closed

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity

Over at freepress.org there is a nice column and written by Bob Fitrakis. I quoted a few bit to tease you into reading the full article.


You can't generally hold a writer responsible for a headline, usually written by an editor, but you can take issue with it. The headline "Antioch's sunk itself by refusing to evolve," in the June 17 Columbus Dispatch over a Mike Harden column, suggests that the new corporate college and university model is in some way a step forward for humanity.
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From the beginning, Antioch ran deficits, close to 40% of its budget between 1857 and 1859. In 1862, the college closed until the end of the Civil War. Had the college held more "evolved" ideas such as racism, sexism, and capitalism, they would have no doubt taken care of their budget problems with funds from understanding plutocratic donors.
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As the country jack-stepped to the Right in the Reagan era, and became corporate Democrats under Clinton, it was Antioch students who fought the good fight, not hidden away at Yellow Springs, but here in Columbus. It was Antioch students who were victims of police brutality and viciously beaten by Columbus' finest for peacefully demonstrating against cuts in student loans at the federal building in the mid-90s.

Video of Faculty Press Conference Online

As posted over at the Antiochians website. I thought I'd share it here also.

1 in 5 employees are being terminated today

From a staff person at Antioch:
1 in 5 employees are being terminated today

if only we had the big bucks in hand already

every time the phone rings we are thinking it is our turn

thanks to everyone...maybe we can derail this madness.

2007 ANTIOCH REUNION/ CLOSEDOWN SPEECHES AVAILABLE (4 HRS!) Includes Both ANTIOCH ADVENTURE movies (Pt. 1 & 2)+Music!

Hello from David Allen '66 (aka YAZZ ALLEN, my SAG movie actor professional name).

I've created a 4 hour video of the Anitoch 2007 Reunion/ Closedown Speeches, scenes of the Antioch campus and folk dancing there, also BOTH videos of THE ANTIOCH ADVENTURE I and II (1967 and 1991), also ALL of Gary Goldsmith's 1965 SONGS FROM THE STOOP ANTIOCH SATIRE Songs, also 50 RED SQUARE FOLK DANCE SONGS. 4 Great Hours about Antioch, past and present!

Labor is donated. On VHS video cassette sent to you first class mail.

Leon Botstein on the ‘Tragedy’ of Antioch

Over on the SaveAntioch mailing lists. I'm trying out an embed flash player, so bare with me.


Here's today's coverage, a Podcast interview with Leon Botstein. Leon is president of Bard College and was (in his 20's), president of Franconia College, a progressive college that was very controversial (and ran out of money). In the Podcast, you'll see he's very critical of liberals (for not supporting places like Antioch, in contrast to conservatives, who support their colleges) and also of some decisions of Antioch administration:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/19/botstein

Please spread the word -- as always, comments on our coverage from Antioch alums are encouraged.



You should also read the original posting where the audio file comes from.

Early Moring Sunday Papers

The New Your Times has an op-ed opinion piece titled Where the Arts Were Too Liberal. While The Columbus Dispatch states Antioch sunk itself by refusing to evolve.

Both of which were found first by Patrick Cates and submitted to the Alumni-chat.

“Oh, my beautiful dreams for the college!!” - Horace Mann

Matt Baya has taken some time out of his family vacations to write about the closing. I happen to agree with him about making a donation at this time.


I need someone I trust and respect that knows Antioch… not Steve Lawry, not Art Zucker (BOT Chair), not anyone in the Antioch PR or ‘advancement’ offices.. someone like Bob Devine, Susan Eklund-Leen, Jimmy Williams, or John Feinberg to convince me that the ‘new antioch’, or that whatever alternative organization/plan/movement/granfalloon comes along, is worth supporting. Until that is achieved the $200 I just spent to attend reunion this year is the last donation I’ll ever make. As far as I’m concerned Antioch University have proven to be poor stewards of the college and until someone I trust convinces me they are worthy of trust again, I’m out.

There has been more than a little talk about donating money.

I Went Back to Ohio and my College was Gone

Marie Javins remembers her senior project and later reflects on the state of the College.

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As the news of the college closing has unfolded, it seems that there was a conflict between the university system and the college. Alumni, me included, were asked for money. I tossed the letter out. It was no different than any other year. Schools that teach social justice aren't usually rolling in money and high enrollment.

None of us realized that this crises was any different than any other crises. I couldn't imagine that things were worse than when I attended, from 1984-88.

And if I had realized, would I have given money? Well, sure, fifty bucks or whatever. But Antioch is a school that puts out social activists and creative professionals. Not so many rich people. Would it have changed anything if we'd all kicked in a few bucks, while keeping an eye on our rent? Probably not much. I've recently come to the startling realization that after taxes, more than 50% of my monthly take-home pay goes to rent. Scary.

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Above clipping from the No Hurry in JC blog.

What Happened to Antioch?

Peter Wood is Executive Director of the National Association of Scholars has an interesting article. Here are some clippings from it.

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I have been looking for what Antiochians of recent years think about the name of the College. The Antioch website, unusually for a college, has little to say about its history. In 2003, someone with the blogonym Yazz Cudd admirably declared "We owe it to Antioch's founders to 'keep the faith," (with appropriate scare quotes) and he did a little research on the topic. He discovered that ancient Antioch "really was a shining star of civilization... amazingly free from social and political oppression." According to Yazz, the founders of Antioch College, being highly educated folk, knew that the city was renowned for "artistic expression," and good architecture, "including basilicas, baths, and libraries of intricate and astonishing complexity and loveliness." Not to mention "variegated stonework employing brightly colored patterns and mosaics."

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I have conservative friends who, on hearing the news of Antioch's demise, said "Good riddance!" That doesn't seem to me quite right. Antioch had clearly lost its way and its closing does represent a judgment by Americans as a whole who were no longer willing to risk their children's education in such a venture. But Antioch once upon a time was a serious place. The catalogue of 1854 lays out admissions standards tougher than any American college or university today and a rigorous four-year curriculum requiring sciences, mathematics, Latin, Greek, French, and German, art, literature, engineering, and more. Today, we would call this elitist and damn it as impractical even if it were possible. But Antioch's founders opened their college to women and, though there was internal resistance, the College accepted black students as well.

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PS: The Yazz he keeps mentioning is my friend Yazz Cudd class of '66 if there was any confusion. Now if I only Peter would have linked to the article Yazz Cudd wrote...

Antioch’s Infamous Sexual Assault Policy

The Sexual Offense Prevention Policy still making news over at FIRE while the College faces uncertain time a head.

"...Antioch University, in my home state of Ohio, is closing the doors of its main undergraduate campus (called Antioch College). Even living in Ohio, few people knew much about Antioch with the exception of a short time in the 1990s when the college became nationally known for its bizarre sexual offense prevention policy. Adopted in 1991 at the prompting of the “Womyn of Antioch,” the consent requirements for this policy made news because they are virtually impossible to fulfill—but to fail to do so was a sexual offense."

More than once when I was be asked what College I attended and answered Antioch College the next item brought up by them was the SOPP as remembered from that Saturday Night Live skit mocking the it from the 90's.

"There are undoubtedly myriad reasons why Antioch is closing its doors. But enrollment, which was down to 300, certainly couldn’t have been helped by the fact that it had a policy so absurd that it gained a reputation for treating all of its students as potential sexual predators. Is this the road down which Gettysburg College, as another small liberal-arts school with an unreasonable and infamous sexual assault policy, is destined to travel? Only time will tell, but really, haven’t policies like these claimed enough victims?"

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