On Dec. 5, at Columbia College, about 45 Antioch College alumni (including Jeanne Kay, who happened to be in town on business for her law firm internship while studying at the Sorbonne) met with four representatives of the newly independent college:
Beverly Rodgers and Jean Gregorek, two of the five Morgan Scholars tasked with building the curriculum
board chair Lee Morgan
and advancement director Risa Grimes
The presenters shared plans for the rebuilding of the college, and invited alumni to share their own ideas about the process.
See video of the meeting:
Part one
Part two
See photos
Audio will be posted here
Here are some notes from the meeting:
Lee Morgan: The college’s capital campaign has raised $15 million of its $50 million five-year-goal.
$2 million is in the bank
$9 million is in outstanding pledges
The college is spending at a rate of $4 million per year, and has spent $4 million to date
Lee believes all the major leaks in campus buildings have been repaired. Preservation and repair of the campus is projected to cost significantly less than the $40 million originally projected.
The plan is to admit 70-120 students in fall 2011, with a small faculty and relatively narrow curriculum. The college is considering a program in which alumni could teach short (6 week) segments in their field of expertise at the college, under the supervision of faculty.
Accreditation could take up to 5 years, though provisional accreditation could be available sooner. The college is exploring ways to assure graduates can gain accepted into graduate programs during the interim.
Federal financial aid requires accreditation, but the college is looking at other forms of financial aid to assure the it can be made affordable for lower income students.
Currently plan for tuition is to stay competitive with the cost of out of state tuition at state schools, or about $30,000. Average student of the Great Lakes Colleges Association pays 46% of their institution’s full tuition.
11 of 15 positions on the board have been filled.
Curriculum will be narrower when the college first reopens, with a relatively small faculty serving the small student body.
Jean Gregorek: The college held its first symposium on immigration. Upcoming symposiums are planned to cover Native American identity, restorative justice as an alternative to imprisonment, green innovations, and issues facing contemporary liberal arts colleges.
Beverly Rodgers: Plans for the college are in flux. Alumni feedback will be substantially incorporated into planning in the coming months.
Part of the challenge in recruiting students is to demonstrate Antioch’s value to potential employers in thinking critically and unconventionally.
Plans are to more fully integrate identity-based studies (such as women’s studies, African American studies, queer theory) throughout the curriculum
Jeanne Kay: shared governance needs affect real decision making in order to have real educational value. Should be integrated into the curriculum.
Beverly Rodgers: the college is considering hiring a dean of community
(This idea was met with skepticism by some, particularly younger, alumni, who feared it could disempower community government)
Ian McPhaden: Are there plans to offer degree completion programs, targeting the many Antiochians who didn’t graduate?
Lee Morgan: College will focus on traditional age students. Continuing students should consider attending Antioch University.
Judy Spock: It would be valuable to gather a repository of Alumni experiences. (This idea is reiterated throughout the meeting).
Susan Greene: College should hire young faculty and focus on making Antioch accessible to minority students.
Prexy Nesbitt (board member): Need to make Antioch accessible also to students from developing countries, who can apply their education to addressing specific problems at home. Need to look at recruiting students who demonstrate non-traditional aptitudes, such as gang leaders.
David Nekimken: Integrate peace into the curriculum.
Robin Sheerer: Focus on social entrepreneurship.
Claudia Hommel: Don’t think about what employers need, thin about what the working class needs. Don’t limit co-op job to preprofessional. Give students real life work experiences like American sweat shops. Better integrate students with staff/union.
Jon Baker: Think about where we want students to end up: organizers, critical thinkers, change agents. Don’t send them to work in sweat shops. Send them to work in sweat shops. Students from working class backgrounds need to see real job prospects.
Meghan Pergrem: Diversity also includes transgender students and students with disabilities. Also must focus on diversity within faculty and staff. 30,000 is a lot of money. Be careful about letting full-tuition international students fulfill diversity requirements at the expense of lower-income domestic students. If identity studies are integrated into curriculum, how do we preserve dedicated spaces for these groups? Co-op should focus on community. Need curriculum on community organizing, harm reduction, seeking justice from a place of love.
Bill Jaggard: Need to retain focus on core liberal arts curriculum.
John Edgar: Antioch needs to focus on less hubristic goals than saving the world.
Risa Grimes: Alumni participation in this fiscal year, begun in July, is 5%. Need to get it up. Even small donations can raise the rate and improve the college’s prospects to secure grants.
