Year in Review – Save Antioch College

The year in review 2012: Antioch College moves forward

College moves forward

Two years after gaining its independence and one year after welcoming its first class, the revived Antioch College seemed to be moving forward according to plan, as college leaders appeared to successfully meet the huge challenges inherent in launching a new liberal arts college.

Antioch goes viral

Antioch College faced a “happy crisis” in winter 2011 when news of its tuition-free Horace Mann fellowships went viral, several weeks after the college trustees agreed to extend the fellowships to its first four classes. Within hours the news spread on the Internet, and on Friday, January 27, the college Website had 53,000 visitors in a day, compared to its usual 500. Soon the college received more than 3,100 applications for the 75 spots available. College leaders and staff rose to the challenge of vetting the applications and in its second year, the revived college became the country’s most selective school in the nation, accepting just 5.2 percent of students who applied.

New faculty hired

The college also enjoyed a robust response to its second round of faculty hiring, receiving many applicants for its six tenure-track jobs. In the spring Antioch announced it had hired faculty in environmental science, biomedical sciences, psychology, history and co-op education, bringing its tenure-track faculty to 12.

In June Admissions Director Cesar Mesquita announced that he would be leaving his job for personal reasons. He had been in that position for a year.

At the end of the school year for the college’s first group of students, most gave the college high marks for their education. While many agreed that the combined workload of classes, co-op jobs and community meetings was huge, 31 of the first-year second semester group of 33 returned in the fall.

North Hall both old/new

During the summer, renovation continued for the $6 million refurbishing of North Hall, one of the college’s oldest buildings. The renovation, which aimed at making the building the oldest in the country to win a coveted LEED environmental certification, added a geothermal heating system and solar panels on the building’s roof facing south. The project was completed by the time new students arrived in the fall.

Second class arrives

The college met its goal of attracting 75 high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds for its second class. When the students arrived in October, they ranged in age from 17 to 25, and came from 31 states, with an average GPA of 3.69. With its 12 full-time faculty and additional adjunct faculty, the college was offering 44 courses.

College buys WYSO back

In December college leaders announced they had reached agreement with Antioch University to pay $8 million to regain WYSO Public Radio and to nullify the university’s remaining claims to the campus. The university had gained control over WYSO, begun by Antioch College students in the 1950s, in the 2009 agreement between the college and university that led to the college becoming independent.

In a public meeting, President Roosevelt explained the need for freeing the college from the “reversal clauses” in the 2009 agreement, which stated that if the college had not achieved accreditation by 2016, the campus would revert back to the university. While Roosevelt emphasized that the college is on track to achieve accreditation by that date, he said college leaders agreed that the reversal clauses had been inhibiting the college’s progress.

In March Antioch University named Felice Nudelman as its new chancellor, following Toni Murdock, who retired in July. (News archive photo by Lauren Heaton)

New university leadership

In March Antioch University announced that it would hire Felice Nudelman as its new chancellor. Nudelman would follow Toni Murdock, who retired in July.

Nudelman was most recently the executive director of education for the New York Times company, with responsibility for that company’s Knowledge Network. She had previously been the associate dean of academic affairs at Bloomfield College, and had received a master of fine arts degree from the Pratt Institute.

Nudelman said she accepted the job because she was attracted to the university’s mission and values.

In the fall the university announced that it would begin offering MOOCs, or massive open online courses, to broaden its educational offerings. The classes, taught by well-known professors at leading universities, are typically offered for free, but students at Antioch University will pay a fee and receive credit for them. University faculty will work with students taking the classes, acting as mentors and evaluating the students’ performance.

Ellen Hall, formerly provost at Antioch University Midwest, was named that school’s interim president in summer 2012. (Submitted photo)

Upheaval at AUM

Antioch University Midwest had a year of upheaval in 2012, beginning in February when President Michael Fishbein was. according to several AUM sources, told not to return to campus although he remains under contract until summer 2013. Former AUM provost Ellen Hall became the acting leader on campus.

At that time Antioch University announced to AUM staff that it had implemented “Project Turnaround” for the campus, aimed at fixing budget problems

In July Hall was named the interim president of AUM. In an interview she stated that enrollment at the campus had declined since the beginning of the recession, and before that had been flat for several years. Due to the enrollment decline, and growing debt linked to the new $15 million campus, the school was going through a difficult time.

In November, 12 AUM union employees brought in a mediator since they had gone without a contract for a year due to the school’s financial difficulties. At that time the school announced that it would cut about $208,000 in personnel costs.

In the fall AUM announced that it had hired a new enrollment director, and was planning to offer new courses.

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.

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.”