Chicagoans on the Antioch Experience

Kelly Connolly ’03 presents video interviews about the Antioch College experience with alumni Sandy Macnab ’65, David Nekimken ’68, Jennifer Peters ’78, Mark Reynolds ’80, Nic Ruley ’02, and Robin Sheerer ’63.

Chicagoans on the Antioch Experience

College president Mark Roosevelt and Italian dinner 3/19, seeking chapter organizers, Springer doc 3/17

Mark Roosevelt Meet & Greet

The Antioch College Chicago Alumni Chapter
Presents a meet & greet with new college president Mark Roosevelt
And highlights from Kelly Connolly’s alumni video interviews

Saturday, March 19, 2-4:30 p.m.
Roosevelt Library
1101 W. Taylor St., Chicago
2nd Floor Meeting Room

Taylor Street exit on 90/94, UIC/Racine stops on Blue Line
Small parking lot in back, metered street parking

Dinner after at Tufano’s Restaurant, 5 p.m.
1043 W. Vernon Park Place
3 blocks north of the library

Please rsvp (yes only)
Specify whether you’re attending the meeting, dinner, or both.

Seeking New Chapter Organizers

Three of the four Chicago chapter organizers will step down this year and we are seeking new organizers to step up. The chapter will choose new organizers at a meeting on 5/14, details to be determined. If you’d like to nominate someone, including yourself, feel free to post to this list, or email current organizers:

Kelly Connolly
Jim Hobart
Ed M. Koziarski
Robin Sheerer

Brian Springer’s The Disappointment: Or, The Force of Credulity 3/17

Brian Springer, a friend of Antioch and Nonstop, cocreator of The Antioch Papers and partner of Antioch and Nonstop media arts professor Chris Hill, screens his documentary The Disappointment: Or, The Force of Credulity, about his search for buried treasure on his family’s Missouri farm, including 16th century Spanish gold, Civil War silver, and the diary of anarchist Kate Austin. Springer and Hill will both be there.

Thursday 3/17 at 6 p.m.
Gene Siskel Film Center
164 N. State St.

“Springer interweaves the stories surrounding these treasures with those of his family to spin a tale of spirit possession, Napalm, Indian massacres, early American opera, fanatical obsessions, 200 tons of dirt, and the way mothers try to protect their families from wounds that never heal.”

Incoming Antioch College president Mark Roosevelt video conference at 11/14 Chicago alumni meeting

Incoming Antioch College president Mark Roosevelt will participate in a live video conference and discussion during the Sunday, Nov. 14 meeting of the Chicago alumni chapter, 2-4:30 p.m. CST. at Douglas Dawson Gallery, 400 N. Morgan St. in the West Loop.

It’s 1/2 mile northwest of the Lake Street exit on 90/94, or 1/2 mile southwest of the Grand Street Blue Line station. Directions

Roosevelt is tentatively scheduled to begin at 3:15 p.m., following:
—a preview of alumni video interviews on the impact of the Antioch experience by chapter organizer Kelly Connolly ‘03
—a discussion with Jennifer Berman ‘84, executive secretary of the Task Force on Community and Community Governance
—a review of current developments at the college with board member Prexy Nesbitt ‘67 and alumni board communications chair Mark Reynolds ‘80

Please rsvp (yes only)
If you can bring a dish or drink to share, or can help with meeting setup at 1 p.m. or cleanup after, please contact Robin Sheerer ’63.
If you can help with A/V setup beginning at noon, please contact Ed M. Koziarski ’97.
There’s a $5 suggested donation to cover chapter expenses.

We plan to stream video of the meeting live and post a recording soon after. If you can’t make it and have questions you’d like conveyed to Roosevelt, feel free to post them here or at saveantioch. I’ll compile them and pass along as many as we can.

Also, check out alumni board member and University of Illinois professor Paula Treichler ‘65 presenting on The History of the Condom in the Chicago Humanities Festival this Saturday, Nov. 6, 3-4 p.m. at UIC Forum, Main Hall C, 725 W. Roosevelt Road. $5.

Alumni Board Election Results

Congratulations to Mark Reynolds ‘80 on his election to the Alumni Board. When he’s seated next year Mark will join fellow Chicagoans Emily Kirby ‘52 and chapter organizer Jim Hobart ‘58.

Also elected were:

Laurence “Larry” Glasco
Chad Johnston
Tanya Mink
Karen Mulhauser
Allen Spalt
Paula Treichler
Don Wallace (re-elected)

Reunion and Work Project

Campus work project starts next Monday and reunion starts Friday. Are you going? Need a ride? Have space in your car? Post it here. Help someone out and save some gas.

Notes from Antioch College alumni meeting, Chicago 4/10/10

See video:
Part One
Part Two

Speakers: Matthew Derr, Lee Morgan, Beverly Rodgers, Aimee Maruyama, Julian Sharp

using arts & sciences
testing academic plan with high school students

Beverly:
a week to ten days in between each term
no summers off
flipped educational model upside down
begin forming relationships with faculty in first year 1:5 teacher ratio

lee: target to have tuition equal or below state school out of state, do it in 3 years.
we just lost a work quarter
seven academic quarters, five coops

the question is can a human being develop properly in 3 years. I don’t have a good answer.

sandy macnab: do you have entering class in back pocket?

lee: we can just about offer a free ride to the first 25 students
recruitment will be more about finding the proper diversity mix

beverly: want alumni chapters to help interview prospective students
in last year school closing had 62 students

susan greene: similar calendar took me five years.

three years may only attract more sophisticated students than our target diversity

kathy huff: how’s annual fund going?
aimee: it’s 2.8 million. we’re just over half way
kathy huff: wouldn’t it be wise to keep the endowment?

11.4% currently giving (aimee)

lee: since announced closure 16 million raised
2 million in the bank
4-5 million in outstanding pledges

lee: operating budget 400k/month $5 million/year
2 million to rehab gym

south gym will accommodate 250 seat black box theater shared facility with village

beverly level out at 600 students half on campus half remote

tour of building at antiochcollege.org

howard cort: is there enough flexibility in the program?

beverly: we’re presenting program for three years it may take four

derr: first class planned to come in at 100% discount
reduced discount rate to about 30%
hover around 20% after received accreditation
26,000 tuition and 10,000 in fees first year

beverly: not negating governance but having a director of community

jim hobart: what if this design doesn’t work?
I never would have made it through this program
where’s the fun?

derr: it works according to credits and math.
we have to invest in student life, gym, glen to have rich experience
we have to look at this empirically at how it plays to 17 year olds

we have to decide what our admission criteria are. works better when students have had work experience

first entering class 25 second 50 third 75

involve community mangers in year long curriculum in community
give new community agency of its own
have to plan for governance on campus or they’ll rebel against it

roger: where would you recruit transfer students?

derr: public university students who want liberal arts education but don’t have access
start hosting prospective students this fall

lee: if this doesn’t work we’re going to go down in a blaze of glory. we’re not going to do something half-ass

prexy: our legacy is risk taking. when I say antioch lives people say “are you serious? you came back again?” this is our legacy.

susan: I take you at your word student body won’t be all white.
the first year is where we must recruit the class that looks different. must have working class students.

prexy: we’ve begun going places antioch never went to (in terms of diverse recruitment).
lee: we’re devoting a day to this subject at our may board meeting

beverly: I’m chair of morgan fellows

julian: eight OSU students came on spring break to do work
4/24-25 big volunteer weekend on campus

derr: we need you to talk to disconnected and angry alumni and turn them around

note: the fundamental academic subjects- it’s unclear to some alumni how they fit in.

derr: board meeting will be in yellow springs may 24-25. Details to come.