Charlotte Observer, Wed, Aug. 01, 2007
Column Mis-characterized Ohio College and Misjudged its Future
George Will has used his highly refined intelligence to establish a solid career by isolating silly incidents, defining them as “liberal,” and then belittling them to the delight of his partisan audience. But even his admirers are likely to agree that his attack on Antioch College (July 15, “Liberalism without learning”) went over the top.
His characterization of this rugged icon of progressive American philosophy as “repressive liberalism unleavened by learning” fits the fantasy he describes, while veering madly off course from the subject of his essay. Some clarification is in order.
Passionate discussion by the board of trustees concerning suspension of operations at Antioch College left little doubt that the difficult vote was not based upon failure of the college’s academic program, but rather on an unsustainable business model that threatened its financial basis. A flawed financial strategy can be repaired. The board’s decision marks the fourth time in its more than 150 years that this college has suspended operations, only to reopen as a more vigorous institution. The board expects Antioch College to open its doors to coming generations of students no later than 2012, secure enough to sustain its existence indefinitely into the future. To achieve that goal, the college needs now to generate the endowment that in its storied history it never secured.
I graduated from Antioch College in a different era, when my fellow students included Eleanor Holmes Norton and Stephen Jay Gould, to mention only two whose names are widely recognized. Times change, but even with dwindling
enrollment a demanding Antioch College faculty has been rewarded by outstanding graduates, as indicated, for example, by the college’s recent ranking among national leaders in the production of Ph.D. degrees, and in its consistent placement for the last decade among the top institutions in the country on the most envied dimensions of the National Survey of Student Engagement.
A splendid academic innovator, Antioch College is a leader. It developed co-operative education, academic study abroad, outcomes-based assessment of rigorous liberal education outcomes, and collegiate governance that treated students from their first moment on campus as responsible participating adults in an organic community focused in inquiry, knowledge and growth.
A landmark of progressive collegiate education, its permanent absence would leave a searing void in the landscape of U.S. higher education. The board I have observed does not intend to let that happen. We spent years of analysis, deliberation and investment meeting our fiduciary responsibility to Antioch College. The wrenching and conscientious decision we made to suspend operations came at the end of a long chain of actions to benefit the college and was taken in the conviction that at this moment only this step could secure its future.
Instead of childish gloating over what he calls the dotty talk of plans by the board of trustees to re-open Antioch College on a financially secure basis, Will should rejoice that there are Americans committed to preserving the legacy of Horace Mann and Arthur Morgan, two giants of practical American idealism. I am now working, as are thousands of alumni and many others, to rebuild this special, necessary and academically challenging presence in American higher education.
Dan Fallon
Vice Chair
Antioch University Board of Trustees