Boots on the Ground for Antioch

Date: 7/9/2009 to 8/9/2009

By Diane Chiddister
Reprinted with permission from the Yellow Springs News

If you ask Matthew Derr how many hours per week he spends on his job, he’s stumped. During a recent interview, he made an earnest attempt to answer the question before giving up.

“I lose track,” he said. “My whole life is Antioch.”

As the chief transition officer for the Antioch College Continuation Corporation, or ACCC, Derr is the boots on the ground for the revival of Antioch College. These days, after last week’s announcement that the Antioch University trustees and ACCC reached an agreement to transfer the college, Derr is the one whose immediate job is to make that revival happen. In his 20-year career as a fundraiser and college administrator, he never expected to have on his plate the responsibility for opening a college, Derr said this week, and the task would be overwhelming except that the ACCC pro tempore board provides clear direction.

“What I rely on is that this is a collaborative effort,” he said.

ACCC Gives Thanks to the Village

Date: 7/9/2009 to 7/23/2009

Reprinted with permission from the Yellow Springs News

On July 1 the Antioch College Continuation Corporation Board Pro Tempore approved a resolution of appreciation to the village, including the intention to create a “Yellow Springs Day” each year, at which time students, faculty and staff would contribute volunteer labor to the village. According to the resolution, the work would take place each September on a mutually agreed upon day.

ACCC Chief Transition Officer Matthew Derr presented the resolution to Village Council at Council’s meeting Monday, July 6.

Chapter News:

Date: 7/9/2009 to 7/23/2009
On Saturday, June 27, members of the Southeast Michigan Antioch Chapter responded to an invitation from the Detroit Chapter of the Spellman College Alumnae Association to represent Antioch  at “Song for Coretta,” a play by Detroiter and Spellman Professor Author Pearl Cleage in honor of our beloved alumna Coretta Scott King.  Alumni Board members Tendaji Ganges and Terry Blackhawk were joined by former Antioch Professor of Literature Yates Hafner and his wife Gail and introduced before the performance at the Charles Wright Museum of African American History.

Antioch Reunion 2009 News

Date: 7/9/2009
Michael Heffernan ‘96

Reunion 2009: Oct. 2 – 4, 2009: Out of the Twilight Zone: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Twilight Zone, as well as a full celebration of the future of Antioch College!
Work Project Sept. 28 – Oct. 1: Helping to get the campus ready for Reunion 2009

Ever since the great news about the future of Antioch College came out last week, my in-box has near exploded with questions regarding Reunion 2009. Glad to see such a high level of interest! Let’s see if we can’t answer some of the more frequently-asked questions below:

Nora S. Newcombe ’72, An Expert in Cognitive Development

Date: 7/9/2009 to 8/6/2009

by Christian Feuerstein ’94

Nora S. Newcombe, Ph.D. , is a Professor of Psychology at Temple University and PI of the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC), headquartered at Temple and also involving Northwestern, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania as primary partners. A nationally recognized expert on cognitive development, Dr. Newcombe’s research has focused on spatial development and the development of episodic and autobiographical memory. Her work has been federally funded by NICHD and the National Science Foundation over 20 years.  She is the author of numerous scholarly chapters and articles on aspects of cognitive development, and the author or editor of three books, including Making Space: The Development of Spatial Representation and Reasoning (with Janellen Huttenlocher) published by the MIT Press in 2000. Recent honors include the George Miller Award and the G. Stanley Hall Awards from APA, the Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science, also from APA, and the Women in Cognitive Science Mentor Award. She has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and to the Society of Experimental Psychologists.

FAQ’s on the Alumni Board Election

Date: 7/2/2009 to 7/16/2009
Here is a comprehensive description, mostly from Fred Kraus, longtime
staff aide to the Alumni Board’s Nominating Committee, of the procedure
for the last election and the subsequent filling of a vacant seat on
the board.
 
The process of voting for many years has been to
send each alum a self-standing hard-copy ballot via snail mail.  In the
past five years we have also incorporated online voting as an option. 
Some have proposed that we  eventually move to all-electronic voting,
but that would eliminate a sizable portion of the alumni and thus is
not under active consideration.