Category: news
Choreographer, Educator Sylvia Turner to Receive Antioch College’s Walter F. Anderson Award
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – January 13, 2011 – Antioch College announced today that award-winning choreographer and educator Sylvia C. Turner ’67, dean of fine & performing arts at Santa Ana College, will receive the Walter F. Anderson Award at Reunion 2011.
Presented in conjunction with Alumni of Courage for Diversity (formerly the Alumni of Color), the honor goes to former students or college employees for promoting racial and ethnic diversity within Antioch and beyond.
The theme of Reunion 2011, from June 16-19, will be "Science and Invention." Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi '61 is set to deliver keynote address while alumnus Robert Greenwald ’66 will receive the Horace Mann Award for “winning victories for humanity.”
Turner has performed in the United States and Japan. She is a former member of the Ann Arbor Dance Theater, the Gloria Newman Dance Company, and was co-founder of Connect 3, a multimedia performance ensemble.
In addition to choreographing for nationally competitive skaters, Turner has written on ice skating choreography for Dance Magazine . Her choreography credits also include numerous main stage productions for South Coast Repertory; the SCR Educational Touring Program; “The Lion King Parade and Street Show” at Disneyland; an animated film for the Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas; “Bridge to Angel Island” for Ballet Pacifica; and a collaborative work “Bullwhip Days,” based on slave narratives.
Turner is former chair of the Santa Ana College Dance Department. Under her leadership, the department gained statewide recognition for excellence in instruction, high quality concert productions, and successful well-trained students. She has trained hundreds of students, many of whom have become successful performers, choreographers, and teachers.
Turner received the 1995 Santa Ana College Distinguished Faculty Award, and the 1996 RSCCD Award of Excellence for her sabbatical research. She has served as a dance adjudicator, a panelist for private and public granting agencies which support the arts, a master teacher, and presenter at national and international conferences. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Arts Orange County and is an active advocate for the arts and arts education.
MEDIA CONTACT
Gariot P. Louima
Director of Communications
937-581-8201
glouima@antiochcollege.org
Antioch College to Host Forum on ‘Establishing Community Norms’
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – January 13, 2011 – A task force reporting to Antioch College President Mark Roosevelt on community and community governance at the College will host a public forum titled “Establishing Community Norms” at 8:00 p.m., Friday, January 21.
The forum, streamed live from http://antiochcollege.org/media/live_stream.html, will be the culmination of a two-day meeting of the group that first convened last summer to create for the incoming class a framework for life in community on the campus in Yellow Springs.
Founded in 1850 as a residential liberal arts college, Antioch College earned an international reputation for its rigorous undergraduate curriculum, trendsetting cooperative work program and pioneering system of community governance that involved students and faculty in the governing of the institution.
Antioch College alumni and the Yellow Springs community are invited to participate in what promises to be a lively discourse moderated by Al Denman, an Antioch College emeritus professor of philosophy who chairs the task force.
Agenda for Public Task Force Meeting
Friday, January 20, 2011
- 10:30 a.m. – Richard Maizell and Susan Mayer: Community, Orientation, Governance, and Healthy Norms
- Noon – Lunch
- 1:00 p.m. – Present Thinking on Governance
- 1:30 p.m. – Former Faculty Present on Governance
- 2:30 p.m. – Governance: Outline Tasks, Form Subcommittee
- 3:30 p.m. – Break
- 3:45 p.m. – Resume
- 4:45 p.m. – Break
- 5:00 p.m. – Final Thoughts & Assignments
- 8:00 p.m. – Friday Forum: Establishing Community Norms
MEDIA CONTACT
Gariot P. Louima
Director of Communications
937-581-8201
glouima@antiochcollege.org
Gregory M. Avis, David Goodman Join Antioch College’s Governing Board
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – January 13, 2011 – The Antioch College Board Pro Tempore voted recently to elect businessmen and philanthropists Gregory M. Avis and David Goodman as new trustees of the College, Board Vice Chair Frances Degen Horowitz announced.
“David Goodman and Greg Avis will bring to the work of rebuilding Antioch College their skills, their experience, and their wisdom,” Horowitz said. “We are fortunate to have their commitment to our common purposes.”
Avis and Goodman are scheduled to participate in the January 21-23 meeting of the Board Pro Tempore in Yellow Springs. Open sessions of the Board begin at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, January 22.
Goodman, a 1969 graduate of the College, is a principal of North Arrows LLC, which specializes in power and energy investments. He is also a founding partner and principal of e-Solar Properties LLC. In 1980, he founded United American Energy Corp. up to its sale in 2003. Prior to UAE, Goodman was employed for seven years by Grow Tunneling Corp. He is the president of The Andrew Goodman Foundation for Human Dignity and Civil Rights. The nonprofit is named in honor of his older brother Andrew, who with James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964, while pursuing voter registration for African Americans in Mississippi.
He has written and lectured on numerous subjects, including civil rights and the summer of 1964, independent energy project financing, alternative fuels for heavy duty vehicles, green building and general business matters in his areas of expertise. After earning a degree in civil engineering at Antioch College, Goodman earned an MBA from Stanford University in 1971.
Avis cofounded Summit Partners in 1984. Prior to Summit, he worked for McDonald & Company and Goldman, Sachs & Co. Avis has served as a director of many public and private companies. His past directorships include Digital Link Corporation (NASDAQ: DLNK), IMPAC Medical Systems (NASDAQ: IMPC), Integrated Systems (NASDAQ: INTS), NxTrend Technology (acquired by Infor Global Solutions), Powerwave Technologies (NASDAQ: PWAV), RightNow Technologies (NASDAQ: RNOW), Splash Technology Holdings (NASDAQ: SPLH) and TGV Software (acquired by Cisco Systems).
The chair of the Williams College Board of Trustees, Avis serves on the boards of the James Irvine Foundation, New Profit and ARTSTOR. He has also served on the boards of Silicon Valley Community Foundation (chair), the National Outdoor Leadership School and the San Jose Repertory Theatre (chair). Avis teaches mathematics at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto. He holds a BA in political economy from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
About Antioch College
Originally founded in 1850, Antioch College redefined liberal arts education in the 20th century by initiating an entrepreneurial and experiential curriculum through the development of its hallmark cooperative work program. Many of the now-common elements of today's liberal arts education – self-designed majors, study abroad, interdisciplinary study, and portfolio evaluation – had an early start at Antioch College. Ownership of Antioch College was transferred from Antioch University to the Antioch College Continuation Corporation in September 2009. The newly independent College will admit its first class in the fall of 2011.
MEDIA CONTACT
Gariot P. Louima
Director of Communications
937-581-8201
glouima@antiochcollege.org
Alumni Board Executive Committee Meeting – 01/10/2011
There will be an Alumni Board Executive Committee call tonight Monday, January 10 at 5:30 p.m. PDT, 6:30 p.m. MDT, 7:30 p.m. CDT, 8:30 p.m. EDT
This will be live streamed and playable via the web player at http://antiochcollege.org/media/live_stream.html or you can tune in via iTunes or any other stream player at http://stream.antiochians.org/antioch.mp3 . We will also be recording this call and will publish the recording for anyone interested in listening later.
The plan is to keep this call to no more than 75 minutes.
AGENDA
1. Report from Campus – Stacey Wirrig
Scheduling and planning for a call with Mark Roosevelt
Admissions (from Kristen Pett if she’s available?)
2. Board Pro Tem Update – Nancy Crow
Upcoming Meeting on Campus January 21-23
3. Legal Committee – Barbara Esbin and Judi Church
Bylaws Revision Process
4. Chapters Committee – Karen Mulhauser
Events
5. Reunion – Barrie Grenell
Reunion 2011 Schedule
Reunion 2012 dates
6. Communications – Mark Reynolds
Antiochians.org domain issues
Publications
Protocol
7. Nominating – Tim Klass
2011 Ballot
8. Development – Tanya Mink
9. CRF Work Group and Finance Committee – Nancy Crow & Barrie Grenell
10. Other Business
11. Adjourn
Roosevelt ready to lead, and sink roots into community
To some of Mark Roosevelt’s colleagues, leaving a job as superintendent of the 30,000-pupil Pittsburgh school district to lead a reopened small-town college hoping for 25 students next fall did not seem wise. But Roosevelt said he could not pass up the chance to become the first president of a revived Antioch College. Even though he has never been a college administrator, Roosevelt has focused much of his career on reforming education, which he sees as one of America’s greatest failures, and said he believes he has the skills to lead Antioch through this critical period.
“I’ve been a non-traditional applicant for every job I’ve applied for,” Roosevelt said in an interview last week. Particularly attractive about the post at Antioch was “an incredible history and opportunity to re-think the role of faculty, role of co-op and basic questions around foundational curriculum.”
“It’s not about the numbers [of students],” Roosevelt said. “It’s the ideas that help the college come to life, grow and prosper.”
The allure of small town life and the vibrant arts and culture of Yellow Springs also drew Roosevelt to the position, which he begins Saturday. Having grown up in Washington, D.C. and living most of his life in Boston, Roosevelt, 55, along with his wife, Dorothy, 44, wanted a close-knit community in which to raise their four-year-old daughter, Juliana.
Yellow Springs had all of the amenities the couple was looking for — arts, music, good coffee, good food and lots of recreation — and they felt the potential to develop roots in the community. Plus, Dorothy Roosevelt, a former yoga instructor, has an interest in wellness, which also makes Yellow Springs a good fit. The couple recently bought a home on Hyde Road.
Though Mark Roosevelt plans to take in his share of local chamber music and hit the tennis courts (he is an avid tennis player), his focus has been firmly on the college since arriving Dec. 9. And though he said he does not believe the vision for the college should come from him alone, Roosevelt is already full of ideas for Antioch’s rebirth.
“I don’t think it’s an institution where one person articulates the vision,” he said, adding that he will work with board and faculty to build on Antioch’s strengths, like its co-op program, and address its weaknesses, such as student retention, which nationally is only around 50 percent and has historically been a problem at the college. To keep students, Roosevelt is starting to look at ways to better mentor students with academic and co-op advising.
“We make several transitions in life harder than they need to be,” Roosevelt said. “Antioch is uniquely positioned to speak to a better transition between high school to college and college to work.”
Roosevelt also brings a self-described obsession with American history to his new job, having recently taught classes on the historical roots of public discourse at Carnegie Mellon University and Brandeis University. He said he hopes that all Antioch students graduate with an historical understanding of the different viewpoints in this nation, as well as what it means to be an American. Roosevelt admits to being a “total Lincoln fanatic,” who has already adorned his South Hall office with five portraits of the Civil War president.
After serving five years as superintendent in Pittsburgh, where he spearheaded an unprecedented five-year contract with the teacher’s union incorporating performance-based pay and raised millions for college scholarships for students, Roosevelt said he is prepared again to work to bring different groups together for the best interest of students. Roosevelt said he will continue a student-centered approach, along with a focus on workforce morale, in addition to helping Antioch raise the millions of dollars needed to achieve a new vision.
“The college has a history of poverty, which is a morale- and opportunity-depleter,” he said. “This is not an insignificant challenge.”
Educational reform has been Roosevelt’s driving force since he guided passage of an education reform bill through the Massachusetts state legislature in 1993 as chair of the House Education Committee. He said he views education failures as one of America’s massive systemic challenges that has had implications for the nation’s economic competitiveness.
Dorothy Roosevelt also has a passion for education, having worked at Project Zero, an educational research group at Harvard University, where Mark Roosevelt received his bachelors and law degrees. The couple met 10 years ago when Roosevelt’s niece, who was taking a yoga class with Dorothy, introduced them.
Their daughter, Juliana, who was adopted from Guatemala, will attend preschool at the Antioch School, Roosevelt said. He also has a 25-year-old adopted son, Matthew, from a previous marriage.
For Roosevelt, his tenure at Antioch is a new opportunity to pursue educational reform, and his time in Yellow Springs is a chance for small-town life.
“We’re thrilled to be here,” he said of Yellow Springs. “We’re very much looking forward to sinking roots down and becoming part of the community.”