that Antiochian propensity for innovation the Board brags so much about in the concept paper and find another way to keep costs down? Something that does not require such a potentially disastrous setup?

Elsewhere, members of the Board Pro Tem have been quick avoid making any definitive statements about curriculum, because they don’t want to tie the faculty’s hands. I can’t imagine what they thought they were doing with this extremely detailed concept paper, but it can’t’ve been keeping a blank slate.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage the Board to let the faculty-once (they admit) they have a faculty-develop a workable curriculum, with input from Board members of course, and also of past, present, and prospective students, to insure that the result is something which addresses the needs of all Antioch stakeholders. As I said in my Listen Up and ACAN comments: we don’t need a plan that’s “trendy” or slick. We need a plan that’s right. A plan that’s Antiochian.

Lincoln Alpern

Class of ’11

Community Confused by Announcement

By Jeanne Kay
On Friday, February 22nd, Interim President Andrzej Bloch announced to the Antioch Community “the reconfirmation of the decision to suspend operations of the college on June 30th for at least one academic year.” Students, faculty, staff, alumni and Yellow Springs residents gathered, like they had many times since last June, for an emergency community meeting in McGregor 113. The Interim President had just flown back from Los Angeles, where the Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting was still being held, to present the college community with the resolution of the trustees’ discussions concerning the immediate future of Antioch College.
The discussions took place on Thursday the 21st, Bloch specified in a later interview; they started early in the morning and lasted until the mid-afternoon. The negotiating team, composed of Chancellor Toni Murdock, Chair Art Zucker, Chief Financial Officer Tom Faecke, and two attorneys, presented the trustees with a report based on their negotiations with the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (ACCC.) The trustees, Bloch said, “concluded that there weren’t sufficient material, sufficient grounds, to take action.” Therefore he decided, with the approval of the board, to come back to campus to inform the community. Continue reading Community Confused by Announcement

ACAN Ad #3 – Non-Stop

ACAN Ad #3 - Non-Stop[display_podcast]

This winter break marks a critical turning point in the movement for Non-Stop Antioch. The College Revival Fund has delivered its first $2 million payment to the university to maintain continuous operations of the college, with another $4.6 million promised by December 15, and admissions is open for new transfer students.

We must sustain our momentum and keep pushing to establish autonomy for the college, lift financial exigency, restore tenure, recruit first-year students, and continue full, uninterrupted academic programs and support services.

We must be especially vigilant during the winter break to assure that our campus, its property and community, are kept safe.

We know that current students face the difficult choice of whether to leave in the face of such uncertainty and ambiguity. We are calling to you to stay with us and to fight, as we are with you. We will do everything we can to support those of you who decide to stay. We’ll join you in the struggle to improve conditions on campus and hold leadership accountable. Continue reading ACAN Ad #3 – Non-Stop

Antioch College Action Network

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To truly reverse its closure, Antioch College needs to begin acting like it’s open, and begin building on its vibrant academic foundation to grow into a healthy, self-sufficient institution.

To make this happen, Antioch must immediately:

    • establish the College Advisory Board and invest it with real authority, including hiring a College President
    • remove internal barriers and begin recruiting and admitting new and transfer students for Fall ‘08
    • restore tenure and remove the threat of firing that hangs over faculty and staff
    • maintain all academic and support services during renovations
    • hold leadership accountable for past decisions and statements
    • ensure an open and participatory decision making process
    • guarantee a commitment from leadership to operate on principles of openness and honesty
    • have leaders committed to the turnaround of Antioch College
    • call for respect in communications from all university officials so the College’s already challenging task isn’t made more difficult

If you agree with this message lend your name to the cause by signing our online petition at acan.antiochians.org/

– Antioch College Action Network

The Antioch College Action Network is an informal coalition of students, faculty, staff, alumni, villagers and friends of the college. We will contact all those who sign about joining us once we have a chance to organize more.