The Alumni Newsletter of Antioch College
Winter 2002

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University News:

Antioch Welcomes a New Chancellor

Antioch's New PhD. in Leadership Starts Strong!

By Definition

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

By Definition

Remarks by Dan Kaplan '76, Chair, Antioch University Board of Trustees

In simple terms, Antioch University is 3,891 students at six campuses. Of that number, 1,182 students are undergraduates, over 600 of whom are at Antioch College. The Antioch University Board of Trustees is the governing body for the entire university. Currently there are 23 trustees of whom 18 are graduates of Antioch College. I was elected in June to be chair of the Board for a term of three years. My predecessor, who many of you have come to know, was Bob Krinsky '57. Every board chair in the history of Antioch has been an alum of Antioch College.

When I think about Antioch's history, I think about a heritage we have which goes back to our founding in 1853. Antioch has never taken the easy route. Horace Mann and the founding Board did not choose to build their college in their home state of Massachusetts. Rather they headed for what was then nearly frontier, southwestern Ohio. There were still fresh stumps on the front lawn. The buildings did not have doors, or heat for that first winter. And so our heritage has indeed been to take risks and to go places to deliver our Antioch model of education -- not in traditional places, or comfortable places.

In a sense we have always been missionaries -- believing that our educational model, the Antioch model, was worthy of being shared beyond the boundaries of this campus. The Antioch model places an emphasis on experiential learning, student-centered learning, student-designed programs, with the integration of social values and a social consciousness.

Why should an Antioch education, which we believe so fervently in, be limited to 18-to-22-year-olds who have the ability -- indeed, the privilege -- of being able to spend four years with us? That was the question, framed in that fashion, which was the driver of the expansion of Antioch a generation ago.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Antioch's leaders believed that the Antioch model of education was both different and important. They realized that there are many people who did not fit the profile of the typical Antioch College student. They were adults. They were working. They had already received their bachelor's degrees. And they did not live in Southwestern Ohio.

Antioch began to affiliate and start Antioch centers around the country -- indeed around the globe. By the mid-1970s there were some 35 centers, all bearing the Antioch name. Nobody knows the exact number, and that reflects the problem. If Antioch's leaders' hearts were in the right place, their execution was fatally flawed. Antioch grew too fast, without accountability, without rigorous standards.

I am not going to dwell on the painful process of consolidation that followed. Instead let me skip to today -- an Antioch with six strong campuses. With nearly 4,000 students. You would be proud of the campuses that bear the Antioch name. They are doing good work. They are making a difference -- in their communities and in their students' lives. These campuses all carry the Antioch DNA.

For instance, Antioch University Seattle has just been awarded a $3 million grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to develop a program in Washington State to improve high school retention and college access for Native American youth. This is only one example of many I could mention.

Over the past few years I have had the chance to see in action the work of students and faculty at each of Antioch's campuses. Let me tell you that when you see it, you know that the work and people are consistent with Antioch values and Antioch quality. The students may not be 20 years old, but Antioch is changing the lives of adult students -- just like it did for you and me.

I have been to a number of Antioch graduations. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, I watched Antiochians getting their diplomas a couple of years ago. Their tradition is that each student can say a few words. I recall many of their words, but perhaps most touching was a Hispanic student thanking her family in Spanish and then she asked them to stand up. One whole row of people -- there must have been 20 -- stood up.

Last spring in Keene, New Hampshire, I watched as more than 200 graduate degrees were handed out. I remember one teenager standing in the aisle with a sign that read "Way To Go Grammy!"

Whether in Keene, or Seattle, or Los Angeles -- they may not look or sound like the students here in Yellow Springs, but they are Antiochians. At the conclusion of their graduations, Horace Mann is quoted as he has been at every Antioch graduation -- here and at every campus.

Let me tell you one last story. It is about Lillian Lovelace, who has just retired as a trustee. She has been a wonderful trustee and we are indebted to her. Lillian came to Yellow Springs in the late 1940s, but she did not graduate. She left, went to California, married, raised a family. Years later she returned to Antioch to complete her degree. But this time the Antioch she returned to was in Santa Barbara. She told me recently that when she went to the campus in Santa Barbara what was striking to her was that "they were speaking my language -- just as they had years ago in Yellow Springs."

At the center of Antioch University, the touchstone for every campus, is Antioch College. There is no Antioch without it and everyone in the University knows that. Everyone in the University knows that in some ways they are the planets and the College is the sun. Every member of the Antioch University family wants the College to be thriving, to be vital, to be here in another 150 years.

Antioch University today is an exciting place. We remain at the forefront of higher education in America. Our heritage is one of change, of doing good work -- Antioch work -- wherever the students are.

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