Friedman Gift Aids Academic Support Center Expansion

Continues multi-generational Friedman connection

By Fred Kraus

When President Bob Devine announced in Community Meeting this spring that a major gift would be coming to help fund Antioch College’s Academic Support Center (ASC), a rousing cheer went up throughout the well- attended meeting room.

It was the generosity of Stanford B. Friedman ’53 and his wife, Esther Hyatt Wender, that provided the stimulus to expand the popular and essential Academic Support Center. The function of the ASC is to provide support for writing, basic study skills, time management, basic writing and math. The ASC also provides skills workshops and addresses the needs of students with disabilities and learning differences.

The ASC has become central to the College’s efforts to strengthen the academic program and promote student success. But the ASC has almost become too popular. As more than 25 percent of Antioch’s students use the ASC, the workload on its single Director and a handful of dedicated work study students and student tutors was becoming overwhelming. The department’s success becomes even more impressive when one considers the ASC has only been in operation for three years.

Stan Friedman’s generous gift provided the College with the means to make a transition to an expanded and more fully staffed ASC program, with the staffing costs involved eventually being absorbed into regular College operations.

The plan calls for the hiring of an Assistant Director of the ASC to strengthen its current programs and to provide additional capacity. Also, more student tutors will be added, a new proactive student mentoring program will be enacted, software will be updated, and a faculty development program will be put into place during the first year of the two-year plan for ASC. The second year moves forward with the logical progression of the program.

Stan’s support of ASC is not totally unexpected or surprising; he has given several other gifts to the College, including one to Glen Helen. His Antioch involvement stretches back to the 1950s when he met his first wife, Roberta Friedman-Bowman ’54. They had three sons – all of whom are Antioch College graduates and are practicing attorneys – Kenneth Friedman ’83, Jeffrey Friedman ’81, and Richard Friedman ’76.

And it seems as if Stan’s involvement will continue, as his granddaughter, Jacqueline Friedman Shepherd (Richard Friedman’s daughter), now attends Antioch. She has an anticipated graduation date of 2004.

Stan is Montefiore Medical Center Pediatrician and Professor of Pediatrics & Psychiatry (head of division), University of Maryland. Stan and Esther share a passion for child care and development. Esther, a child psychologist for the learning disabled, is a former director of child health services at the Westchester County (New York) Department of Health. A clinical professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Esther has specialized in childhood attention deficit disorders for the past 25 years. Her work is widely published and studied.

Stan’s investigations into the relationship between physical disease and psychological issues contributed greatly to the body of medical research. Many of the present-day achievements in the fields of adolescent health care and of behavioral pediatrics are based on Stan's research.

Among his many honors is being selected as Antioch College's 2000 Rebecca Rice Award recipient. The award recognizes an individual's outstanding achievement in his field or career.