Shit, where to start? The current situation has served to divide the community instead of bringing it together. The amount of information/ disinformation has reached such a level that I feel overwhelmed in trying to determine where exactly we are. Sure the school is staying open, but if we are reading the Agreement and the Resolution co rectly, at what cost? There has to be a community-wide clarification from the body that represented Antioch, the AB, as to what exactly the terms are. I also believe that the role of the AB must change, from being the self-appointed vanguard of this fight, to being a secondary player, helping to support the members of the community that are directly affected by the situation at the college. Continue reading Letter from Michael Casselli ’87
Tag: faculty
“Antioch’s Near Death and Revival as a Learning Experience” – Michael Brower ’55
Antioch College is based on both classroom and real world learning. Let’s look at our recent Near-Death and Revival asking What happened? What did and didn’t work? What could we learn? Here are my own 12 learning areas.
1. Organizing, not blaming. What worked was not complaining and blaming, but lots of organizing and dialogue with help from everybody – Faculty, Students, Alums, AND from the majority of Trustees, who, believe it or not, really do want Antioch College to survive, be healthy, and thrive. Lesson? Involve, don’t blame. Continue reading “Antioch’s Near Death and Revival as a Learning Experience” – Michael Brower ’55
Letter from Mary L. McCubbin ’75
I’m probably the only student who saw Antioch president James Dixon (who started the off-campus centers that became elements of Antioch University) walk to and from the main building to fire then chancellor F.X. Shea in 1975. Students, concerned alumni, and faculty appealed to the trustees who met in the Antioch Inn dining room and decided to fire Dr. Dixon and reinstate Dr. Shea
“I’m Scared” – Letter from Mary St.Clair, 2nd Year Student
I am aware that every person affiliated with Antioch has their own worries about the future, but the following is coming from me, as a student. First let me ask the question: What is happening to our education? Is this really what I signed up for? When I first came to Antioch, I got some impressive statistics claiming that 99% of the students who apply for grad school or medical school get accepted. I found the departments to be adequately staffed, with ample opportunities to grow, to learn, to succeed. However, that original notion is quickly disappearing, and I am scared.
Continue reading “I’m Scared” – Letter from Mary St.Clair, 2nd Year Student
Letter from Priscilla (Kip) Klein Zink ’63
I can’t remember when I’ve been prouder of being an Antiochian: proud of alumni who raised $18 million in 125 days, proud of students who refused to bail when the going got iffy and the pipes got leaky. I am grateful to faculty who so espoused the values of Horace Mann that they have hung in when salaries were cut, when names were black-listed during Joe McCarthy’s rampage…and now, when tenure is spelled “tenuous.” I bask in the reflected glory of past Antiochians… Stephen Jay Gould, Coretta Scott King, Eleanor Holmes Norton. Hey, I once grilled a hamburger in the C-Shop for Rod Serling and shared a chemistry class with Mario Capecchi! (I would be delighted to sign autographs.) An anti-bumper sticker person at heart, my little Honda now sports a sticker that proclaims “I ‘Heart’ Antioch College.”
There is much that I regret. Immature below my years, I did not march when we invaded Vietnam. I did not understand civil rights. “What difference does it really make what fountain they drink out of? where they sit in the bus?” (Until my date and I were refused service in a restaurant because we were a mixed couple.) I graduated third from the bottom of my class and had to make up those grades before I even dared apply to graduate school. I was accepted only because of the support of one professor (Dr. Bill John, who believed that nobody can be that hopeless!) and because of my Antioch degree. Some of us are really late bloomers!
I like to believe that I did eventually bloom because of my Antioch heritage.
I desperately need our current crop of students to make up for my shortcomings. They cannot do this if Antioch closes. Not understanding that Antioch was in difficult straits financially, I stopped contributing when I retired. Big mistake. Now I’m in, believing that even the modest contribution I can afford…multiplied by tens of thousands of alumni…can make a difference. When all of the hoop-la dies down, Antioch will still be struggling against financial difficulties. Anyway, understanding that ongoing financial support is critical to the survival of the values that shaped our lives, I am dedicated to spreading the guilt around.
I listened online to the whooping, hollaring, whistles and applause that greeted the announcement that the closing had been suspended. But within hours, the objections and suspicions had begun to emerge…and although they made good points, they may be premature. We were told that there is much to be worked out. I have learned that it pays immeasurably to first listen…and then listen some more. It is crucial that we continue to air our questions and doubts, but let’s give the new plan a chance. It can always be amended.
Priscilla (Kip) Klein Zink, 1963