Adieu Antioch
Posted by anastasia on 06-13-2007
Yesterday afternoon I received an email telling me Antioch College would be closing because of financial difficulties but that it planned to try and reopen an undergraduate program in 2012. My first thought was guilt. I thought about the alumni mail asking for money I recycled or the phone survey I declined to participate in. Then I began to feel sad. Two of my bridesmaids also went to Antioch, and while we all have mixed feelings about our time there, there is no denying that Antioch had a rich political history and offered one of the most unique college experiences in the country.
Antioch opened its doors in 1852. Its first president was Horace Mann, "the father of American education," who spent much of his professional life working for more and better equipped school houses, longer school years (until 16 years old), higher pay for teachers and a wider curriculum. Antioch was coeducational from the get go — ahead of its time. Mann and most of the students were abolitionists and this tradition of social activism continued into the 1960s, where the school and its students, like Eleanor Holmes Norton and Coretta Scott King, were heavily involved in the civil rights movement.
When I was at Antioch, I felt like there had been a shift at some point in its recent history. I always had this feeling that in its heyday the academic standards were higher and the students were less concerned with being “terminally unique” and more engaged in collective action. Don't get me wrong, Antioch in the mid 90s had its share of activists involved in all the usual causes, but a lot of the students (myself included) seemed more concerned with activism as a form of self expression.
A couple of years ago, I brought my husband to Antioch to see my old stomping ground. It was a hot, muggy Ohio summer day and most of the students were gone. We walked inside the student union. The walls inside are still covered with an insane amount of graffiti. When I was there as a student, it was a sign of how "cool" the school was for letting us trash the space. But as an adult alum, showing it to my husband, I honestly felt a little embarrassed.
So in some ways this news didn't surprise me. It seems like Antioch needs to do some soul searching. It needs to find away to return to what originally made it great (and it wasn’t being able to paint graffiti on the walls) before it reopens.
One aspect of Antioch that did make it unique was its cooperative education program. In a time where more middle and upper middle class teens are spending more time in enrichment programs instead of working at jobs, Antioch's program forced students out into the "real world." We had to work six months out of each academic year. The only other college program that puts such a strong emphasis on cooperative education is Northeastern University in Boston. Northeastern tends to encourage students to repeat co-ops at the same companies with the goal of getting hired after graduation.
Antioch had a more "liberal arts" approach. They encouraged us to do something different each time. We could choose from the co-op list or create our own. One of my bridesmaids worked on an olive farm in Greece. The other worked at the Miami Art Center during Hurricane Andrew. One of my more memorable co-ops was working as Naomi Wolf's personal assistant.
I'll never forget Naomi asking me what I thought of an episode of The Sally Jessy Raphael Show she had just taped to promote the paperback release of The Beauty Myth. I gave her my critique, which of course, included a point about how the discussion didn't include women of color and how the beauty myth affected them. She looked at me and said, "Anastasia, the real world is not Antioch College."
This was a lesson I learned over and over again, at my co-op at the Boston Globe and later at companies like Oxygen TV and AOL. Still, I graduated with a degree and a resume. I learned about work, about having a boss, and about the real world outside of Antioch College.
I'm now 35, a published author and am working for myself. Even though I have lost a lot of my youthful idealism and ironically write a lot about marketing to youth, I try to integrate ethics and social responsibility into everything I do – whether it's calling out a company for being sneaky or including non-profit youth media at my events to try to get them the exposure they deserve. In many ways, I feel like that part of me was nurtured at Antioch college. So it's with sadness that I say goodbye, for now, to my alma mater. I hope to see you again in 2012.
If any other alumni are reading this, I would love to hear your thoughts and feelings about Antioch closing.
Note from Anastasia: I originally wrote this for the Huffington Post.
June 13th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Hi Anastasia
Some Chicago-based alumni are trying to link up with concerned alums in other areas - if you post this, perhaps it will help us identify people who are interested in responded to this strange event in some substantive way…
Thanks
Steve Andrews, '63
June 13th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
From your perspective as an alumna, is there any reason Antioch might have had more financial challenges when it came to fundraising than similar colleges, like Bard or Hampshire? As a relatively young alumnus of a private college, I was always in the habit of sending my former college a few dollars during the fundraising drives. Was Antioch less focused on fundraising, or were the alums simply less interested in the idea?
June 13th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Hi Constantine. The article said:
"Enrollment at the private liberal arts college has dwindled from more than 2,000 students in the 1960s to 400 this year, and a small endowment and heavy dependence on tuition revenue combined to hurt operations, the school said.
Efforts to balance the budget over the years through faculty and staff reductions and programatic changes have eroded the confidence students and parents have in the academic program, the college said."
Without an endowement or some very major donors, it just seems like smaller donations combined with dwindling students/tuition sunk them in the end.
June 13th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I'm a second generation Antiochian. I graduated from Antioch in 1989 ( my mother graduated in 1956). There are quite a few of us here in the Seattle Area. The email has been buzzing yesterday and today as people try and process this. I am saddened by the news. I had a similar experience when my wife Roseann ( another Antioch alum.)and I went back 6 years ago. While the school had many of the same problems while I was there, I would not be where I am today had I not attended.
A dark day.
Ben London
June 13th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
In further response to Constantine and speaking as an Antioch alum, it is true that Antioch as an institution was not sufficiently focused in its fundraising activities. This is not entirely surprising given Antioch's tendency towards social progressivism and away from short-term gains, which is sometimes called "capitalism". Antioch could have done a better job of engaging its alumni and progressive philanthropists.
Unfortunately, this move to close the original campus will do little to inspire confidence in those potential supporters, donors and students.
The sadness and dismay over this development is great. I, for one, think Lawry and the Board should be ashamed of themselves for making this unnecessarily drastic move.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
JD,
Speaking as a current student, I think you are on in your observation that the institution was not sufficiently focused in its fundraising activities, however I think placing the blame on Steve Lawry is, in this case, misdirected. Steve presented the board with the alternative solution of merging the College with McGregor (which clearly has money, as evidenced by the brand new building going up at the edge of town). When this suggestion was initially circulated around campus, many students, faculty, and staff were critical of this option, but even we were not aware of just how acute Antioch's financial problems were. This was not Steve's decision, and though perhaps there are things he could have done differently over the past couple of years to avert this situation, I think the series of events that led to our current situation go back much further than Steve's time with the college.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
As someone on campus, I can say that the feelings here are ones of shock and dismay - much as someone who has lost someone close to them. Whether we graduated from Antioch or not, we are Antiochians.
I believe that Steve Lawry was caught off guard by the the BOTs move with the rest of us. He has nothing to be ashamed of.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
As a faculty member here, I truly believe that Steve Lawry fought for us. I think most of my colleagues believe this as well. Steve presented alternative proposals, but the board rejected them.
The problem (IMHO) is that the Board has been increasingly concentrating on the universities (read, no need for real infrastructure such as housing or libraries and reliance on non-tenure-track faculty and adjuncts) to the expense of the college. The board forced a curriculum on us and told us they would float us for 5 years as we get our enrollment up. Well, it is 2 years into it and they are closing the college. In addition, the board committed to providing money to the plan that they forced, and then did not provide all the funds.
June 15th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I consider myself an Antioch Alumni, non-degree was 1989(another story). I am beyond shocked with this news. Wish there was something we could do.
Antioch gave me a sense of community as a foreign student. I always felt the people I met there were the most interesting, inspiring group of people, and all of them still inspire me with their commitment to social justice, a very Antioch thing.
The world will miss you, Antioch.