[Alumni-chat] Prospective students

[Pinkney Mikell]

Mr. Brower,

    I am the father of a fall 2007 prospective Antioch student and read your
piece dated March 27th. I am writing you because the conflict and bad vibes
flying around the various web sites give me real reason to hesitate
encouraging him to attend. Indeed, it is difficult to find anything positive
about the place on-line other than the official web site and the "Colleges
that change lives" book. I worked in Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Xenia, Ohio
when I was an actor and visited Yellow Springs a couple of times. I have
always been fond of Ohio, especially southern Ohio.

    I went to both small and large colleges/universities and feel that a
small school is the right place for my student - at least as an
undergraduate, but it seems from the various websites that Antioch is on the
verge of vanishing, going broke and that much of the staff/faculty has been
canned; the place is mold infested, the campus a mess and the food un
eatable .. It goes on and on. {I am prepared for a certain amount of
grousing from current students, but these guys seem to be on a mission]

    We are deciding between Antioch and Hartwick in Oneonta, NY, but need to
hear something positive about Antioch before sending him off to a school
that might just suddenly close the doors. The admissions staff has been
absolutely great and I have enjoyed talking to them and appreciated their
efforts. My student has visited the college with his mother and they both
feel that the conversational, cross discipline method of teaching would be
very good for him, but I am reading that this is in danger of being phased
out just as it starts.

    Help us out here, could you? Change is a good thing, but there needs to
be some sort of continuity. It's hard to learn in a negative environment
with the vague idea that your school is on the edge of folding.

Best regards,
Pinkney Mikell
Ardsley NY