YSNews – Page 25 – Save Antioch College

Antioch flooded with applications

Since news of Antioch College’s decision to extend its full tuition scholarships to the next three incoming classes went viral on Friday, the revived college has been deluged with inquires and applications.

On Friday an article on CBS Moneywatch’s Web site on the revived college — “How to get a $106,000 college education for free” — was picked up by Yahoo! News and other outlets, leading to a swarm of visitors to Antioch’s Web site and a flood of online applications. After receiving 200,000 unique visitors on Friday, Antioch’s Web site crashed and is still not operational.

“We have been overwhelmed with responses from students, parents and school counselors wanting to get more information on this opportunity,” said Cezar Mesquita, dean of admissions at Antioch. “It brings Antioch back into the national spotlight.”

Prospective students can still apply online or find out more at Antioch’s Facebook page.

As of Friday morning Antioch had 100 applications on hand for its next class of 75 students, who will start in the fall of 2012. The admissions department hoped to reach 180 applications by the Feb. 15 application deadline. But just 24 hours after the article was released, Antioch had received 1,000 applications through its online submission form. By the end of the weekend 2,000 applications were in hand, with another 5,000 in progress.

Even though Mesquita said the college was “unprepared for the level of response,” he said they will be replying to every e-mail and reviewing each application to find the most academically-prepared students with the right combination of grit and determination to thrive at Antioch.

Antioch announced earlier this month that it would extend its Horace Mann Scholarships, currently covering the four-year tuition for its first class of 34 students, for each of the next three incoming classes. The scholarship is valued at $26,500 per year. The decision was made so that the college could maintain high standards as it re-opens and was linked to a recent rise in the endowment, in part from increased fundraising dollars.

Read more in the Feb. 2 issue of the News.

Wingard to lecture tonight

Leslie Wingard will present “Black Men and the Crisis of Faith in Literature and Film” tonight at 7 p.m. in Olive Kettering Library at Antioch College. Wingard is assistant professor of English at the College of Wooster, where her primary research includes African-American literature, black visual culture, religion and literature, ethnic studies and women’s and gender studies. Her article, “As Seen Through Stained Glass: Religion, Politics, and Aesthetics in Alice Walker’s Meridian,” is forthcoming in Religion & Literature.

The following video, produced by the College of Wooster, provides a brief introduction to Wingard, her interests and her teaching philosophy:

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For more information on the lecture, contact Geneva Gano at 937-479-9346 or ggano {at} antiochcollege(.)org.

New chair for board

The Antioch College Board of Trustees this week appointed Frances Degen Horowitz, ’54, as board chair, replacing Lee Morgan, ’66. Morgan will remain on the board as vice-chair, according to a press release, but will focus on fundraising.

A current board member, Horowitz, of New York City, is a prominent child psychologist who most recently served as president of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Before that she was dean of the Graduate School at the University of Kansas-Lawrence.

Also this week, the board announced that it will extend the four-year full-tuition Horace Mann fellowships to members of next fall’s Antioch College incoming class.

“We don’t want economics to be an impediment to a high-quality liberal arts education,” Antioch College President Mark Roosevelt said in the press release. “By providing four-year, full-tuition scholarships, we make attending Antioch College a realistic option for the best and brightest students, regardless of their family’s economic situation.”

Eagleson new creative director at college

Dennie Eagleson

Former longtime Antioch College faculty member Dennie Eagleson has returned to the college in the new half-time position of creative director, the college announced earlier this month.

“Dennie is a great addition to our academic team,” Vice President for Academic Affairs Hassan Rahmanian said in a college press release. “She has a long and productive affiliation with, and a great passion for, Antioch College.”

Eagleson’s position will involve managing the Herndon Gallery and helping to organize its exhibits; creating an artist-in-residence program (both in collaboration with college faculty member Sara Black); and offering workshops in photography as part of the college’s co-curricular program.

A graduate of Antioch in 1971, Eagleson taught at the college for more than 20 years, beginning in 1987 as adjunct instructor of photography and later becoming associate professor of photography. In the 1990s she served as director of the Herndon Gallery. After the college was closed in 2008, Eagleson taught for a year at the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute.

She holds a bachelors of arts from Antioch College and a masters of fine arts from the University of Cincinnati.

In an interview last week, Eagleson said that as well as working with college students and staff, she aims to connect the gallery to the Yellow Springs community for not just visual arts, but other cultural events. For instance, the gallery will host a Chamber Music Yellow Springs event this winter, and Eagleson seeks other ways to serve the community. She also seeks volunteers to help staff the gallery duing afternoon hours; interested persons should contact her at 937-475-5618.

It’s exciting to be on campus again, Eagleson said.

“The students are interesting and lively, and people seem very capable and committed. There’s a high level of positive energy,” she said.

College announces new board chair, extension of full-tuition fellowships

At their teleconference on Sunday, Jan. 15, members of the Antioch College board of trustees elected current board member Frances Degen Horowitz as the board’s new chair, replacing Lee Morgan, who will stay on the board but focus on fundraising, according to a Jan. 17 college press release.

The board also voted to extend for another year the school’s Horace Mann Fellowships, which will provide four-year, full tuition scholarships to all incoming students next fall. The school offered the Horace Mann Fellowships to all 35 students who entered in fall 2011, but had originally planned to seek tuition from the second-year class, which is projected to be 75 students. However, because fund-raising is going well for the college, board members chose to extend the Horace Mann fellowships.

“We don’t want economics to be an impediment to a high-quality liberal arts education,” Antioch College President Mark Roosevelt stated in the press release. “By providing four-year, full tuition scholarships, we make attending Antioch College a realistic option for the best and brightest students, regardless of their family’s economic situation.”

At a college Dr. Martin Luther King Day event on Monday, Jan. 16, Roosevelt stated that the college’s annual fund, which funds operations, was up 70 percent this year over last. At the end of 2011, the fund had $1.2 million, with six months of fund-raising to go, Roosevelt said.

Horowitz, of New York City, is a Antioch College alumna from 1954 and a prominent child psychologist who most recently served as president of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Before that, she was vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and public service and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Kansas-Lawrence.

Morgan, ’66, is the retired president and CEO of the Antioch Company who took part in the negotiations that led to the board’s purchase of the campus from Antioch University in 2009. He is also a principal with the Morgan Family Foundation, which provides grants to nonprofits in Yellow Springs and St. Cloud, Minn., and the grandson of acclaimed Antioch College President Arthur Morgan, who introduced the co-op education component at Antioch, a major innovation in higher education at the time.

“I want to publicly thank Lee for the central role he played in the fight for an independent Antioch College, and the support he continues to give as we work to secure Antioch’s future,” Roosevelt said in the press release.

Higher education— Antioch up and running again

The newly revived Antioch College began 2011 with a new president on board, and a full plate of activities to prepare for its first class of students. At the end of 2011, those students had completed their first quarter, and while acknowledging a daunting workload, gave the college strong reviews.

Having moved the previous month from Pittsburgh, in January 2011 new Antioch College President Mark Roosevelt plunged into his new job. Formerly the superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, Roosevelt had been credited with turning around a failing school system, and in his new job, he faced equally daunting challenges.

In January the college brought to Yellow Springs a new interim director of development, Ron Napal, an alum and retired head fundraiser of the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation of New York City. Napal led the college’s fundraising and development team until June, when permanent head of fundraising Steve Sturman was recruited from the Culver Military Academy in Indiana.

More students than expected

In late February college leaders announced that they had admitted their first four students for the fall from early admissions applicants, and that recruiting was going well. Leaders anticipated an initial class of 25 students out of about 140 applicants; in April, about 45 potential students visited campus to hear presentations about the school. The college accepted about 45 students to achieve its goal of 25 students; however, 35 of those accepted said yes, so that the first incoming class was larger than expected.

In March, former Antioch College tenured faculty member and Nonstop leader Hassan Rahmanian was named the college’s dean of curriculum, assessment, planning and interdisciplinary learning. He was charged with overseeing the final stages of development of the college’s new curriculum, which had been initially created by the Morgan Fellows. Rahmanian’s title was later changed to vice president for academic affairs.

In the spring of 2011, the college announced the hiring of its first six tenure track faculty members. Later, several adjunct faculty members were hired to fill in gaps in the curriculum.

In April the college announced that the late longtime literature professor Nolan Miller and his brother, Richard, had bequeathed to the college $3 million, administered through the Yellow Springs Community Foundation, to be used to build the relationship between the college and Yellow Springs. The bequest funded 10 positions in local nonprofits for Antioch College students.

Mission of sustainability

In his State of the College address in May, President Roosevelt for the first time articulated a new mission for the college as environmental sustainability. In following talks, Roosevelt refined the mission as having a focus on food production, partly due to incoming students’ interest in food issues, and partly to the college’s Midwest location.

Taking the next step toward that focus, in August, the college announced the launch of the Antioch Farm, located on the college’s 35-acre former “golf course.” Local organic farmer Kat Christen was hired to oversee development of the farm’s initial stage; plans included growing food for students and using the farm as part of the curriculum. During the fall quarter, several students worked on the farm to complete their work obligation, and Yellow Springs community volunteers joined college faculty and students weekly in performing farm chores.

In June college leaders announced that former tenured faculty member Louise Smith would be the dean of community life on campus.

Students give thumbs up

At the end of September, the re-opened college’s first students arrived on campus, finding their way to Antioch from 16 states. They spent the first 10 days in orientation before plunging into a demanding schedule of classes and 10 hours weekly of work on campus. New to the curriculum were interdisciplinary global seminars required of all students, with each quarter focusing on a different sustainability issue. The first quarter global seminary, focused on water, was taught by new tenure-track faculty members Lewis Trelawny-Cassity, a philosopher, and David Kammler, a chemist.

The heavy workload was cited as a concern by students in December, when 13 students assessed their first quarter in an article for the News. However, overall the students gave the college strong reviews, and felt excited to be a part of its rebirth.