Save Antioch now on Youtube

Care about what happens to Antioch? Then make a video about it, upload it to Youtube, and label it "save antioch." Check out these videos Antiochians have already made. Share them, vote on them, save them, starting with these two:

Antiochians keep fighting back

The Washington Post published Megan Rosenfeld's ('69) reply to George Will's blistering attack on Antioch:

We need people who do not accept the status quo. "Antioch taught me to speak up for myself," one graduate said at a recent meeting of shocked alums in Washington. We need people who have learned -- in addition to history and science -- to question authority.

When my husband was at Yale, the unofficial motto was, "We go to school to learn to rule." Maybe that's one reason they have a $20 billion endowment. Our motto is, "Be ashamed to die before you have won some victory for humanity." Maybe that's why we don't.

(The motto of Trinity College, George Will's alma mater, is, "Pro Ecclesia et Patria" -- for church and country. Not quite as inclusive as "humanity," but I'm not criticizing.)

Our small campus in Ohio has always been a target for anyone with an anti-progressive bent. When I was there in the late '60s, the tiny Ohio chapter of the Ku Klux Klan regularly marched down the main street of campus, apparently under the assumption that if Antioch vanished, the Klan's racism could flourish. Some of us set up lemonade stands and watched the marchers from the sidelines.

The sexual-conduct pledge of the early '90s came in for a lot of derision -- but from what I've read and heard, date rape is not a problem at Antioch as it is on other campuses. All colleges today are petri dishes of social issues...

Antioch has produced a suitable number of MacArthur "genius" award winners, doctors and lawyers, if that's how you measure success. The proportion of Antiochians going on to get PhDs is one of the highest in the nation. We are proud to have never had a football team or a fraternity. To the best of my knowledge, "beer pong" was not invented on our campus...


If George Will hates us, we must be doing something right.

And Dan Gediman ('82), producer of NPR's popular "This I Believe,"  had this in the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Speaking of those notorious moments from Antioch's past, I remain unembarrassed and unapologetic about the way the school and its students have addressed the key issues of the past two centuries. They may have sometimes expressed themselves in a messy fashion, but they have been on the right side of history in every major case that I am aware of.

From its very founding in 1852, Antioch admitted both women and people of color, something nearly unheard of in antebellum America. It was the first college in the country to hire a female professor. Antioch was an early and fervent advocate for abolitionism, women's suffrage and civil rights. It supported free-thinkers of every stripe, and when McCarthyism hit this country, Antioch was one of the few schools to support faculty who held politically progressive views.

Agreed, Antioch's students were sometimes overly strident -- even self-destructive -- in their politics, but at least they were deeply engaged in matters of substance, and I for one am glad to have come of age as a citizen surrounded by others who were not a bit cynical about America's ideals of fairness and freedom for all.

Ding dong, Antioch is not dead

News stories about Antioch's closure next year have already decided the college is dead. But not even the Antioch administration ever said they plannned to permanently close the school. Antioch has been to the brink of closure and beyond, then come back, more than once.

Antioch can make a comeback and turn this story around. To start, the Chicago Tribune posted this response by Antiochian Ed Koziarski to reporter Julia Keller's story, which was one of many prematurely ringing funeral bells for the school. As Ed writes:

The alumni reunion weekend was not a wake for a dying institution.Beyond the contentious Friday meeting that anchors the article, there was a much more inspiring story.

The alumni of Antioch College, along with faculty and community residents, are doing everything in our power to assure that the college remains open well beyond the 2008 "suspension" date announced earlier this month by the administration of Antioch University. We will not let Antioch die.

The college is small, and its financial crisis is real. But it holds a vital place in American higher education as a training ground for free thinkers and innovators in art, science, media, social service and other disciplines, as well as the activism for which it is widely known.

There are thousands of students who seek the kind of education that Antioch provides, rooted in independent thought, imagination, pragmatism, compassion and a willingness to challenge the status quo.

The problem is that the present university and college administration have lacked the confidence in these values that they need in order to successfully promote the college to prospective students, donors and the media. The announced closure is a wake-up call to revitalize Antioch and make it financially self-sustaining once again.

The Columbus Dispatch has this:

Perhaps that is why all of the fuss about plans to close the college is a puzzle for some.

Those who do not call themselves Antiochians may not realize the irony of the announcement. This private, liberal-arts college teaches that activism is more than a buzzword, that contributing to society is a mission, that participatory democracy is life's requirement.

And now, with word that the campus founded by the Christian Church in 1852 will close next year, the people who learned social justice at the hip of Antioch leaders find themselves pushing against the establishment that nurtured them.

The alumni are meeting in bars, libraries and living rooms across the country. They want to keep the college open, protect its assets and establish a local board of trustees to take control away from the larger system of Antioch University. They have raised a half-million dollars in three weeks. They promise to fight to save their school.

Double your donation to Antioch

Don't go down without a fight. Better yet, don't go down at all. Antiochians have already raised $400,000 to save the college. That's incredibly quick; the College Revival Fund met one-tenth of its year-end goal just int he past weekend. As Coly Buhl, Antioch '97 points out:

Before you give money to the College Revival Fund, please consider all of the organizations that you may be affiliated with or work for that provide MATCHING DONATIONS. You can double your contribution instantly...Even if you aren't directly involved with such an organization, someone you know might be. Give them the money and they can write the check, and have that money instantly matched. These corporations and institutions HAVE TO donate a certain amount of their money somewhere, why not let that be Antioch?

Click here for a list (PDF) of organizations that provide matching donations. Ahem: first, however, the College Revival Fund must have official nonprofit status to receive these donations.

Can Dave Chappelle save Antioch College?

You guys are the best neighbors ever," comedian Dave Chappelle told a crowd of Antiochians in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in September. From the Antioch News:

Chappelle became enraptured by stand-up comedy as a secondary school student at Woodlin Elementary School in Spring, Maryland, and at middle school in Yellow Springs, Ohio. His inspiration came from his favorite comedians and idols, such as Richard Pryor. His father, William, was a professor of voice and music at Antioch College in Yellow Springs.

What will happen to Ha Ha Pizza (OMG, its website is already down!)? The drive-through liquor store?

How about a block party for the revolution?

The Board lost trust in our own education

As a high school student I was well known for my peculiar academic predicament: I loved to research, loved to take on unpopular positions, loved to write, saw everything as political and believed any theory needed to be questioned and taken into the real world. My one problem? I couldn't take a standardized test to save my life. Needless to say, by the time I was to apply to college three different people pulled me aside to tell me about this mythical place called "Antioch." A child of New Yorkers raised in Los Angeles, I agreed to move to Ohio. Prior to 1996, I had never seen a corn field.

Seven years after graduating I now teach college students. I have always created my own syllabus. I have always demanded that we read primary sources. I do not give final exams; my students must make original final projects to prove their understanding of the material. In every lecture, every book choice, every interactive exercise, I can see Antioch's holistic pedagogical imprint. It was not an easy three years at the school - personally or financially - but the expectation of critical thinking, and personal and social integrity that was expected of all students not only shaped me, but continues to shape those whom we, as alumni, interact with daily.

Yes, Antioch is broke. Antioch was always broke. It was always part of the mystique. It was like an urban legend - part of the Antiochian lore - like "not drinking the water" or the "fairies in the Glen."

Antioch taught me that we are all part of the "Bootcamp for the Revolution" but it has failed to have faith in those whom it nurtured. The Board of Trustees was not honest with us. Sending glossy postcards soliciting money doesn't work for us. Speak to us about the real financial crisis. Tell us what you need. You taught us to fight. You taught us to think creatively. We may not have a lot of money but we can help. Instead a decision was made behind closed doors and now, we, as alumni are sitting around our email or our cell phones – scratching our heads and stunned and wishing we could call a community meeting.

P.S. this was Shayna Plaut, '00

Tears, fears for Antioch College closing

Here are more responses from Antiochians writing around the web. See the Save Antioch mailing list for more.  (And if you want to write for this blog, just email antiochcollege@gmail.com.)

Christine on Really Bad Cleveland Accent says:

Yellow Springs is one of my most beloved places in the world. It's a unique little village with a fragile civic "ecosystem" - will any of it survive without Antioch? I mean, talk about potential instant ghost town...I'm depressed.

Breena Ronan writes:

No one is mentioning the most important aspect of the Antioch experience, the cooperative education program...Each year at Antioch I spent 3-6 months working full time at a real job. I spent time interning at a major museum in Chicago. I worked as an environmental lobbyist in West Virginia. I tried my hand in a chemistry lab. I even ran the college's community garden, marketing the produce at the Yellow Springs farmers market.
...
The commencement speaker at my graduation was Harvard professor and popular science essayist Steven J. Gould, himself an Antioch graduate. At the time I found his speech both amusing and slightly insulting in that it's thesis was that Antioch was like a bacteria or amoeba, small, adaptable, and difficult to eradicate. Now I hope that Gould was correct, that Antioch will reappear 2012.

Jason Rothstein's jblawg says: 

At Antioch...I had amazing experiences through the co-op program, and graduated with a wealth of jobs on my resume including working in a commercial printer, assisting in a neuroimmunology lab, teaching in a small school system, and seeing how the sausage was made in a large one. Like a lot of Antioch students, I left college better prepared for the “real world” than many of my contemporaries who went to higher profile schools.

Buce writes on Underbelly:

The high point of my young life (I was 17) was to join the gang of merry pranksters who stole all the toilet seats out of North Hall, the girl’s dorm at Antioch College in Yellow Springs Ohio, to string between the twin towers of the main building

We were careful and discreet and we put ‘em all back in the morning, and I think folks had a good laugh, although surely not as good as we had ourselves. Life changes; these days I suppose we’d have to register as sex offenders.
...
Many of Antioch’s wounds were self-inflicted, but in a sense, Antioch was a victim of its own success. Antioch liked to think of itself as “experimental.” Indeed it was: in my day, you could do lots of things at Antioch that you couldn’t do elsewhere...By the 60s, everybody was experimental; everybody was a little Antioch—or a big Antioch, ready and able to take advantage of Antioch’s blunders, and to eat Antioch’s lunch.

Laura Markham makes this comment on Politics, Technology, and Language:

Does Antioch College have any chance of reopening in service to its historical mission? A slim one, but only if alumni ask the hard questions. As a former member of the board of trustees, I would start with this one: Can Antioch College take all its property, including the small endowment, and find itself a new Board of Trustees that represents the college?
...
Antioch College has risen from the ashes before. Are there enough fearless and committed champions to help it do so again? Now that would be a victory for humanity.

Later for Antioch

I have to say that my 6 months at Antioch were the worst of my life by far. I found Antioch to be totally sanctimonious and the people (not all) to be fucked up. My experience as an African American male there was terrible. The type of stuff that TWA dealt with was worse than anything I experienced at my other school. Also, the death of one of my closest friends did not help matters. The tenure denial of Ralph Luker was total bullshit and as a professor myself I can only imagine how horrible it was to teach there. I am sorry if this sounds negative, but that was my experience at Antioch.

--Sorry, I do not want people to think that everyone from Bootcamp posted this message. It was me, Amani.

1,983 blog posts about Antioch, and rising

As of June 12, 2007, there are more than 1,983 blog posts listed at Technorati.com about the news of the impending closure of Antioch College. Visit Technorati for more. Among the responses:

Lorna Lux writes:

i am very saddened to hear about the closing of antioch college. antioch is the only school of its kind, despite its problems, it is an amazing, unique, brilliant place. perhaps antioch cannot survive in this world dominated by big business. it was always a place that seemed to thrive on the brink of disaster. all i know is the most compassionate, dedicated, genius thinkers i've ever known either went there or taught there. i cannot imagine it, as a place, deserted, without people it is nothing, it is a death.

Maurya writes:

Antioch is a huge part of my identity. Before Antioch I was a moderate traditionalist verging on Republican. I was shy, quite, a loner. Antioch brought out all the best parts of me by pushing me into horrible uncomfortable discussions. I love it for that. Antioch never asked for a commitment and allowed me to see other cities and schools and always welcomed me back with open and craving arms.

wackywallflower says:

I'm so angry that I can't even describe how angry I am.
Well, I guess that solves my "transfer or leave of absence" dilemma. (how the fuck do you spell that word?)

I don't think I've said fuck enough times yet. FUCK.

drjimmy11 comments on metabrilliant's post at metafilter:

so many memories.

Like the part where Jeremy Piven threw that raging
party and got George Clinton to play.

k8t adds:

Visiting there in 1999ish was my first time using co-ed bathrooms... I was
also shocked at how openly people smoked pot in the dorms. No towels lining the
door or exhaling into a toilet paper tube with fabric softener sheets.

Antioch to close

Here is the what the early news of Antioch's closure looks like on Google News today.

What does it mean that the Antioch campus and culture lack so much support?

What is the Antioch Solution?

The Antioch College website the day of the announcement. Excerpts:

After careful analysis the Board determined that the College’s resources are inadequate to continue providing a quality education for its students beyond July 1, 2008.
...
Over the past several years, Antioch College has experienced a continuing decline in its student enrollment. Given its small endowment and heavy dependence on tuition revenue, this low enrollment has threatened the College’s survival.

What does "State of the Art Campus" mean? Will it be green as in, say, eco-friendly, or green like a graveyard?