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Top Stories:
Forging
a New Path: Scholarship and Community Service at Antioch
Exploring
Service Options at Antioch
Building
Down Barriers
New
President Joan Straumanis Seeks to Strengthen and Stabilize
The
Antiochian is published by the Office of Development and Alumni Relations.
Articles submitted for publication should be addressed to the Antiochian
Editor, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387-1697. Or send via email: alumni@antioch-college.edu Editor:
Rachel Moulton '97
Contributing
Writers:
Laurien Alexandre
Derek Ali
Patricia Corrigan
Masha J. Etkin '63
Lauren Heaton
Dan Kaplan '76
Fred Kraus
Mary Laskowski '02
Meredith Moss
Rachel Moulton '97
Robyn Overstreet '96
Anne Townsend '03
Photography:
Dennie Eagleson '71
Lauren Heaton
©2002
Antioch College
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New President
Joan Straumanis Seeks to Strengthen and Stabilize
By Robyn
Overstreet '96
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| Joan Straumanis '57, President |
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The Work of Three Initial Presidential Commissions
The Admissions Commission
The Admissions Commission, chaired by Michael Murphy,
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, proposed four areas on which
to focus improvement.
The first, termed "Community Engagement," offered strategies to increase the
involvement of students, alumni, parents and faculty in the recruitment process.
Second, the commission suggested "small-scale and achievable physical plant
improvements" on and around campus. Third, improvements to market research
were advised, with better tracking of students in all stages of the admissions
process. Finally, the commission recommended an overhaul of the College
Web site. This overhaul will include a new design, better online services
for prospective
students, multimedia functions, and a full-time webmaster.
The Co-op Commission
Straumanis appointed Pat Linn, Dawson Professor of
Cooperative Education and Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies, to chair the Co-op Commission.
The commission reviewed the co-op program on two levels: its "product",
the jobs available through the co-op office and the overall structure of the
program and its "process", the support services provided to students,
faculty and employers. The co-op commission agreed upon two primary initiatives
for which to seek funding. The technology initiative includes a systems
analysis of the co-op office and would establish a searchable online
database of co-op
jobs, with detailed information for each, such as photos, job summaries,
maps, and housing information. Secondly, the commission suggested marketing
the co-op
program to students not enrolled at Antioch, much the way AEA (Antioch
Education Abroad) serves students from other colleges. A pilot version
of such a program
is being funded by the Carnegie Corporation.
The Change Institute Commission
The Change Institute Commission, chaired by Lloyd
Professor of Peace Studies Pat Mische, stands out among the other
commissions. The commission
began
planning for the creation of an institute whose mission is to teach and
certify the skills
of social change activism and leadership through curriculum, co-op experiences,
and community service. The idea is "based on the premise that Antioch has
always produced people who are change agents and leaders of social change," Straumanis
said "But we have never advertised it, we have never looked at our curriculum
to see whether we do it well, we have never decided whether there are other skills
needed that we don't teach. So the first thing the Change Institute should
do is analyze the curriculum to see what are the gaps and what are the
strengths for giving people the skills they need to be this kind of
a leader.
"The Commission's recommendation was not to make this a major or a minor,
or a formal academic program," Straumanis explains, "but rather something
that a person with any major could include in their curriculum. If they present
a combination of classes, co-op jobs, community service and possibly research
that would indicate sufficient skill in this kind of leadership, they would receive
certification on their college records." The commission suggested working
with existing courses, co-op jobs, and community service activities,
which focus on social change, while developing further such opportunities.
Institute
participants
would present experiences and findings to the Antioch community and beyond,
with the intention of involving activists, alumni, students, and adult
learners in
experiential learning, conferences and summer coursework. |
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Joan
Straumanis '57,
Antioch College's first woman president, never hesitates to point
out that her primary goal as president is to stabilize the College financially,
and with a background in grant-making for higher education, she brings the
skills for the task. In her most recent position, at the Fund for the Improvement
of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) in the U.S. Department of Education,
she funded innovative projects in science, technology, medicine and engineering
at all levels of higher education.
Gaining funding from foundations is one key to stabilization
which Straumanis plans to pursue aggressively. Many of the College's
programs are highly fundable, she believes, and grant-seeking has been
under-utilized in the
past. Strong, well-funded programs attract more students, which, Straumanis
says, is the most important element of stabilization.
Building the College's endowment is another vital element in stabilization. "The
endowment has been neglected for 150 years, up until the present time." Straumanis
reports that though the endowment has almost tripled over the past 6 years,
it remains low compared with those of other small liberal arts colleges.
In Straumanis's third convocation address of her presidency on October
23, 2002, she re-emphasized her commitment to speak to the community every
term on the state of the College. Straumanis briefed students, faculty,
and staff on the progress of her recent fundraising efforts and her strategy
for stabilizing the College. She also named four new presidential commissions
to examine what she called "the number one problems that we need to
solve as a community."
The four new commissions follow the three initial commissions
Straumanis appointed at her first presidential convocation in February
2002. These
first three commissions were charged with investigating the areas of Admissions,
Co-op, and what Straumanis coined "The Change Institute" -- a
program focused on social change education. The commissions, which are made
up of faculty, students, staff, alumni, and some village residents, were
asked to report to the community, and then submit fundable proposals to
the President, so that she could begin to fundraise in these areas. They
completed their research and submitted reports of their findings in April
2002.
On October 23, President Straumanis appointed three more commissions, concentrated
on University Academic Partnerships, Diversity, and Retention. During the
question-and-answer period, Professor Pat Linn suggested a fourth commission,
dealing with faculty retention and well-being, and, after some discussion,
Straumanis approved it on the spot. The title and chair of that commission
is yet to be determined.
The Commission on University Academic Partnerships will be chaired by College
Professor Jim Keen, and will study the ways the other campuses of the University
can collaborate with the College and share academic resources.
Hazel Latson, Professor Emeritus of Education and Acting Director of Multi-cultural
Affairs, will chair the Diversity Commission, which will look at making
the campus more diverse, particularly in relation to the new faculty searches
underway this year.
The Retention Commission, chaired by Dean of Students Patricia Whitlow,
will specifically explore the causes of student attrition, and recommend
measures to increase retention.
In a troubled economy, Straumanis told community members,
many foundations are not able to provide the level of funding that they
have in the past.
However, she called for "a year of renewal" from now until the
College's sesquicentennial, marking the date when students first arrived
on campus on October 5, 1853.
There will be an array of activities and celebrations
around the 150th anniversary of Antioch College next year, Straumanis
noted in her convocation, including
an event "of an intellectual nature" -- a conference or
a lecture series -- to honor former Chair of the Board Bob Krinsky'57.
To strengthen Antioch even during financial hardship,
Straumanis envisions calling on friends of the College -- both alumni and others -- to
volunteer their time and expertise. She refers to this activity as "The
Committee of 150." "We have succeeded in attracting quite a
number of skilled professionals, expensive professionals, who are willing
to donate their services to Antioch, and will continue this program throughout
the year." The Committee of 150 might help with physical projects
on the campus, with new projects, or with existing needs that have been
neglected for lack of funding.
In an early success for her venture to recruit volunteers,
Straumanis secured a donation for the design of signs to be placed on
buildings around campus,
the first step in an effort to make the campus welcoming to visitors. The
first signs have been completed and are scheduled for installation in November.
A sign also will be placed at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Route
68. The campus signs and the larger scale signage project are being partically
funded by the class of 1953's 50th Anniversary Class Gift Initiative.
In the spirit of volunteerism, Straumanis's son, Joel Pomerantz '83,
also arrived in Yellow Springs last February, committing at least nine months
of full-time work in the Development Office without pay, to help "identify
funding opportunities, and match good ideas with those opportunities." He
has also been managing the Committee of 150 program. Though he will be leaving
Yellow Springs for San Francisco in the coming months, Joel will continue
working on these projects from afar. The President's office reports
that a staff position is being created to continue some of his work.
Straumanis notes that "Antioch has a fabulous legacy of supporting
women in education, supporting women who were first in their field, but
that Antioch was quite late in having its first woman president." Straumanis
is quick to make special mention of the opportunities that cooperative education
has afforded women students: "For me," she says, "feminism
is all about human potential, all about women having opportunities and challenges
that they want and need."
"The themes of my life are activism, feminism, and educational
reform," Straumanis
told Antiochians at her first convocation address. "As a reformer,
I carry with me a certain optimism, which I really believe I acquired here.
It's an optimism about the possibility of progress and success in
making the world a better place." Straumanis calls Antioch "a
place where new ideas have been tried out for over 150 years. We have an
historic legacy," she says, "and we continue to be a source
of new ideas. So, to me, that's a reason why Antioch has to survive
and flourish."
Joan Straumanis welcomes alumni suggestions and feedback about Antioch College.
E-mail: jstraumanis@antioch-college.edu. Phone: (937) 769-1260. Alumni in
the Yellow Springs area are encouraged to participate in the Presidential
Commissions.
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