This is a way for you to speak up about what issues are important to you. WYSO wants to hear different perspectives, fresh ideas and concerns from members of our community. We encourage you to visit and feel free to leave your news related comments, questions and stories. Post soon and post often. WYSO looks forward to hearing from you!
This is a monitored site. WYSO reserves the right to delete any inappropriate materials.
1 Comment
July 30, 2008 at 2:06 am
WYSO Antioch College Coverage
RE: Conversations with The Chancellor,
Dear Staff Members of WYSO,
Thank you for your coverage of the continuing crisis at Antioch College, and the glimpses into the thought processes on-going with an eye to the potential rebirth of an independent Antioch College.
Making the story clear about what is happening surrounding the negotiations is a responsibility that WYSO has lived up to quite well, (often times being the only reliable source of information regarding the whole situation), but in the interest of establishing a future for Antioch College, there needs to be more programming on finding solutions.
There must be a more public acknowledgement of the sheer size of this undertaking, as well as the expertise needed to re-establish the charter and campus of Antioch College. Presently neither the alumni or Non-Stop Antioch, despite good intentions, seem to fully recognize this fact- particularly what it means in human resources. Though the former group is moving closer to a realistic understanding of what awaits them, the go it alone approach without advanced administrative structures or leadership, is exactly what got Antioch College into the mess it is in right now.
As an interested alumnus from the Boston chapter of Antioch College alumni, I’ve been involved in plans for the past year to advocate strenuously for the college to be restored, to completely rebuild the campus in Yellow Springs, to raise a new college endowment, and to create an independent board of trustees, dedicated to a new governance structure that meets the standards of a carefully defined liberal arts environment.
As the author of “An Antioch Conservatory: The Aria Center Model”, I was hired by the college to create a comprehensive plan for the fine arts division at Antioch College. Antioch College’s fine arts history, the proximity of lively professional arts organizations in Yellow Springs and Dayton, and the proven success of similar programs at Antioch College’s competition, make a conservatory plan a very realistic objective for substantially increasing enrollments, and restoring the college.
Antioch College has a great history, and deserves complete restoration through new trusted stewards, who not only understand its egalitarian principles, and innovative vision, but efficacy in operations for the financial health of a small college in today’s competitive higher educational environment. Antiochians need to face a reality- any reopening of Antioch College is going to require significant funds, development organization, and a new advanced model for Antioch College- the complexity of which has never been seen in the history of Antioch.
It is especially heartening for those who know the history of the college to realize that Lee Morgan (of Yellow Springs) and Matthew Derr (of New England) are involved in restoring the college. All alumni are hopeful that the mediating skills and vision of the Great Lakes College Association are effective, not merely in quelling unnecessary legal disputes, but in encouraging the Antioch University trustees to provide the legal assistance to restore this historical college’s charter. In Antioch College’s history it is important to note that twice New England has played a crucial role in restoring the college.
In order to achieve minimum sustainability, the college must reopen its doors with no fewer than 1,000 students, and a compliment of 80 faculty, including five new deans, an empowered President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary of College Affairs, and a brand new Board of Trustees containing at least 25 members. Every officer of the new college needs not only to be fully vetted and credentialed, but because of the unique situation, must come with visionary plans and colleagues in tow. Add to this that the by laws and constitution for the college need to be completely re-written, to be more transparent, and practical.
While the college can open and restore buildings with 100 million, it will require at least a 200 million endowment to eventually bring badly needed campus re-design, sufficient faculty and staff, and new technologies to make the college competitive with top tier liberal arts colleges. Opening an ersatz institute with a small group of faculty and students is harmless enough, and may be therapeutic, but it is doubtful that it will drive the kind of fund raising or planning realistically needed to rebuild the college. Since there are already two Antioch’s in Yellow Springs, creating a third seems, however comforting, little more than wishful futility.
There is not a superfluity in the gene pool left standing to make the argument that doing so restores the DNA of Antioch College, as a major objective achieved in the process. Honesty demands that if it is keeping the professors engaged, and restoring hope is its purpose, it should be realized this is a little different than fully restoring the college.
This kind of isolation about what comprises a college has always been a part of Antioch to some degree- and that it takes itself so seriously is also part of the college’s charm- but the reality in accredited higher education is different. The curricular designs for Antioch College in the recent past have lacked considerably in comprehensive planning, and funding- because many individuals associated with the college were either not qualified to create such plans, or able to make them operational. The hands off role of the trustees, and their miserable financial performance stems from the primary mistake of underestimating the what it takes to restore a college when it has failed. Overcoming denial that this vast project that awaits significant expertise beyond the confines of Antioch University and Antioch College is important if the community is to to succeed.
WYSO could play a critical role in creating a public consciousness about the sheer size of this enterprise- indeed the station’s proper coverage of what is actually needed to restore Antioch College, has been, and still could be, critical to recruiting professional educators from around the nation to restore the college.
Antioch College needs to embrace positive change, and substantial growth to seek out a new identity based upon its fine history, that protects tenure and faculty standards, but is also future oriented vision that includes significant resource traction. The college must write its new charter with an Antioch Constitution, clearly articulating laws regarding the governance of the college in relation to its trustees, a revised administrative leadership structure to make it possible for deans and administrators alike to raise badly needed funds to completely restore the leadership of the college.
Any party who understands the complex history of the college will freely admit this effort is the complete rebirth of a college, not merely resuming its former structures without reforming them. That many governance structures at Antioch College were logistically and organizationally flawed is self evident, by the college’s history. What is most needed now for Antioch College is a comprehensive master plan that can past muster in any trustee board room of top tier liberal arts colleges in the nation, comprising exceptional articulated educational vision, detailed financial planning, division by division advanced academic models, staffing and student projections, architectural proposals, and a host of contingencies that will ensure the college successfully attracts a new student body.
Individuals who are knowledgeable about the depth of this kind of project would freely admit that such a document- a true master plan- would probably comprise no fewer than 200 pages, and require a team of 50 advanced professionals from all walks of life to give selective input into its creation. While many people support the keeping of the torch with projects like Non-Stop Antioch, it is time to recognize that the competitive world of higher education is bigger than Yellow Springs, and that despite Antioch College’s uniqueness, the college must obtain a more complete vision to compete on a national level. This level of organizational development is way beyond even our favorite professors’ abilities.
I encourage your radio station to set the standards high for the recreation of this college, knowing full well that the heart of Yellow Springs hangs in the balance while Antioch College’s doors are closed. By coming to the essential intellectual understanding that each guest who appears on your shows regarding Antioch College, be frankly faced with the truth regarding the enormous resources needed in order to attract visionary leadership, and the necessity of bringing fully engaged national support of professional educators from outside the college to complete a master plan.
The tendency over the past fifteen years at Antioch College has been to take the go it alone, band- aid approach, when major surgery is needed. The group that will bring a new vision to Antioch College must have the ability to meet with people on campus in an active development office for considerable periods of time, to painstakingly build a visionary, advanced model, and raise substantial funds. Such an historic full time working group has not quite materialized from any quarter at Antioch.
At this fragile time in Antioch College history, Antiochians must actively eschew on the fly, go it alone planning, and insist upon establishing a permanent committee comprised of professional educators from universities as well as other successful liberal arts colleges around the nation to bring the college its new trustees. Antiochians must find an experienced visionary group willing to work night and day for a solid year to create a fully detailed master plan.
To do otherwise is to follow the mistakes of the past, and to betray the historical college. This individual for one, is tired of seeing short, poorly authored, under- funded and administered plans, and awaits the day when a full fledged 200 page Antioch College Master plan lands upon the trustees desks with a resounding thud proclaiming:
“We understand this is not a social experiment, but an institution of higher education that must be restored and prepared to compete with its peers across the United States. We know this plan proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Antiochians do not merely understand the issues in isolate to the world around us, but that we have the ability to bring others to the table of our cause. Our cause is a new college that illuminates the entire history at Antioch College, and when you read this plan, you will know it is yours as well. ”
Advocates for the creation of such a document, that procures a visionary future of Antioch College that is masterful, secure, and wise in accordance to its ancestors, know it is not born by temporary discussions, fleeting meetings of professors and alumni, but by a dedicated professional team hired to fulfill the college’s mission.
Richard Campbell
Boston, Massachusetts