August 15, 07
Hi From Yazz Allen!
Contact me directly at YazzAllen@Yahoo.Com
Here's a post from an incredible current Antioch College student named Alexandra Kesman who is living proof that Antioch College in 2007 has a student population of WONDERFUL, intelligent, and VERY able and capable people. She publicizes a GREAT list of current Antioch College interest/ watchdog websites to keep people informed about current happenings! Visit these website locations!
What follows is from Alexandra Drakesman's Blog site, and includes her recent Blog entries about the current Antioch College, Ohio, closedown crisis.
Her post titled TRYING TO SAVE ANTIOCH COLLEGE was reported on the Antioch Alumni chatline, and is worth reading. It includes references to Antioch College interest/ watchdog websites, including WWW.AntiRecord.Org (est. 1998, the oldest Antioch College interest/ watchdog website).
Here is what the incredible Ms. Drakesman has currently posted as reported today (Aug. 19, 07) on the Antioch alumni chatline:
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"Trying to save Antioch College"
"I am a current Antioch College Student in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
"Recently the Board of Trustee's announced that the college would be closing, and in taking such drastic measures ignored a lot of other possibilities.
"The faculty are suing, the alumni are scrambling, and the students are daily being slandered by the press.
"The purpose of this blog is to keep track of all that is going on, and to give my perspective on it all.
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"BY Alexandra Drakesman, Current 2007 Student At Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio:
"Let me introduce myself "
"Hello everyone,
"My name is Alex and I am an Antioch Student.
"I am a theater major over in that building on the other side of campus that the college often forgets about.
"I am preparing to do my senior project, a play that I will direct this coming fall term. I am also going to be an RA (Resident Assistant) In North this term. Specifically I'll be living in Greene. The interesting thing is that my hall will comprise of 1st years. YES 1ST YEARS!!! There are some that are coming to help us fight this fight.
"Unfortunately, this is my last term at Antioch. I will be completing my hanging co-op in the spring term. I'd like to be there, but I won't have any credits left to take! :) So instead I will just visit my friends a lot and then return to walk across the mound next Spring as the (hopefully not) last class at Antioch.
"I am going to be posting things about Antioch that I find interesting, and try to help spread truthful and helpful information.
"Posted by Alexandra"
Additional posts by Ms. Kesman, followed by a list of website locations she recommends;
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Webcast and Board Meeting
Wanted to remind everyone about two upcoming events in the efforts:
The Webcast, Tomorrow August 16th @ 8pm EST - A presentation by Board Chair Art Zucker and Antioch University Chancellor Toni Murdock. Visit http://www.antioch-college.edu/collegenews/askaquestion.html for more information and to submit a question for them to answer. They will be reviewing finances that led to the board's decision.
The Board of Trustees Meeting, Saturday August 25th, 9am in Cincinnati, Ohio. Location TBA. The open forum is from 9am until 11:30. Afterwards, the meeting is only open to invited "Stakeholders" representing alumni, students, faculty, staff, town residents, and maybe some others.
Posted by Alexandra at 2:31 PM 0 comments
Google Alerts for News Articles about Antioch
I have established what are called "Google Alerts" in order to find articles and blogs that mention Antioch or Yellow Springs. You can also establish these for any other subject that you'd like to hear about in the press.
Simply to to: http://www.google.com/alerts
In the search terms put what you would like it to look for. If you select comprehensive, it will not only search news articles, but also blogs and other random postings.
Remember that if it's a phrase to put it in ""quotations so that searches for that exact phrase.
For example: I have alerts out for "Antioch College" and "Yellow Springs, Ohio"
Happy alerting!
Posted by Alexandra at 2:22 PM 0 comments
My mother's response to George Will:
This was written in response to George Will's poorly written article about why Antioch deserves to die:
Dear Mr. Will,
I read with interest your article in The New York Post expressing your satisfaction at the imminent closing of Antioch College. As the parent of a fourth-year Antioch Student, I would like to comment.
Antioch’s demise is not occurring because of its so-called liberal focus. Instead, it is closing because of blatant mis-management by a board of trustees who never once indicated that there was a serious financial problem until the very day of the announcement that the campus will shut down on July 1, 2008.
I am a card-carrying member of the establishment, working as a staffer for one of the nation’s largest banks. I do this to support myself and my daughter, for whom I have been a single parent since she was in kindergarten.
Along the way, I managed to raise a typical American teenager. Although she went to one of the best high schools in the United States, she drifted through her teenage years, making only barely adequate grades, and getting into more trouble than I would have liked.
That high school did manage to give her a passion for the backstage aspects of theater, however. Perhaps following me around as I followed my avocation as a singer in the chorus of a major American symphony orchestra, was a partial inspiration, as well. At any rate, a career in the arts became her goal.
When the time came to apply for college, she somehow managed to be a sought-after candidate by several colleges with great theater programs. One college in Chicago accepted only 6 applicants, and she was one of them.
But she turned them all down, and chose Antioch because “I want to get an education, not just do theater.” And she has. Antioch’s program, which runs year-round, requires 5 co-op semesters and 7 intense academic semesters.
The college was run (well, except for the fact that the trustees weren’t forthcoming about the finances) by the Antioch Community, consisting of students, staff and faculty. All had a voice at the regular campus meetings. This was a valuable lesson in American democracy from a school which was the first to pay female professors the same as male ones (and this prior to the Civil War), the first to offer the identical educational program to women that was offered to men (other “first” co-ed colleges offered more ladylike programs) and one of the first to give full equality to African-American students.
Classes at Antioch, except for math and science classes, are not lecture classes. Instead, these small sessions (average class size is 12) are discussion-based. There are no grades. Instead, each student receives a thoughtful one- or two-page written evaluation from their professor, which I consider to be much more valuable for the student than a letter grade.
Antioch has produced an impressive number of winners of the MacArthur “genius” awards, with only perhaps Harvard and Yale having more alumni in that group. In the last 20 years, something like 90% of Antioch grads who have applied to medical schools have been accepted, and 100% of those who applied to veterinary colleges made the grade. The number of Antiochians who go on to PhD degrees is one of the highest in the nation.
My daughter has turned into a scholar and a thinker in her life at Antioch. She managed to take heavier-than usual course loads and will finish a semester early, graduating in April as part of what we hope will not be the last graduating class at Antioch. To date, she has an impressive professional resume, having worked for at least five professional theater companies in Yellow Springs, Cincinnati, Chicago and San Francisco.
Antioch has given her knowledge, learning and professional direction. She has learned to care for her fellow man and for the planet. Her horizons have been expanded so much more widely than would have been possible at the typical American college, where curricula have been “dumbed down” to accommodate larger student bodies, and more than in the larger American colleges (such as the one I attended, Syracuse), where the focus is on career training to the exclusion of scholarship and thought.
One final note, concerning the sexual behavior policy at Antioch, which seems to be taken as a big joke by the media: it was, to my understanding, developed by students, not by the college, and seems to me to be a sensible way to deal with the problem of sexual harassment and date rape which seems to plague many other college campuses these days. It’s not a joke. It’s a serious reaction to a serious problem, and it seems to have worked.
Antioch College may not have produced a lot of alumni who make a lot of money. Instead, it produced graduates who make a difference.
In addition to the large checks I write to the college for my daughter’s education, I’ve also written a large check to the alumni group who is attempting to save the school. I suggest that you might want to do a little more homework about Antioch so that you might be inclined to do the same.
Sincerely,
Christine Wands
Cincinnati , Ohio
Posted by Alexandra at 12:03 PM 0 comments
My (Alexandra Kesman's) Boyfriend's Editorial
by - Justin Keen, Chicago, Illinois - keenjustin at gmail.com
The Antioch College library is an unattractive specimen of ‘60s architecture. Its ceiling is leaky, its floors are unpolished, and its computers are remnants of a decade past. But underneath the crumbling façade lie volumes of learning from the masterworks of western civilization through edgy gender studies and post modern deconstructions.
After years of shortsightedness, failed capital campaigns, and mismanagement, Antioch University’s Board of Trustees has announced it is closing the College’s doors. In the wake of its closure the Antioch students and recent of alumni, of whom I am one, have come under much criticism in editorials, blogs, articles, and even from Antioch’s own figureheads and alumni. To synthesize the comments of many, they have been referred as narcissistic nihilists whose radical toxic culture suppressed discourse. Whatever ends these attacks have been meant to serve they have not been in service of the truth. They have unfairly harmed the reputations of students who attended Antioch in order to receive a quality education that would prepare them for their professional and intellectual lives.
Discourse at Antioch was far from repressed. Antioch faculty strove to be collaborators in their students’ education rather than simply orators. The classrooms were open environments encouraging engaged participation in pursuit of learning. Everywhere people with different viewpoints and varied stakes were meeting to discuss issues with the purpose of better understanding them and making progress towards resolving them.
Antioch’s alternative grading system focused on narrative evaluations which far outstrip the descriptive ability of a single letter. These evaluations, combined with the superb faculty and the work experience Antioch students gained through the colleges “co-op” program, led to Antioch students having one of the highest graduate school acceptance rates in the country.
The College’s co-op program, the oldest and most extensive co-operative education program in the country, granted students valuable life lessons, skills for the work place, and opportunities for vocational discernment. And classroom time was not sacrificed in doing so. Students attended school year round, completing four more semesters than students at other colleges. Students looking for a comparative experience will only have engineering and medical schools to look for as Antioch’s closure also marks the exit of cooperative education from the liberal arts stage.
Antioch’s much criticized “sexual offense prevention policy” is just what its name alludes to: a set of rules to ensure that people don’t do harm to each other or break the law. It is not the product of prudishness or a feminist conspiracy. Most workplaces have rules that far outstrip Antioch’s in severity of language and punishment for infringement.
Antioch has for years intentionally and successfully attracted students who care less about their personal welfare than the welfare of the world. Who else would attend an institution in such a perpetual state of disrepair?
These students, who attended Antioch in order to better themselves, their lives, and the lives of others through a unique education, deserve none of the blame for Antioch’s closure. In fact these graduates, and their future efforts, may remain the only evidence of Antioch’s success as an institution. In rebuttal to those who wish to tarnish the reputations of these students through irresponsible words and misplaced blame I can only offer my personal recommendation. If you want an employee or graduate student who cares more for the welfare of the world than for their personal financial success look no further than a recent Antioch graduate.
I couldn't be more proud of him!
Posted by Alexandra
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List of Links and Interest Alexandra Kesmans has posted about websites re: Antioch College:
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Antioch College Links
Yellow Springs Engaging
Alumni Chat Email List
Antiochians Forum (Chapters Info)
Frappr Map of Antioch Alumni
Antioch Media Pulse (AMP)
Some Antioch mailing lists
Antirecord.org
Antioch College Livejournal community
Antioch Alumni Facebook Group
Antioch Record Facebook Group
Save Antioch Facebook Group
Antioch Alumni Networking on Facebook
Antiochians on Myspace
Antioch College on Myspace
Antioch College Website
The Antioch Papers
Antiochians.org
Antioch Theater on Myspace
Antioch Theater's Facebook Group
