From adivabythesea at mac.com Tue May 1 16:27:23 2007 From: adivabythesea at mac.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Annie_Greenman-P=E9rez?=) Date: Tue May 1 16:38:48 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Please help me find my friend! Message-ID: <0D988A34-0112-1000-C57C-33CEBC389B55-Webmail-10015@mac.com> Dear Alumni, My name is Annie Greenman, I am 44 years old and am LOOKING FOR A LONG LOST FRIEND who graduated from Antioch in the the 80's. (I think) Her name is/was Catherine Fields. She later artistically changed her name to Sidellia Quabelle as I knew her when living with her in Chicago in... 1987? Could someone kindly help me find her?!!! I had a strong dream about her last night and miss her dearly. Thank you SO much!!!! Annie Greenman Hull, MA ph: 781-704-4141 language.maven@mac.com From skooter3 at gmail.com Wed May 9 09:51:24 2007 From: skooter3 at gmail.com (Christian Skotte) Date: Wed May 9 10:03:07 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Wow! Student commencement speakers. Message-ID: When I worked at the college, I was fond of telling people at our peer institutions that Antioch produces great student outcomes, but we could use a few more student incomes. I just read through the speeches from graduating seniors, and I'm happy to see that the first part of my statement continues to be true. If you haven't read them yet, please do: http://www.antioch-college.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=173 Cheers, Skooter From jdavid at coldren.net Wed May 9 11:04:44 2007 From: jdavid at coldren.net (J. David Coldren) Date: Wed May 9 11:16:41 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Wow! Student commencement speakers. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <004601c7924b$60d569f0$22803dd0$@net> Skooter, Thanks for calling our attention to the speeches. I think Carolyn Wollin-Wood may have put her finger on it when she said: "I bet it makes a lot of us scared, to leave an institution like Antioch, where progressive and radical viewpoints have been fostered and critically explored. To leave "the bubble," that space of removal from mainstream reality. I fear for our future because I'm unsure." Is it now Antioch's mission to be removed from mainstream reality? To celebrate scared, fearful, and unsure graduates? Former Antioch President James P. Dixon was periodically reminding us that "we live in the only available world." I think I still prefer that construct to "the bubble." J. David Coldren '65 -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Christian Skotte Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 8:51 AM To: alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu Subject: [Alumni-chat] Wow! Student commencement speakers. When I worked at the college, I was fond of telling people at our peer institutions that Antioch produces great student outcomes, but we could use a few more student incomes. I just read through the speeches from graduating seniors, and I'm happy to see that the first part of my statement continues to be true. If you haven't read them yet, please do: http://www.antioch-college.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=173 Cheers, Skooter _______________________________________________ Alumni-chat mailing list Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat From marnoldtk at yahoo.com Wed May 9 11:51:00 2007 From: marnoldtk at yahoo.com (Matthew Arnold) Date: Wed May 9 12:11:50 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Wow! Student commencement speakers. Message-ID: <539829.52999.qm@web53404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Is it now Antioch's mission to be removed from mainstream reality? To celebrate scared, fearful, and unsure graduates? What, as opposed to, say, the OSU version? Which might go something like: "I bet it makes a lot of us scared to leave an institution where the beer flows freely, the bong hits and Jello shots are plentiful, the responsibilities few, complacency is king and privilege in all its myriad forms is unchallenged, even celebrated -- except by those dirty fucking hippies down in Yellow Springs. Just the thought of them makes me... Augh! Out, damn conscience! Beer bong, stat!" Okay, that's probably deeply unfair to OSU (or the non-Greek bit thereof, anyway). But c'mon, it's just a dang commencement speech -- one tailoring the universal and perfectly understandable apprehension of the graduating student to our alma mater's unique culture and emphasis on social change. Colleges are, by design, removed from mainstream reality. Good colleges teach students to push the envelope and be a little ahead of the mainstream when, at the end of their four years, they land in the real world. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From bdevine at antioch-college.edu Wed May 9 15:22:54 2007 From: bdevine at antioch-college.edu (Robert Devine) Date: Wed May 9 15:34:01 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Wow! Student commencement speakers. In-Reply-To: <004601c7924b$60d569f0$22803dd0$@net> References: <,> <004601c7924b$60d569f0$22803dd0$@net> Message-ID: David, Perhaps you didn't read the entire text of Carolyn's speech. If I recall correctly, she went on to qualify her anxiety (it was, in part, for the precarious situation of the College), and to talk about the hope and optimism derived from her educational experiences at the College. It might just be that honest self-reflection -- particularly regarding the privileged position of being a student/resident at a liberal arts institution -- doesn't translate well to print. Bob Alumni Chat List on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 11:04 AM -0500 wrote: >Skooter, > >Thanks for calling our attention to the speeches. > >I think Carolyn Wollin-Wood may have put her finger on it when she said: > >"I bet it makes a lot of us scared, to leave an institution like Antioch, >where progressive and radical viewpoints have been fostered and critically >explored. To leave "the bubble," that space of removal from mainstream >reality. I fear for our future because I'm unsure." > >Is it now Antioch's mission to be removed from mainstream reality? To >celebrate scared, fearful, and unsure graduates? > >Former Antioch President James P. Dixon was periodically reminding us that >"we live in the only available world." I think I still prefer that >construct >to "the bubble." > >J. David Coldren '65 > > >-----Original Message----- >From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu >[mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Christian Skotte >Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 8:51 AM >To: alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu >Subject: [Alumni-chat] Wow! Student commencement speakers. > >When I worked at the college, I was fond of telling people at our peer >institutions that Antioch produces great student outcomes, but we could >use >a few more student incomes. I just read through the speeches from >graduating >seniors, and I'm happy to see that the first part of my statement >continues >to be true. If you haven't read them yet, please do: > >http://www.antioch-college.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=173 > >Cheers, >Skooter >_______________________________________________ >Alumni-chat mailing list >Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu >http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat > >_______________________________________________ >Alumni-chat mailing list >Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu >http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat Robert H. Devine College Professor Antioch College Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr From mbrower32 at comcast.net Fri May 11 21:13:44 2007 From: mbrower32 at comcast.net (Michael Brower) Date: Fri May 11 21:18:06 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Message-ID: <5D314225-1AFD-48DA-9382-8A2F62B23041@comcast.net> Christian Skotte posted a note urging us to read the student commencement speeches. Thanks Christian for this suggestion. I just took your advice, and I am very impressed. Back in the 50's we used to talk about "Re-evaluating our basic assumptions." And it is clear that in different language, Antioch is still encouraging and teaching students to do that. My hat is off to the current faculty. They are obviously continuing in the Antioch tradition of being extra-ordinary teachers, in the best meaning of encouraging learning and full-person development. Here are my dreams-wishes for Antioch. That all students plus new grads plus older Alums all put our dreams and shoulders to helping to: 1) Get the Gates and Buffett and a dozen foundations, plus a thousand and then ten thousand other donors to build an Antioch endowment to rival that of Oberlin at 3/4 of a BILLION dollars! This means building our present endowment to about 20 times its present size! 2) Use those funds to enable a better paid faculty and deeper faculty numbers, so that no student needs to leave for lack of depth in her or his field of interest. 3) That students and Alums and faculty and Administration cooperate in saving and improving Community Government. I do NOT mean this in any sense of "student empowerment," which I hear about and see banners for on campus, I do mean it in the sense of full, active, effective, participation in all aspects of campus governance. 4) That Antioch, with help from all of us, build applications and attendance and reduce attrition so that the student body grows back up to a level of viability. By viability, I am thinking of viability in three senses: economically, of faculty breadth and depth, and of student diversity. This probably means at least 1,000 and maybe 1200-1400 students at a minimum. 5) That Antioch attract and support and educate and learn from a MUCH larger body of racial and other minorities. 6) That Antioch continue to be a safe haven and home for radical students of all persuasions and students of sexual identities of all varieties. 7) AND that, along with 6), not instead of 6) Antioch also become an interesting and exciting and safe place for students of more centrist and conservative backgrounds, viewpoints and persuasions. Why? Because A) They also deserve access to Antioch's excellent education. AND B) they are needed, so that more radical students get a better preparation for life and do not instead get lost in an unrealistic bubble that is too safe, too far removed from the larger society. All Antioch students need to be immersed for their 4 years in a more diverse campus society, so that they gain skills in debate and listening and understanding and dialogue that will make all more effective agents of change and for justice after graduation in the real and often difficult nation out there. -- Mike Brower '55 and Member, Alumni Board From tbrown at antioch.edu Fri May 11 21:06:56 2007 From: tbrown at antioch.edu (Tom Brown) Date: Fri May 11 21:18:11 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Message-ID: I will be out of the office until Monday, 5-14. For assistance, please contact the Antioch Helpdesk at ext.1294 or email helpdesk@antioch-college.edu From marklp2 at comcast.net Mon May 14 03:03:44 2007 From: marklp2 at comcast.net (Mark Pomerantz) Date: Mon May 14 03:15:54 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. In-Reply-To: <5D314225-1AFD-48DA-9382-8A2F62B23041@comcast.net> References: <5D314225-1AFD-48DA-9382-8A2F62B23041@comcast.net> Message-ID: <005c01c795f6$031e2870$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> Take a look at Berea College in Kentucky and their Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Program (EPG). Their college endowment is a BILLION dollars and they have only 1500 students. The EPG Program alone has an endowment of $8 million (probably a quarter of Antioch's total endowment) They don't even charge tuition but all students must do 10 hours weekly work for the College. They grew their endowment from 150 million to a billion in 20 years. A primary focus is empowering the people of Appalachia through community and economic development. Mark P. '71 -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Brower Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 6:14 PM To: alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu Cc: Michael Brower Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Christian Skotte posted a note urging us to read the student commencement speeches. Thanks Christian for this suggestion. I just took your advice, and I am very impressed. Back in the 50's we used to talk about "Re-evaluating our basic assumptions." And it is clear that in different language, Antioch is still encouraging and teaching students to do that. My hat is off to the current faculty. They are obviously continuing in the Antioch tradition of being extra-ordinary teachers, in the best meaning of encouraging learning and full-person development. Here are my dreams-wishes for Antioch. That all students plus new grads plus older Alums all put our dreams and shoulders to helping to: 1) Get the Gates and Buffett and a dozen foundations, plus a thousand and then ten thousand other donors to build an Antioch endowment to rival that of Oberlin at 3/4 of a BILLION dollars! This means building our present endowment to about 20 times its present size! 2) Use those funds to enable a better paid faculty and deeper faculty numbers, so that no student needs to leave for lack of depth in her or his field of interest. 3) That students and Alums and faculty and Administration cooperate in saving and improving Community Government. I do NOT mean this in any sense of "student empowerment," which I hear about and see banners for on campus, I do mean it in the sense of full, active, effective, participation in all aspects of campus governance. 4) That Antioch, with help from all of us, build applications and attendance and reduce attrition so that the student body grows back up to a level of viability. By viability, I am thinking of viability in three senses: economically, of faculty breadth and depth, and of student diversity. This probably means at least 1,000 and maybe 1200-1400 students at a minimum. 5) That Antioch attract and support and educate and learn from a MUCH larger body of racial and other minorities. 6) That Antioch continue to be a safe haven and home for radical students of all persuasions and students of sexual identities of all varieties. 7) AND that, along with 6), not instead of 6) Antioch also become an interesting and exciting and safe place for students of more centrist and conservative backgrounds, viewpoints and persuasions. Why? Because A) They also deserve access to Antioch's excellent education. AND B) they are needed, so that more radical students get a better preparation for life and do not instead get lost in an unrealistic bubble that is too safe, too far removed from the larger society. All Antioch students need to be immersed for their 4 years in a more diverse campus society, so that they gain skills in debate and listening and understanding and dialogue that will make all more effective agents of change and for justice after graduation in the real and often difficult nation out there. -- Mike Brower '55 and Member, Alumni Board _______________________________________________ Alumni-chat mailing list Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat From marklp2 at comcast.net Mon May 14 03:10:21 2007 From: marklp2 at comcast.net (Mark Pomerantz) Date: Mon May 14 03:22:29 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. In-Reply-To: <005c01c795f6$031e2870$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> References: <5D314225-1AFD-48DA-9382-8A2F62B23041@comcast.net> <005c01c795f6$031e2870$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> Message-ID: <005d01c795f6$efc6b8e0$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> Maybe this idea should be revived!! Mark P. '71 "In 1919, two major episodes fateful for the future of Antioch occurred in rather close sequence. On February 7th, the trustees met with representatives of the national Young Men's Christian Association to consider the proposal for making Antioch the National College of the YMCA. The project was to be financed and controlled by the YMCA, and the college was to remain co-educational and non-sectarian. The curriculum was generally to remain the same as before, with an additional division for special training for YMCA and YWCA workers. It was estimated that an additional endowment of $500,000 would be needed, and this the YMCA volunteered to raise. The YMCA representatives specified that there should be twelve vacancies in the Board of Trustees to be filled with representatives for the YMCA. All local trustees offered to resign. This alluring project must have bowled over the whole Board of Trustees, for they agreed unanimously to accept the proposal. The only dissenting voice came from Prof. William M. Dawson (attending the meeting by invitation) who counseled delay and investigation. But the trustees elected Dr. Grant Perkins, the chief YMCA representative, president of Antioch to serve without salary ad interim and to take office in June. At a special meeting of the trustees on May 20th, Dr. Perkins reported that he was not prepared to undertake the $500,000 endowment and resigned -- and the whole project came to an end." Robert L. Straker- "A Brief Sketch of Antioch College 1853-1921" -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Pomerantz Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 12:04 AM To: 'Alumni Chat List' Subject: RE: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Take a look at Berea College in Kentucky and their Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Program (EPG). Their college endowment is a BILLION dollars and they have only 1500 students. The EPG Program alone has an endowment of $8 million (probably a quarter of Antioch's total endowment) They don't even charge tuition but all students must do 10 hours weekly work for the College. They grew their endowment from 150 million to a billion in 20 years. A primary focus is empowering the people of Appalachia through community and economic development. Mark P. '71 -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Brower Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 6:14 PM To: alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu Cc: Michael Brower Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Christian Skotte posted a note urging us to read the student commencement speeches. Thanks Christian for this suggestion. I just took your advice, and I am very impressed. Back in the 50's we used to talk about "Re-evaluating our basic assumptions." And it is clear that in different language, Antioch is still encouraging and teaching students to do that. My hat is off to the current faculty. They are obviously continuing in the Antioch tradition of being extra-ordinary teachers, in the best meaning of encouraging learning and full-person development. Here are my dreams-wishes for Antioch. That all students plus new grads plus older Alums all put our dreams and shoulders to helping to: 1) Get the Gates and Buffett and a dozen foundations, plus a thousand and then ten thousand other donors to build an Antioch endowment to rival that of Oberlin at 3/4 of a BILLION dollars! This means building our present endowment to about 20 times its present size! From marklp2 at comcast.net Wed May 16 04:14:32 2007 From: marklp2 at comcast.net (Mark Pomerantz) Date: Wed May 16 04:26:48 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. In-Reply-To: <005d01c795f6$efc6b8e0$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> References: <5D314225-1AFD-48DA-9382-8A2F62B23041@comcast.net><005c01c795f6$031e2870$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> <005d01c795f6$efc6b8e0$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> Message-ID: <000501c79792$3bfa3060$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> It's pretty sad that Antioch College is not doing better in this market. Mark P. '71 May 16, 2007 Ivy League Admissions Crunch Brings New Cachet to Next Tier By ALAN FINDER BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lehigh University has never been as sought after as Stanford, Yale or Harvard. But this year, awash in applications, it churned out rejection letters and may break more hearts when it comes to its waiting list. Call them second-tier colleges (a phrase some administrators despise) or call them the new Ivies (this, they can live with). Twenty-five to 40 universities like Lehigh, traditionally perceived as being a notch below the most elite, have seen their cachet climb because of the astonishing competitive crush at the top. "It's harder to get into Bowdoin now than it was to get into Princeton when I worked there," said William M. Shain, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me., who worked at Princeton in the 1970s, which is one of those benefiting from the spillover as the country's most prestigious colleges turn away nearly 9 out of 10 applicants. At Lehigh, known for its strength in engineering and business, about 12,000 students applied this year. That is a whopping 50 percent increase in applications over seven years ago and more than 10 times the seats available in a freshman class of 1,150. The median SAT score of admitted students has climbed about 10 points a year in recent years, officials said. Students have generally been quicker to adapt to the new realities than parents have been, many guidance counselors said. "My sense is that parents are a lot more concerned with how the name is going to look to neighbors and family members, and there is a real sense among parents that it's almost embarrassing if your child has to settle for a lower-level school," said Carolyn Lawrence, a private college counselor and the author of a blog, AdmissionsAdvice.com. Some students who might have readily won admission to Lehigh, Middlebury College, Colgate University, Pomona College, Emory University or New York University just a few years ago are now relegated to waiting lists, left to confront the long odds that an offer of admission might materialize over the next month. John Dunham, a senior at the private Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J., had trained his sights on Bucknell University and Lafayette College. He was rejected by Bucknell and put on the waiting list at Lafayette. His college counselor pushed him toward Kenyon College in Ohio, or as the counselor put it "the Williams of the Midwest." But Mr. Dunham, a solid student who played football and baseball in high school, decided to play baseball on an athletic scholarship at Central Connecticut State. "People are definitely broadening their horizons, because it's gotten so competitive," Mr. Dunham said. The logjam is the result of supply and demand. The number of students graduating from high school has been increasing, and the preoccupation with the top universities, once primarily a Northeastern phenomenon, has become a more national obsession. High-achieving students are also applying to more colleges than they used to, primarily because of uncertainty over where they will be admitted. Supply, however, has remained constant. Most of the sought-after universities have not expanded their freshman classes. The result, said Jonathan Miller, a senior at Mamaroneck High School in suburban Westchester County, N.Y., is that many classmates perceive institutions like Tufts University, Bowdoin, the University of Rochester and Lehigh in a new light. "I would say that high school students are looking more and more at these schools," he said, "the way they used to look at the Ivies." An A student with good SAT scores, Mr. Miller said that he considered applying to Brown University, among others, but that his guidance counselor discouraged him, emphasizing the tough odds. Mr. Miller decided instead to apply early admission to Tufts, and by December, had been accepted. He said he was delighted. Some students who have accepted offers from these colleges were rejected by the most prestigious universities. Others, keenly aware of the extreme competition at the top, decided at the outset to focus on colleges more likely to admit them. "I'm sure part of what we're seeing is people are saying, 'Well, if the Ivies and Duke are inaccessible, where do I go to get a similar academic experience?' " said Jonathan Burdick, dean of admissions and financial aid at Rochester. There are other reasons, too, why these colleges and universities find their stock climbing. To position themselves in the fiercely competitive market, they have hired stronger faculty; built new libraries, science complexes, dining halls, fitness centers and dormitories; and created international programs and interdisciplinary majors. Many have also sought to transform themselves from regional institutions to national ones, recruiting across the country. At Middlebury, applications have increased by 1,000 in each of the last two years; nearly 7,200 students applied this year, compared with 5,200 in 2005. At Kenyon, about 4,600 students applied this year, while 2,000 did six years ago. Colgate received 8,752 applications this year, compared with 5,852 a decade ago. And at the University of Vermont, a state institution, nearly 19,000 applications poured in this year, compared with 7,400 seven years ago. Many of the most prestigious public universities like Michigan and Virginia have also become much more selective, especially for out-of-state applicants. The academic profile of students enrolling at these colleges is improving, based on average SAT scores and other data. "We're getting a remarkably gifted group of students," said Gerard P. Lennon, associate dean in the college of engineering and applied sciences at Lehigh, who has taught at the university for 27 years. The median SAT score in the combined verbal and math parts of the test is now 1,320 out of 1,600. (That is not counting the writing section of the test.) But the spillover at the second level has also created its own spillover; some students who not long ago would have won admission to these colleges no longer are. The admission rate at Pomona, in Claremont, Calif., was about 15 percent this spring; it was 38 percent 20 years ago. Bowdoin's rate was 18.5 percent this year and 32 percent eight years ago. At Lehigh, 31 percent were accepted this spring, compared with 47 percent in 2001. High school guidance counselors have become the reality instructors, encouraging students and parents to think more broadly about colleges. "Now a kid who is applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton is also applying to the Lehighs and Lafayettes," said Brett Levine, director of guidance at Madison High School in New Jersey. "It's the same tier, basically." -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Pomerantz Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 12:10 AM To: 'Alumni Chat List' Subject: RE: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Maybe this idea should be revived!! Mark P. '71 "In 1919, two major episodes fateful for the future of Antioch occurred in rather close sequence. On February 7th, the trustees met with representatives of the national Young Men's Christian Association to consider the proposal for making Antioch the National College of the YMCA. The project was to be financed and controlled by the YMCA, and the college was to remain co-educational and non-sectarian. The curriculum was generally to remain the same as before, with an additional division for special training for YMCA and YWCA workers. It was estimated that an additional endowment of $500,000 would be needed, and this the YMCA volunteered to raise. The YMCA representatives specified that there should be twelve vacancies in the Board of Trustees to be filled with representatives for the YMCA. All local trustees offered to resign. This alluring project must have bowled over the whole Board of Trustees, for they agreed unanimously to accept the proposal. The only dissenting voice came from Prof. William M. Dawson (attending the meeting by invitation) who counseled delay and investigation. But the trustees elected Dr. Grant Perkins, the chief YMCA representative, president of Antioch to serve without salary ad interim and to take office in June. At a special meeting of the trustees on May 20th, Dr. Perkins reported that he was not prepared to undertake the $500,000 endowment and resigned -- and the whole project came to an end." Robert L. Straker- "A Brief Sketch of Antioch College 1853-1921" -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Pomerantz Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 12:04 AM To: 'Alumni Chat List' Subject: RE: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Take a look at Berea College in Kentucky and their Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Program (EPG). Their college endowment is a BILLION dollars and they have only 1500 students. The EPG Program alone has an endowment of $8 million (probably a quarter of Antioch's total endowment) They don't even charge tuition but all students must do 10 hours weekly work for the College. They grew their endowment from 150 million to a billion in 20 years. A primary focus is empowering the people of Appalachia through community and economic development. Mark P. '71 -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Brower Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 6:14 PM To: alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu Cc: Michael Brower Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Christian Skotte posted a note urging us to read the student commencement speeches. Thanks Christian for this suggestion. I just took your advice, and I am very impressed. Back in the 50's we used to talk about "Re-evaluating our basic assumptions." And it is clear that in different language, Antioch is still encouraging and teaching students to do that. My hat is off to the current faculty. They are obviously continuing in the Antioch tradition of being extra-ordinary teachers, in the best meaning of encouraging learning and full-person development. Here are my dreams-wishes for Antioch. That all students plus new grads plus older Alums all put our dreams and shoulders to helping to: 1) Get the Gates and Buffett and a dozen foundations, plus a thousand and then ten thousand other donors to build an Antioch endowment to rival that of Oberlin at 3/4 of a BILLION dollars! This means building our present endowment to about 20 times its present size! _______________________________________________ Alumni-chat mailing list Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat From skooter3 at gmail.com Wed May 16 12:23:11 2007 From: skooter3 at gmail.com (Christian Skotte) Date: Wed May 16 12:35:34 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. In-Reply-To: <000501c79792$3bfa3060$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> References: <5D314225-1AFD-48DA-9382-8A2F62B23041@comcast.net> <005c01c795f6$031e2870$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> <005d01c795f6$efc6b8e0$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> <000501c79792$3bfa3060$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> Message-ID: This article contains so many fallacies of logic that it's tough to figure out where to start. 1) "The logjam is the result of supply and demand. The number of students graduating from high school has been increasing, and the preoccupation with the top universities, once primarily a Northeastern phenomenon, has become a more national obsession." Yes, the number of students graduating from high school is increasing, but the increase is predominantly from low income students and students of color: populations who attend college at dramatically lower rates than the rest of the nation. Similarly, the "preoccupation with the top universities" is a national obsession only in very small pockets. Applications at highly selective universities continue to grow, but as a result of students applying to more and more universities. The true growth sector in Higher Ed (as measured by increases in enrollment) are at Community Colleges. Unfortunately, most of the reporting that is done is about the stresses of a relatively small number of students/families from very affluent areas. Look through this article and many of the ones like it and you'll find students quoted from places like Westchester County, NY; Bethesda, MD; or, if the writer is truly interested in the "national" obsession, Grosse Pointe, MI or Shaker Heights, OH. It is *not* a national obsession, it is an isolated obsession that is geographically dispersed. 2) "Supply, [at the most selective universities], has remained constant. Most of the sought-after universities have not expanded their freshman classes." This is a blatant fallacy. Although, as I mentioned above, most of the growth in enrollments has taken place at community colleges, the most selective universities have been increasing their offers of admission by about 8% -- which roughly mirrors the rate of increase in the population of high school graduates. 3) The "market" you identify is in applications, not in students. In that market, Antioch is doing tremendously well. For the class that entered in 2006, Antioch had a 30 year high in applications, and Antioch has gotten increasingly selective over the past five or so years. The problem is that applications aren't what is important; matriculating students (and to take a long view, generous alumni) are what is important. One can't assume that an increase in applicants leads to an increase in students. Ten years ago, most students applied to less than 5 colleges. Today, the average student applies to over 8. That means that the number of applications has increased at a dramatically faster rate than the number of actual college bound students. These types of stories report on application numbers because they are readily available this time of year. The actual number of students who enroll aren't reported by schools for a few months. But the genre of "college is so tough to get into" news articles are all published in April and May. 4) Schools like Middlebury, Kenyon, and Pomona are not "getting more selective." They've always been very selective. Again, increases in selectivity at these schools is mostly a result of students applying to more schools, not a greater demand for a liberal arts education. Antioch is considered a "More Selective" school by the Carnegie Foundation, but even if Antioch admitted every single student who applied, at most only 25% would enroll. And as the number of applications each student completes continues to rise, the percentage of admitted students who attend continues to go down. The one area that the author identifies that makes a bit of sense is this: "There are other reasons, too, why these colleges and universities find their stock climbing. To position themselves in the fiercely competitive market, they have hired stronger faculty; built new libraries, science complexes, dining halls, fitness centers and dormitories; and created international programs and interdisciplinary majors. Many have also sought to transform themselves from regional institutions to national ones, recruiting across the country." Antioch does not have the money to build new "libraries, science complexes, dining halls, fitness centers and dormitories." A (more) interdisciplinary curriculum has been instituted (of course its popularity among current students may make it more of a liability than an advantage). But we've always had top-notch international programs and we've always recruited across the country, so no room for improvement there. Considering all that Antioch has stacked against it, the place is doing amazingly well. The truism at Antioch is that there's nothing wrong with the place that a few hundred million dollars couldn't fix. Of course, every time there's a budget cut, support staff are some of the first to go. To say that the college has a skeleton student affairs staff is an insult to skeletons everywhere. Without the out-of-the-classroom support that they need, our students leave in droves. Check out Antioch's retention rates against its peer institutions: http://www.collegeresults.org/search1a.aspx?InstitutionID=201007 Pay special attention to the student of color retention rates, because, as I mentioned above, students of color are the fastest growing segment of the college bound population. Those graphs are what scare me about Antioch's future. In order to ensure Antioch's health, enrollment needs to increase. Yes the admissions office needs to continue its hard work to increase incoming student totals. But saying that Antioch is not doing well by virtue of this very flawed article is misleading. In fact, by the standards set by this article, Antioch is out-of-this-world outstanding. Application numbers have doubled! Selectivity has increased by 20%! SAT scores and GPAs are up! Quick, alert the media! Instead of providing evidence of Antioch's inability to measure up, this article simply shows how poorly reporters (yes even reporters at the New York Times) understand and report on the phenomenon of college admissions. Cheers, Skooter On 5/16/07, Mark Pomerantz wrote: > > It's pretty sad that Antioch College is not doing better in this market. > > Mark P. '71 > > May 16, 2007 > Ivy League Admissions Crunch Brings New Cachet to Next Tier > By ALAN FINDER > BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lehigh University has never been as sought after as > Stanford, Yale or Harvard. But this year, awash in applications, it > churned > out rejection letters and may break more hearts when it comes to its > waiting > list. > Call them second-tier colleges (a phrase some administrators despise) or > call them the new Ivies (this, they can live with). Twenty-five to 40 > universities like Lehigh, traditionally perceived as being a notch below > the > most elite, have seen their cachet climb because of the astonishing > competitive crush at the top. > "It's harder to get into Bowdoin now than it was to get into Princeton > when > I worked there," said William M. Shain, dean of admissions and financial > aid > at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me., who worked at Princeton in the > 1970s, > which is one of those benefiting from the spillover as the country's most > prestigious colleges turn away nearly 9 out of 10 applicants. > At Lehigh, known for its strength in engineering and business, about > 12,000 > students applied this year. That is a whopping 50 percent increase in > applications over seven years ago and more than 10 times the seats > available > in a freshman class of 1,150. The median SAT score of admitted students > has > climbed about 10 points a year in recent years, officials said. > Students have generally been quicker to adapt to the new realities than > parents have been, many guidance counselors said. > "My sense is that parents are a lot more concerned with how the name is > going to look to neighbors and family members, and there is a real sense > among parents that it's almost embarrassing if your child has to settle > for > a lower-level school," said Carolyn Lawrence, a private college counselor > and the author of a blog, AdmissionsAdvice.com. > Some students who might have readily won admission to Lehigh, Middlebury > College, Colgate University, Pomona College, Emory University or New York > University just a few years ago are now relegated to waiting lists, left > to > confront the long odds that an offer of admission might materialize over > the > next month. > John Dunham, a senior at the private Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J., > had trained his sights on Bucknell University and Lafayette College. He > was > rejected by Bucknell and put on the waiting list at Lafayette. His college > counselor pushed him toward Kenyon College in Ohio, or as the counselor > put > it "the Williams of the Midwest." > But Mr. Dunham, a solid student who played football and baseball in high > school, decided to play baseball on an athletic scholarship at Central > Connecticut State. > "People are definitely broadening their horizons, because it's gotten so > competitive," Mr. Dunham said. > The logjam is the result of supply and demand. The number of students > graduating from high school has been increasing, and the preoccupation > with > the top universities, once primarily a Northeastern phenomenon, has become > a > more national obsession. High-achieving students are also applying to more > colleges than they used to, primarily because of uncertainty over where > they > will be admitted. > Supply, however, has remained constant. Most of the sought-after > universities have not expanded their freshman classes. The result, said > Jonathan Miller, a senior at Mamaroneck High School in suburban > Westchester > County, N.Y., is that many classmates perceive institutions like Tufts > University, Bowdoin, the University of Rochester and Lehigh in a new > light. > "I would say that high school students are looking more and more at these > schools," he said, "the way they used to look at the Ivies." > An A student with good SAT scores, Mr. Miller said that he considered > applying to Brown University, among others, but that his guidance > counselor > discouraged him, emphasizing the tough odds. Mr. Miller decided instead to > apply early admission to Tufts, and by December, had been accepted. He > said > he was delighted. > Some students who have accepted offers from these colleges were rejected > by > the most prestigious universities. Others, keenly aware of the extreme > competition at the top, decided at the outset to focus on colleges more > likely to admit them. > "I'm sure part of what we're seeing is people are saying, 'Well, if the > Ivies and Duke are inaccessible, where do I go to get a similar academic > experience?' " said Jonathan Burdick, dean of admissions and financial aid > at Rochester. > There are other reasons, too, why these colleges and universities find > their > stock climbing. To position themselves in the fiercely competitive market, > they have hired stronger faculty; built new libraries, science complexes, > dining halls, fitness centers and dormitories; and created international > programs and interdisciplinary majors. Many have also sought to transform > themselves from regional institutions to national ones, recruiting across > the country. > At Middlebury, applications have increased by 1,000 in each of the last > two > years; nearly 7,200 students applied this year, compared with 5,200 in > 2005. > At Kenyon, about 4,600 students applied this year, while 2,000 did six > years > ago. Colgate received 8,752 applications this year, compared with 5,852 a > decade ago. > And at the University of Vermont, a state institution, nearly 19,000 > applications poured in this year, compared with 7,400 seven years ago. > Many > of the most prestigious public universities like Michigan and Virginia > have > also become much more selective, especially for out-of-state applicants. > The academic profile of students enrolling at these colleges is improving, > based on average SAT scores and other data. > "We're getting a remarkably gifted group of students," said Gerard P. > Lennon, associate dean in the college of engineering and applied sciences > at > Lehigh, who has taught at the university for 27 years. The median SAT > score > in the combined verbal and math parts of the test is now 1,320 out of > 1,600. > (That is not counting the writing section of the test.) > But the spillover at the second level has also created its own spillover; > some students who not long ago would have won admission to these colleges > no > longer are. > The admission rate at Pomona, in Claremont, Calif., was about 15 percent > this spring; it was 38 percent 20 years ago. Bowdoin's rate was 18.5percent > this year and 32 percent eight years ago. At Lehigh, 31 percent were > accepted this spring, compared with 47 percent in 2001. > High school guidance counselors have become the reality instructors, > encouraging students and parents to think more broadly about colleges. > "Now a kid who is applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton is also applying to > the Lehighs and Lafayettes," said Brett Levine, director of guidance at > Madison High School in New Jersey. "It's the same tier, basically." > > From tbrown at antioch.edu Wed May 16 12:24:03 2007 From: tbrown at antioch.edu (Tom Brown) Date: Wed May 16 12:35:37 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future. Message-ID: I will be out of the office until Monday, 5-22. For assistance, please contact the Antioch Helpdesk at ext.1294 or email helpdesk@antioch-college.edu From marklp2 at comcast.net Wed May 16 14:05:32 2007 From: marklp2 at comcast.net (Mark Pomerantz) Date: Wed May 16 14:17:52 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Yolanda King In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <004801c797e4$cc31c560$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> Yolanda King collapsed and died after making a speech at an event of the American Heart Association, in Atlanta, reports the Associated Press. The cause of death is uncertain, but family members believe she may have suffered from a heart condition. Ms. King was at the event raising awareness about strokes, especially among African Americans. She was 51. From mbrower32 at comcast.net Wed May 16 14:18:36 2007 From: mbrower32 at comcast.net (Michael Brower) Date: Wed May 16 14:23:13 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum Message-ID: Mark Pomerantz posted a long article from today's (May 16) New York Times Education section (Thanks, Mark, and next time please identify not only the author, but also the paper and date of publication) about the rising numbers of College applications at Ivy and other colleges, and posted his own top line above it: "It's pretty sad that Antioch College is not doing better in this market." To which Christian Skotte ("Scooter3") posted a detailed thoughtful response about the fallacies of the NYTimes article and about how Antioch is in fact dong increasingly well in applications and admissions, but not well enough with Support systems, especially for minority students, and in student retention rates. I write to fully support what Scooter wrote about Antioch's increasing success in Admissions, and to disagree (see below) with only one thing she wrote. As she wrote, Antioch Admissions totals last fall (Sept. 2006) were the highest in many many years. And I have recently been told that we are on track to duplicate those numbers next fall, although unfortunately not yet to achieve another 20-40-60% increase, which we do need every year for several years more to get up to a really viable student body size. And, as Scooter pointed out, GPA and test score levels are also rising. Alums! Organize and join local Alumni Chapters! Create Recruitment and Admissions Support Committees and Teams. Contact Admissions, even if you live in a small town or city that has no Alumni Chapter. Ask and figure out how you can help with recruitment and retention! In the New York Times article that Mark posted, there was one sentence that Scooter responded to with a comment that I disagree with. In the article it said that Colleges striving to remain competitive have: "hired stronger faculty; built new libraries, science complexes, dining halls, fitness centers and dormitories; and created international programs and interdisciplinary majors." Scooter responded, correctly I think, that "Antioch does not have the money to build new "libraries, science complexes, dining halls, fitness centers and dormitories." And Scooter then went on with a remark that I write to disagree with: "A (more) interdisciplinary curriculum has been instituted (of course its popularity among current students may make it more of a liability than an advantage)" Four comment from me on this remark, based on my 6-7 visits to Antioch in the past 2-1/2 years, during which I hang out in the Caf and coffee shop interviewing students: 1. It is true that some upperclass students who had never been in the new Freshman Core Interdisciplinary Learning Communities,complained about them. But their complaints were not based on experience, but on the fact that they had no classes together with Freshman and therefore had difficulty teaching them (indoctrinating them?) about Antioch's culture, etc. 2) The overwhelming majority of the Freshman I talked with were very enthusiastic about the new Freshman Core Interdisciplinary courses. (Example: "I am pre-med, going to become a Doctor. Later I will get my science training and medical school training. This Freshman course is exactly what I need to become a good doctor.") A very few who were disappointed had simply switched to an alternative Core course. I think on the whole, with some initial difficulties for faculty to learn how to work smoothly together across disciplines, that the new courses have been a tremendous success. 3) In response to the concerns about the Freshman courses limiting freedom of choose in the first year, and contact with upperclass students, the faculty has recently taken up (and approved?) a proposal to limit them to the first half of the first year and to start students in separate courses in the second half. 4) The faculty has also decided to continue with the self-designed majors by all students, but to provide somewhat more guidance by organizing and reccommending a number of "clusters" of courses which will help students interested in several different fields of studies. Overall, Antioch clearly needs lots more money, a deeper faculty (that are better paid!), and better student support. All the Alums who read this, please figure out how you/we can help more. (Mark - my next post is to you on this!) But I would not criticize Antioch on its current curriculum. Mike Brower '55 and Member, Alumni Board From patrick_abroad at yahoo.com Wed May 16 14:36:45 2007 From: patrick_abroad at yahoo.com (Patrick Cates) Date: Wed May 16 14:49:04 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <857504.54297.qm@web83004.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Michael Brower rightly chastizes young Skooter: > But I would not criticize Antioch on its current > curriculum. Skooter, you should know better. Antioch worked really hard to come up with a half-assed copy of Evergreen College's core programs. Hugs & kisses, Patrick Cates ____________________________________________________________________________________Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 From mbrower32 at comcast.net Wed May 16 15:27:40 2007 From: mbrower32 at comcast.net (Michael Brower) Date: Wed May 16 15:32:14 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Developing Social Entrepreneurs at Antioch Message-ID: A couple of months ago Mark Pomerantz, in commenting on Arthur Morgan's legacy for Antioch, included in a longer message, that : "other colleges are developing various forms of social entrepreneurship, developmental entrepreneurship, and other environmental and community development type programs that offer students training to be change agents as well as a potential career path(s). Antioch is basically ignoring this trend except for its service learning programs." TO Mark, and all my fellow Alums: 1) Antioch faculty are right now, even as we read, developing a new program in Environment and Ecology. (I don't remember the exact name.) Already a visiting Advisory Committee of Alums has been recruited and has held their first meeting at Antioch to help with this. 2) Antioch New England (ANE) has a world recognized Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program. Our Boston Alumni Chapter is holding a joint meeting on October 14, at Tufts University, where Steve Chase, the creator and leader of this program, will be speaking about it. You are all invited. Just please let me know. I think that Antioch College and Antioch New England would be wise to develop more cooperation in this (and other?) fields and faculty sharing. 3) Mark, your comments above about social entrepreneurship and developmental entrepreneurship are, I think, very on target. Personally I have helped to start several non-profit organizations and led one for 3 decades. When asked to describe myself, I have sometimes called myself a "social entrepreneur." When you in person described to me some months ago your interest in and passion for, this field, and your hopes that Antioch would develop a center for or at least a program in, social entrepreneurship, I heartily agreed. Now, I think it is time to face three truths about this and all other similar good, but expensive, new ideas: 1) It is a damn good idea and one which fits very well with Antioch's past, present and future. 2) Antioch does not have any surplus dollars to fund such a new program, or Fund raising leadership or staff that could go after this, given that they are struggling to cover the current huge annual deficit and to develop a REAL capital endowment. 3) This means that an Alum, any Alum, YOU, with a great idea like this, needs to go out and sell it to several foundations and millionaires (billionaires?) until you find one or more that will put up $5-10 million dollars to endow an Antioch Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Only the annual interest on the endowment could be used, so it will be ongoing, permanent, assured. I'm not much on current salaries and fringe benefits and overhead costs, nor on returns on investments. But, to take some wild guesstimates, here is a first cut. How about: A) Two faculty positions at $60,00 each per year. (This may be (probably is?) too low. B) Minimum of one support staff position at $30,000 per year. C) Equals staff total (starting) of $150,000 per year. D) Plus Fringes and Overhead (??) of 50% would equal $75,000 per year. E) Plus special student Scholarships and travel expenses of $75,000 per year. F) Equals a total of $300,000 per year Center expenses. G) IF endowed funds earn on average, good years and bad, 5%, then we need to raise a new capital endowment fund of $6 million, on which 5% per year would provide $300,000 per year in income. Whadya say, Mark. Are you game to go after raising $6 million in Capital to fund this great idea? You are both knowledgeable and passionate about this field, this idea, and Antioch. And IT IS a damn good idea, important, good fit with Antioch. Who better than you to go do this? Who will help Mark get this going? Mark and fellow Alums: If we cannot, will not, do not, step up to the plate and start hitting triples and homers like this for Antioch, there is no point, ZERO, in our complaining that Antioch is not\ developing this program, or starting that program or Center or doing this or that new and innovative. Antioch does NOT have the resources, capital or dollars. It is up to US to step up to the plate and make it happen. Who among us is up for the challenge? Here is my suggestion to all us Alums. For Each new innovation we create for Antioch, for each $100,000 we raise for Antioch, we are entitled to ONE complaint. No more than One. OK?!? Mike Brower '55, Member, Alumni Board From marklp2 at comcast.net Wed May 16 17:25:13 2007 From: marklp2 at comcast.net (Mark Pomerantz) Date: Wed May 16 17:37:32 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Developing Social Entrepreneurs at Antioch In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <008001c79800$b0ec8120$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> Mike, I'm just going to make a short answer to this because Mark Swanholm answered the same "proposal" several months ago. It is up to the administration to take these ideas to foundations and get funding. Foundations are not going to listen to well-intentioned alums. They want buy-in from the college leadership. There are exceptions, if you're in the Ivy League. The Kauffman Foundation encouraged Brown U. to apply for such a grant ($2 million) which they received and are setting up a social entrepreneurship program. Kauffman is also funding in conjunction with the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, other colleges in Ohio with liberal arts programs to do the same. These are College of Wooster, Oberlin, Baldwin-Wallace, Hiram and Lake Erie. The administration hasn't shown an interest in such a program. I have given them plenty of information, proposals, ideas, rationales. Mark Swanholm, Lisa Wellman et al also have done so. Unless some kind billionaire steps forward there is nothing else I can do. Mark P. '71 -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Brower Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 12:28 PM To: alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu Cc: Michael Brower Subject: [Alumni-chat] Developing Social Entrepreneurs at Antioch A couple of months ago Mark Pomerantz, in commenting on Arthur Morgan's legacy for Antioch, included in a longer message, that : "other colleges are developing various forms of social entrepreneurship, developmental entrepreneurship, and other environmental and community development type programs that offer students training to be change agents as well as a potential career path(s). Antioch is basically ignoring this trend except for its service learning programs." TO Mark, and all my fellow Alums: 1) Antioch faculty are right now, even as we read, developing a new program in Environment and Ecology. (I don't remember the exact name.) Already a visiting Advisory Committee of Alums has been recruited and has held their first meeting at Antioch to help with this. 2) Antioch New England (ANE) has a world recognized Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program. Our Boston Alumni Chapter is holding a joint meeting on October 14, at Tufts University, where Steve Chase, the creator and leader of this program, will be speaking about it. You are all invited. Just please let me know. I think that Antioch College and Antioch New England would be wise to develop more cooperation in this (and other?) fields and faculty sharing. 3) Mark, your comments above about social entrepreneurship and developmental entrepreneurship are, I think, very on target. Personally I have helped to start several non-profit organizations and led one for 3 decades. When asked to describe myself, I have sometimes called myself a "social entrepreneur." When you in person described to me some months ago your interest in and passion for, this field, and your hopes that Antioch would develop a center for or at least a program in, social entrepreneurship, I heartily agreed. Now, I think it is time to face three truths about this and all other similar good, but expensive, new ideas: 1) It is a damn good idea and one which fits very well with Antioch's past, present and future. 2) Antioch does not have any surplus dollars to fund such a new program, or Fund raising leadership or staff that could go after this, given that they are struggling to cover the current huge annual deficit and to develop a REAL capital endowment. 3) This means that an Alum, any Alum, YOU, with a great idea like this, needs to go out and sell it to several foundations and millionaires (billionaires?) until you find one or more that will put up $5-10 million dollars to endow an Antioch Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Only the annual interest on the endowment could be used, so it will be ongoing, permanent, assured. I'm not much on current salaries and fringe benefits and overhead costs, nor on returns on investments. But, to take some wild guesstimates, here is a first cut. How about: A) Two faculty positions at $60,00 each per year. (This may be (probably is?) too low. B) Minimum of one support staff position at $30,000 per year. C) Equals staff total (starting) of $150,000 per year. D) Plus Fringes and Overhead (??) of 50% would equal $75,000 per year. E) Plus special student Scholarships and travel expenses of $75,000 per year. F) Equals a total of $300,000 per year Center expenses. G) IF endowed funds earn on average, good years and bad, 5%, then we need to raise a new capital endowment fund of $6 million, on which 5% per year would provide $300,000 per year in income. Whadya say, Mark. Are you game to go after raising $6 million in Capital to fund this great idea? You are both knowledgeable and passionate about this field, this idea, and Antioch. And IT IS a damn good idea, important, good fit with Antioch. Who better than you to go do this? Who will help Mark get this going? Mark and fellow Alums: If we cannot, will not, do not, step up to the plate and start hitting triples and homers like this for Antioch, there is no point, ZERO, in our complaining that Antioch is not\ developing this program, or starting that program or Center or doing this or that new and innovative. Antioch does NOT have the resources, capital or dollars. It is up to US to step up to the plate and make it happen. Who among us is up for the challenge? Here is my suggestion to all us Alums. For Each new innovation we create for Antioch, for each $100,000 we raise for Antioch, we are entitled to ONE complaint. No more than One. OK?!? Mike Brower '55, Member, Alumni Board _______________________________________________ Alumni-chat mailing list Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat From mbrower32 at comcast.net Wed May 16 23:38:55 2007 From: mbrower32 at comcast.net (Michael Brower) Date: Wed May 16 23:43:32 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Developing Social Entrepreneurs at Antioch Message-ID: <9F8331A7-1937-432E-86A8-BBA7EF4B2866@comcast.net> Earlier today Mark Pomerantz wrote a response to my post about he and other Alums having to go find millionaires and billionaires or foundations willing to fund whole new programs and centers, even including one as potentially valuable as his idea of a Center or Program to develop Social Entrepreneurs. Mark wrote: "It is up to the administration to take these ideas to foundations and get funding. Foundations are not going to listen to well-intentioned alums. They want buy-in from the college leadership." Mark, I apologize for not making myself clear. Of course foundations or other wealthy donors want buy-in from the college leadership. I should have been more clear about this. You are right. But you closed your post by writing: "Unless some kind billionaire steps forward there is nothing else I can do." And that is where I disagree with you. Of course there is something else you, and other Alums can do. YOU go find that billionaire or a foundation, or that group of well-heeled and willing donors interested in your new idea, your new program, which I agree has merit. When you have a potential funding source seriously interested, THEN you go to President Steve Lawry, and/or a new Dean of Faculty, and/or a faculty Committee, and/or AdCil with your great idea, backed by potential funding, and THEN you will see serious interest. And if you want, I will go with you, and help you make the appointments. But until you show that potential funding, you are putting the cart before the horse. You hoped and expected and still apparently expect that President Steve Lawry and his tiny over-stretched staff, working day and night to try to balance the books and keep Antioch afloat, would drop all that work, would set it aside, in order to approach many many foundations and donors trying to sell them on a whole new idea. Antioch just simply does not have the staff and resources to do both right now. In other messages posted here you have suggested Antioch look at Berea College in Kentucky, and Oberlin and other competitors. Did you know that Berea has an endowment of $1 BILLION? And Oberlin an endowment of about (not exactly) 3/4 Billion? Somebody please post the current Antioch endowment. What is it? Around $30 Million? Not even 1/20th the endowment, not even 5% of the endowment, of Oberlin. Mark, when you and I and other Alums go out and raise the huge additional endowment money needed to launch exciting new programs -- then they become possible. But not until then. Don't lay this expectation on Lawry and other staff. They are trying to balance the budget and keep Antioch alive. This bold new expansion to the future is YOUR job and mine and all of ours. So, go find that new money. And then you and I will go to Steve and AdCil and the Faculty and the Chancellor and, if necessary the Board of Trustees, and they will study it and shape it and mold it to fit the Antioch priorities as they see them, and THEN they will be fully involved with the donors and foundations. -- Mike Brower '55, Member, Alumni Board From marklp2 at comcast.net Thu May 17 00:08:00 2007 From: marklp2 at comcast.net (Mark Pomerantz) Date: Thu May 17 00:20:20 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Developing Social Entrepreneurs at Antioch In-Reply-To: <9F8331A7-1937-432E-86A8-BBA7EF4B2866@comcast.net> References: <9F8331A7-1937-432E-86A8-BBA7EF4B2866@comcast.net> Message-ID: <00b701c79838$f5b09750$0301a8c0@home84c77b9b4f> Mike, I'm trying to be patient and respectful, but I'm sorry. I don't buy the argument that alums have to come up with the ideas and raise all the money too, while the administration just does crisis management. I told you about the Kauffman Campus Initiatives Program and what they are doing with Ohio Colleges. I've offered to work on behalf of the College on these ideas with other foundations also, but I need the College's support. I can't just go off on my own. That's not the way things work in the real world. Mark P. '71 -----Original Message----- From: alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu [mailto:alumni-chat-bounces@w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Brower Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 8:39 PM To: alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu Cc: Michael Brower Subject: [Alumni-chat] Developing Social Entrepreneurs at Antioch Earlier today Mark Pomerantz wrote a response to my post about he and other Alums having to go find millionaires and billionaires or foundations willing to fund whole new programs and centers, even including one as potentially valuable as his idea of a Center or Program to develop Social Entrepreneurs. Mark wrote: "It is up to the administration to take these ideas to foundations and get funding. Foundations are not going to listen to well-intentioned alums. They want buy-in from the college leadership." Mark, I apologize for not making myself clear. Of course foundations or other wealthy donors want buy-in from the college leadership. I should have been more clear about this. You are right. But you closed your post by writing: "Unless some kind billionaire steps forward there is nothing else I can do." And that is where I disagree with you. Of course there is something else you, and other Alums can do. YOU go find that billionaire or a foundation, or that group of well-heeled and willing donors interested in your new idea, your new program, which I agree has merit. When you have a potential funding source seriously interested, THEN you go to President Steve Lawry, and/or a new Dean of Faculty, and/or a faculty Committee, and/or AdCil with your great idea, backed by potential funding, and THEN you will see serious interest. And if you want, I will go with you, and help you make the appointments. But until you show that potential funding, you are putting the cart before the horse. You hoped and expected and still apparently expect that President Steve Lawry and his tiny over-stretched staff, working day and night to try to balance the books and keep Antioch afloat, would drop all that work, would set it aside, in order to approach many many foundations and donors trying to sell them on a whole new idea. Antioch just simply does not have the staff and resources to do both right now. In other messages posted here you have suggested Antioch look at Berea College in Kentucky, and Oberlin and other competitors. Did you know that Berea has an endowment of $1 BILLION? And Oberlin an endowment of about (not exactly) 3/4 Billion? Somebody please post the current Antioch endowment. What is it? Around $30 Million? Not even 1/20th the endowment, not even 5% of the endowment, of Oberlin. Mark, when you and I and other Alums go out and raise the huge additional endowment money needed to launch exciting new programs -- then they become possible. But not until then. Don't lay this expectation on Lawry and other staff. They are trying to balance the budget and keep Antioch alive. This bold new expansion to the future is YOUR job and mine and all of ours. So, go find that new money. And then you and I will go to Steve and AdCil and the Faculty and the Chancellor and, if necessary the Board of Trustees, and they will study it and shape it and mold it to fit the Antioch priorities as they see them, and THEN they will be fully involved with the donors and foundations. -- Mike Brower '55, Member, Alumni Board _______________________________________________ Alumni-chat mailing list Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat From tbrown at antioch.edu Thu May 17 00:08:53 2007 From: tbrown at antioch.edu (Tom Brown) Date: Thu May 17 00:20:29 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Re: Alumni-chat Digest, Vol 3, Issue 3 Message-ID: I will be out of the office until Monday, 5-22. For assistance, please contact the Antioch Helpdesk at ext.1294 or email helpdesk@antioch-college.edu From christian.feuerstein at gmail.com Thu May 17 09:53:41 2007 From: christian.feuerstein at gmail.com (Christian Feuerstein) Date: Thu May 17 10:06:03 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Re: Alumni-chat Digest, Vol 3, Issue 3 In-Reply-To: <20070517042022.E60485FCD97A@w3.antioch.edu> References: <20070517042022.E60485FCD97A@w3.antioch.edu> Message-ID: <45e83e2c0705170653j201d11f2w904c4bdaa9bf2ec3@mail.gmail.com> A couple of responses to Mike Brower (hi, Mike): 1) "Skooter" Christian is a he. Me, the "Christian" that's writing this, is a she. I'm sure "Skooter" isn't offended by being called "she," but I want to make sure that everyone can tell the Christian(s) apart. 2) Mike, I'm sure your suggestion that for every $xxx an alum brings in, they're entitled to one complaint, was completely facetious. But just on the off chance it wasn't, I feel I need to respond: Mike, I understand your frustration with alums who seemingly complain and aren't creating positive, measurable change. However, to say that alums don't get a dissenting voice unless they pony up $xxx is, at the very least, dismissive. I would also hasten to add that Mike's position is not the official position of the Alumni Board, as indeed my comment is also not its official statement. (Please don't get me wrong: alums, pony up! We need your contributions more than ever. If you can't contribute monetarily, recruit for Antioch--we need students! Go out and find co-op jobs! Promote the school!) Antioch is predicated on social justice and social change. To suggest that alums can't make constructive criticism, bounce around ideas, or point out perceived flaws without a certain amount of cash in hand isn't what Antioch stands for. I still want to exhort everyone on this list to contribute funds, time and effort to Antioch. Currently my husband (Michael Heffernan, class of '96--happens to be a candidate for the Alumni Board--INSERT BLATANT HINT ABOUT VOTING HERE) and I have worked with Baltimore-area businesses to start co-op positions, we're housing a current student, and we're involved in area student recruiting. This has been an unmitigated joy. I think Mike would also agree that hanging out with the current students makes one thrilled to be an Antiochian, and gets one really invigorated for the college. Go ahead and make your complaints. Go ahead and tell us your ideas for the future of Antioch. But, balance with direct help to the college as well! Christian Feuerstein, Class of 1994, and Alumni Board Member From mbrower32 at comcast.net Thu May 17 10:16:23 2007 From: mbrower32 at comcast.net (Michael Brower) Date: Thu May 17 10:21:00 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] New Programs for Antioch: Private Entrepreneurship, or Social Entrepreneurship (or Both?) Message-ID: To Mark Pomerantz (and also everyone, Mark, I can tell you are getting angry with me about your belief that Steve Lawry and Antioch have failed to adopt your idea of developing a program in Social Entrepreneurship and to aggrssively go after funding for it . But I really don?t understand why. As I told you in person, and have written here twice, I think this is a wonderful idea, fully in harmony with Antioch's history and values. You wrote yesterday that ?if you're in the Ivy League. The Kauffman Foundation encouraged Brown U. to apply for such a grant ($2 million) which they received and are setting up a social entrepreneurship program. Kauffman is also funding in conjunction with the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, other colleges in Ohio with liberal arts programs to do the same.? Well, we are not Ivy League, but we are in Ohio. So I went to the Burton D. Morgan web site to learn more about them. Here is what they say: The Burton D. Morgan Foundation ?The purpose of the foundation is ?the preservation of the free enterprise system?to help preserve what we have in this country.? -- August 29, 1994 ?The foundation?s?aim is to preserve the private enterprise system, which is America?s number one advantage over the rest of the world.? -- Draft Memoirs, 2003 --- ?2004 The Burton D. Morgan Foundation. Revised: April 26, 2006 Are you saying that this foundation is a good source for funding a program on Social Entrepreneurship at Antioch? That their values are in harmony with ours? ?Private Enterprise System. . .America?s number one advantage over the rest of the world??!? Well, then I guessed that maybe I just don?t understand Social Entrepreneurship. So I went to Wikipedia. I admit that this is not necessarily the best or most authoritative source. But here is their definition: ?Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors.? Sure doesn?t sound much to me like the philosophy of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation!! But, despite this, I also dug deeper into their list of recent grants. And on first check I could not find a single example of their supporting Social Entrepreneurship. Mark ? this is your field. You are an expert. Would you please give me and us your definition of Social Entrepreneurship? And explain to me if despite the above Burton Foundation strongly free enterprise statement, clearly oriented towards the private sector and preserving America?s dominant place in the world as a bastion of Free Enterprise, that they are in fact a good bet to fund such a Social Entrepreneurship program at Antioch? Further, if you can do some research and give me, here or privately, the names and telephone numbers of officers or employees ot this or other Foundations that are genuinely interested in Social Entrepreneurship, I will invest further of my own time and effort, and inquire, on behalf of Antioch, about their interest and criteria and grant procedures. And if there seems to be some potential for a good fit with Antioch?s traditions and values, I will find a way to pass this information on to whoever the appropriate people are today at Antioch and to offer my help with further explorations by them. Finally, I am still puzzled. I cannot understand why, but you appear to be angry, or at least upset, that Steve Lawry has not dropped his other hard work in fund raising for paying current faculty salaries, to instead spend his time in exploring and researching and initiating these possible new directions. Is that correct? Please tell me it is NOT so, and that you agree with me that we want Steve and his thin staff to continue working hard to keep Antioch?s faculty paid and the doors open. And that instead we Alums must do much of this preliminary ground work if we want Antioch to launch major new initiatives and to find major new funding sources. Someday, after you and I and others have raised the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars for Antioch to match the endowments of Berea and Oberlin, Antioch can hire a large Development staff and you and I can sit back and relax!. But not yet! -- Mike Brower ?55, Member, Alumni Board From bdevine at antioch-college.edu Mon May 21 09:45:55 2007 From: bdevine at antioch-college.edu (Robert Devine) Date: Mon May 21 09:57:49 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum In-Reply-To: <857504.54297.qm@web83004.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <857504.54297.qm@web83004.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Patrick, I'm guessing from your gloss that you don't know much about the program that the faculty put in place. The integration of experience, both co-op and community service, the co-op communities, the "place as text" coursework, the on-line courses and the variety of strategies faculty have used to bridge and integrate the disciplines in the Core courses make our program anything but "a half-assed copy of Evergreen College's core programs". Don't forget that Antioch's co-op program was at first considered a "copy" of existing pre-professional cooperative work programs. In hindsight that proved to be a shallow assessment. Bob Alumni Chat List on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 2:36 PM -0500 wrote: >Michael Brower rightly chastizes young Skooter: >> But I would not criticize Antioch on its current >> curriculum. > >Skooter, you should know better. Antioch worked really >hard to come up with a half-assed copy of Evergreen >College's core programs. > >Hugs & kisses, > >Patrick Cates > > > >____________________________________________________________________________________Be >a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who >knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. >http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 >_______________________________________________ >Alumni-chat mailing list >Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu >http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat Robert H. Devine College Professor Antioch College Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr From patrick_abroad at yahoo.com Mon May 21 10:56:54 2007 From: patrick_abroad at yahoo.com (Patrick Cates) Date: Mon May 21 11:11:07 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <627241.7989.qm@web83010.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Oh Bob, lighten up. Sure, you nailed me. I know next to nothing about Antioch's newest new curriculum. I do know something about Antioch though. Based on past curriculum revisions, I give this one about 5 years. And then, we'll hear about how the NEW new new ... curriculum is so innovative and sure to turn the school around. 800 by 1990! Wait, what year is it? Marx's glib remark about Napoleon III is fitting: History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. --Patrick Cates --- Robert Devine wrote: > Patrick, > > I'm guessing from your gloss that you don't know > much about the program > that the faculty put in place. The integration of > experience, both co-op > and community service, the co-op communities, the > "place as text" > coursework, the on-line courses and the variety of > strategies faculty have > used to bridge and integrate the disciplines in the > Core courses make our > program anything but "a half-assed copy of Evergreen > College's core > programs". Don't forget that Antioch's co-op > program was at first > considered a "copy" of existing pre-professional > cooperative work > programs. In hindsight that proved to be a shallow > assessment. > > Bob > > > > Alumni Chat List on > Wednesday, May 16, 2007 > at 2:36 PM -0500 wrote: > >Michael Brower rightly chastizes young Skooter: > >> But I would not criticize Antioch on its > current > >> curriculum. > > > >Skooter, you should know better. Antioch worked > really > >hard to come up with a half-assed copy of Evergreen > >College's core programs. > > > >Hugs & kisses, > > > >Patrick Cates > > > > > > > >____________________________________________________________________________________Be > >a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship > answers from someone who > >knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. > >http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 > >_______________________________________________ > >Alumni-chat mailing list > >Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu > >http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat > > > > Robert H. Devine > College Professor > Antioch College > Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 > > Our lives begin to end > the day we become silent > about things that matter" > > - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr > > > _______________________________________________ > Alumni-chat mailing list > Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu > http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat > ____________________________________________________________________________________Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC From mbrower32 at comcast.net Mon May 21 16:38:28 2007 From: mbrower32 at comcast.net (Michael Brower) Date: Mon May 21 16:43:18 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Patrick Cates Problems with Antioch Message-ID: Early this month Patrick Cates complained that Antioch's first year core curriculum is just a "half-assed copy" of Evergreen's. Now he wants Bob Devine to lighten up. Patrick, I have four questions for you: 1. What is your gripe with Antioch? 2. What specific suggestions have you for improving Antioch's curriculum, learning experiences, student recruitment, retention, fund raising, etc., etc.? 3. What specifically are you yourself doing, or have you done recently, to help Antioch thrive, grow, survive, become again an excellent model for all of higher education, etc., etc.? 4. By the way, what years were you at Antioch? Thanks for caring about our beloved Antioch. But please lighten up yourself. And start helping. Or let us know how you are now helping and how we can ourselves help more. Mike Brower '55, Member, Alumni Board From bdevine at antioch-college.edu Mon May 21 21:14:20 2007 From: bdevine at antioch-college.edu (Robert Devine) Date: Mon May 21 21:26:17 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum In-Reply-To: <627241.7989.qm@web83010.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <627241.7989.qm@web83010.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Patrick, Lighten up? You pronounce judgement on the work of the faculty as "half-assed" -- without even being familiar with the new curriculum -- and then suggest that I lighten up because I have dared to point out your lack of familiarity? And then you recycle the canonical story of Antioch's failure(s). The late Steven Gould said it best in a piece he wrote on "Jim Bowie's Letter and Bill Buckner's Legs": "In other words, and to summarize my principal theme in a phrase, canonical stories predictably 'drive' facts into definite and distorted pathways that validate the outlines and necessary components of these archetypal tales. We therefore fail to note important items in plain sight, while we misread other facts by forcing them into preset mental channels, even when we retain a buried memory of actual events." In the spirit of moving forward toward Antioch's future, I'd like to see you respond to Mike Brower's questions. Bob Alumni Chat List on Monday, May 21, 2007 at 10:56 AM -0500 wrote: >Oh Bob, lighten up. Sure, you nailed me. I know next >to nothing about Antioch's newest new curriculum. I >do know something about Antioch though. Based on past >curriculum revisions, I give this one about 5 years. >And then, we'll hear about how the NEW new new ... >curriculum is so innovative and sure to turn the >school around. 800 by 1990! Wait, what year is it? >Marx's glib remark about Napoleon III is fitting: >History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as >farce. > >--Patrick Cates > > > >--- Robert Devine wrote: > >> Patrick, >> >> I'm guessing from your gloss that you don't know >> much about the program >> that the faculty put in place. The integration of >> experience, both co-op >> and community service, the co-op communities, the >> "place as text" >> coursework, the on-line courses and the variety of >> strategies faculty have >> used to bridge and integrate the disciplines in the >> Core courses make our >> program anything but "a half-assed copy of Evergreen >> College's core >> programs". Don't forget that Antioch's co-op >> program was at first >> considered a "copy" of existing pre-professional >> cooperative work >> programs. In hindsight that proved to be a shallow >> assessment. >> >> Bob >> >> >> >> Alumni Chat List on >> Wednesday, May 16, 2007 >> at 2:36 PM -0500 wrote: >> >Michael Brower rightly chastizes young Skooter: >> >> But I would not criticize Antioch on its >> current >> >> curriculum. >> > >> >Skooter, you should know better. Antioch worked >> really >> >hard to come up with a half-assed copy of Evergreen >> >College's core programs. >> > >> >Hugs & kisses, >> > >> >Patrick Cates >> > >> > >> > >> >>____________________________________________________________________________________Be >> >a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship >> answers from someone who >> >knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. >> >>http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 >> >_______________________________________________ >> >Alumni-chat mailing list >> >Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu >> >http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat >> >> >> >> Robert H. Devine >> College Professor >> Antioch College >> Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 >> >> Our lives begin to end >> the day we become silent >> about things that matter" >> >> - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Alumni-chat mailing list >> Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu >> http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat >> > > > > >____________________________________________________________________________________Yahoo! >oneSearch: Finally, mobile search >that gives answers, not web links. >http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC >_______________________________________________ >Alumni-chat mailing list >Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu >http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat Robert H. Devine College Professor Antioch College Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr From patrick_abroad at yahoo.com Mon May 21 22:54:01 2007 From: patrick_abroad at yahoo.com (Patrick Cates) Date: Mon May 21 23:06:46 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <312394.89489.qm@web83015.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Oh Bob, I'm not going to get drawn into another fruitless pissing match with you. You're absolutely right, the last several plans have been each one more successfull than the last and Antioch has never been stronger academically, financially, politically, militarilly etc. etc. Patrick '90-98 --- Robert Devine wrote: > Patrick, > > Lighten up? You pronounce judgement on the work of > the faculty as > "half-assed" -- without even being familiar with the > new curriculum -- and > then suggest that I lighten up because I have dared > to point out your lack > of familiarity? And then you recycle the canonical > story of Antioch's > failure(s). The late Steven Gould said it best in a > piece he wrote on > "Jim Bowie's Letter and Bill Buckner's Legs": > > "In other words, and to summarize my principal theme > in a phrase, > canonical stories predictably 'drive' facts into > definite and distorted > pathways that validate the outlines and necessary > components of these > archetypal tales. We therefore fail to note > important items in plain > sight, while we misread other facts by forcing them > into preset mental > channels, even when we retain a buried memory of > actual events." > > In the spirit of moving forward toward Antioch's > future, I'd like to see > you respond to Mike Brower's questions. > > Bob ____________________________________________________________________________________ The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php From brian at tangent.org Mon May 21 23:31:15 2007 From: brian at tangent.org (Brian Aker) Date: Mon May 21 23:44:04 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum In-Reply-To: References: <627241.7989.qm@web83010.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Hi! On May 21, 2007, at 6:14 PM, Robert Devine wrote: > "half-assed" -- without even being familiar with the new curriculum > -- and While I can not assess the new curriculum without more information, it does seem like every few years there is an attempt at a solution by changing the curriculum or going from a semester to a quarter system. I spoke out at the Faculty meeting in '94 and commented at the time that the switch to a quarter system wouldn't make a difference in my own view of the school. I personally picked Antioch over Evergreen in large part do to what I believed, and still believe, was the better approach Antioch had to curriculum. As alumnus I hear "new curriculum", and it sounds like the same solution that has been tried over and over. I can see where it would inspire Faculty, but I don't see reasons why it would change the mind of an entering student (or a parent writing a check). It would be interesting to see a published list of what the students thought would make the school more attractive. Finding out attrition statistics or hearing about why someone did not choose Antioch would also be interesting. Cheers, -Brian -- _______________________________________________________ Brian "Krow" Aker, brian at tangent.org Seattle, Washington http://krow.net/ http://tangent.org/ _______________________________________________________ You can't grep a dead tree. From rgrimes at antioch-college.edu Mon May 21 23:32:16 2007 From: rgrimes at antioch-college.edu (Risa Grimes) Date: Mon May 21 23:44:12 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Re: Alumni-chat Digest, Vol 3, Issue 4 Message-ID: I am on vacation until Tuesday, May 29th and will return your email at that time. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Aimee Maruyama at amaruyama@antioch-college.edu or call her at 1-800-411-6780. From yazz at 230volts.net Tue May 22 01:05:06 2007 From: yazz at 230volts.net (Yazz D. Atlas) Date: Tue May 22 01:18:00 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Where should I find information... In-Reply-To: References: <627241.7989.qm@web83010.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <6CE667C7-1E57-4965-B857-0A53669CFFE7@230volts.net> Could someone point me to a document that could clearly explain the "Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum". Navigating the official Antioch College website I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for. I want to be able to explain to someone what Antioch is doing right now. Not how it was when I was a student. Some other items I'd like more information about: Is there a URL out there that can explain theses Co-op communities? With maybe some comparative selling note / points to help Alumni explain this to a prospective student or parent? http://antioch-college.edu/Co-op/ "...Your three co-op experiences will be in co-op communities..." Does that mean a student who found or wants a job as a Green River guide could not take the job in Utah or Wyoming? I don't see those states listed as having a co-op community ( http://antioch-college.edu/co-op/communities/ index.html ). A student would need to wait till there 4th and optional vacation / co-op period to do a job outside the co-op communities is what it sounds like. This makes me wonder how many diverse jobs are offered in these co-op communities. Will a student with a focus in Theater have as many choices as someone who is focused in Philosophy, Communications, or Painting? http://antioch-college.edu/Co-op The Co-op url has a nice link to a PDF file that does a good job showing how Antioch is only listed once. Bellow is a sorted list that counted each time a school was named. 1 Allegheny College (PA) 5 Alverno College (WI) 3 Amherst College (MA) 1 Antioch College (OH) 2 Appalachian State University (NC)* 1 Arcadia University (PA) 1 Arizona State University* 1 Augsburg College (MN) 1 Ball State University (IN)* 2 Beloit College (WI) 2 Berea College (KY) 2 Bowling Green State University (OH)* 1 Brevard College (NC) 2 Brown University (RI) 1 Butler University (IN) 1 Cal Poly?San Luis Obispo* 1 California Institute of Technology 1 California State U.?Long Beach* 1 California State University?Monterey Bay* 2 Calvin College (MI) 4 Carleton College (MN) 1 Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 1 Central College (IA) 1 Clemson University (SC)* 2 College of Wooster (OH) 1 College of the Holy Cross (MA) 1 Cornell University (NY) 1 Dartmouth College (NH) 1 Davidson College (NC) 1 DePaul University (IL) 1 Dickinson College (PA) 1 Drexel University (PA) 1 Drury University (MO) 5 Duke University (NC) 2 Earlham College (IN) 1 Eckerd College (FL) 7 Elon University (NC) 2 Evergreen State College (WA)* 1 Furman University (SC) 1 George Mason University (VA)* 1 Georgetown University (DC) 1 Georgia Institute of Technology* 1 Georgia State University* 1 Goshen College (IN) 2 Grinnell College (IA) 3 Harvard University (MA) 1 Harvey Mudd College (CA) 1 Hope College (MI) 3 Indiana U.-Purdue U.?Indianapolis* 3 Indiana University?Bloomington* 1 Iowa State University* 1 James Madison University (VA)* 1 Johns Hopkins University (MD) 2 Kalamazoo College (MI) 2 Kennesaw State University (GA)* 1 Kettering University (MI) 1 Lawrence University (WI) 1 Macalester College (MN) 1 Marquette University (WI) 2 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 1 Miami University?Oxford (OH)* 2 Michigan State University* 2 Middlebury College (VT) 1 Millsaps College (MS) 1 New York University 1 North Carolina State U.?Raleigh* 1 Northeastern University (MA) 1 Oberlin College (OH) 1 Ohio State University?Columbus* 5 Portland State University (OR)* 4 Princeton University (NJ) 2 Reed College (OR) 1 Rochester Inst. of Technology (NY) 1 SUNY?Stony Brook* 1 Santa Clara University (CA) 1 Sarah Lawrence College (NY) 1 Southern Illinois U.?Edwardsville* 1 St. John?s College (MD) 1 St. John?s College (NM) 1 St. Olaf College (MN) 4 Stanford University (CA) 2 Swarthmore College (PA) 2 Syracuse University (NY) 1 Temple University (PA)* 1 Texas A&M Univ.?College Station* 1 Trinity College (CT) 2 Truman State University (MO)* 2 U. of North Carolina?Asheville* 2 U. of North Carolina?Chapel Hill* 1 United States Military Academy (NY)* 1 Univ. of California?Los Angeles* 2 Univ. of Maryland?College Park* 2 Univ. of Minnesota?Twin Cities* 2 Univ. of Missouri?Columbia* 1 Univ. of South Carolina?Columbia* 1 Univ. of Wisconsin?Eau Claire* 2 Univ. of Wisconsin?Madison* 1 University of California?Berkeley* 1 University of California?Irvine* 2 University of Chicago 1 University of Cincinnati* 1 University of Delaware* 1 University of Iowa* 4 University of Michigan?Ann Arbor* 4 University of Notre Dame (IN) 1 University of Pennsylvania 1 University of Puget Sound (WA) 1 University of Texas?Austin* 1 University of Utah* 3 University of Washington* 1 Valparaiso University (IN) 1 Vanderbilt University (TN) 2 Wagner College (NY) 1 Warren Wilson College (NC) 1 Washington State University* 1 Willamette University (OR) 1 William Jewell College (MO) 1 Williams College (MA) 1 Yale University (CT) If I was a parent looking at the PDF file I would start looking at these schools: 7 Elon University (NC) 5 Portland State University (OR)* 5 Alverno College (WI) Its great that we got added to the list but the overall list doesn't really do much for Antioch does it? The PDF shows where Antioch is not listed... I did notice the names Antioch is using to describe the current academic programs that now are offered are on this list. "INTERNSHIPS / CO-OPS", "SENIOR CAPSTONE", "LEARNING COMMUNITIES", "STUDY ABROAD". So hopefully the near future next the college will find its way into on of the three other academic programs. The list came out in 2005, was this around the same time the latest academic program changes happened? Or was this already in the works before the list? http://antioch-college.edu/co-op/communities/index.html This whole "Place as Text" idea sounds interesting but at the same time bizzarr ..." During the first co-op students take ?Place as Context: Learning from Community". During the second co-op students build upon that experience in "Place as Membership: Engaging with Community. Finally, during their third co-op students take "Place as Inquiry: Contributing to Community."" I get the feeling that these "Places" are imaginary ideals and the jobs would traps with wages between $8 to $12 as recommended on the "Employers" page. If the job doesn't match the student is that where the co-op community comes in to help place them in a second job if needed? Could students take a second job if they need to make more money then what is possible at the co-op job? http://antioch-college.edu/co-op/current/index.html The link for "Current Students" is more for students they anyone else right, it would be better served off a student only web site. The multiple PDF's are short and do not help a prospective student much. The files might help the competition more actually since your giving away your forms, process and procedures. Mentioning the FirstClass Desktop on the page just proves this information should be located some place else since only current students and staff have access to the FirstClass Desktop. I do find myself recommending Antioch but have little knowledge of the current changes. I don't want to to keep saying "when I was there ... but now thats changed to ...". It ends up sounding like I'm making an apology for even bring up the idea of going to Antioch. So instead of telling people about Antioch I chose to point them at the college website and hope they do a better job navigating and understand it better then I did. Its the first exposure to many prospective parents and student. -Yazz D. Atlas 97' http://antirecord.org PS: As for what I'm doing for Antioch, I run AntiRecord.org on my personal servers. Trying to build a virtual community outside of Antioch College for Antioch Alumni, Students, and Faculty. Everybody here is welcome to post or leave comments. If you disagree or agree with a story or posting leave a comment. Silence doesn't seem to lead to change from what I've seen... From christian.feuerstein at gmail.com Tue May 22 09:06:29 2007 From: christian.feuerstein at gmail.com (Christian Feuerstein) Date: Tue May 22 09:19:20 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Reunion 2007 Auction, ahoy! Message-ID: <45e83e2c0705220606h22a7cb89r4ff5de62168c9218@mail.gmail.com> Hello everyone! We have some items up for the Auction for the 2007 Reunion! If you would point your browsers here: http://antioch-college.edu/Alumni/reunion/2007/auction2007.html ...then you can start checking out the fabby things that will be auctioned to help raise money for Antioch College! We've got even more stuff to put up, so bookmark this page and start plotting how you're going to outbid your friends. Also...have you an item that you would like to donate? It's not too late! Email your item description and photo to Kristen Pett '90 at klpett@sbcglobal.net, or me at christian.feuerstein@gmail.com, and then we'll tell you how to send it along for the auction. Thanks tons, everyone, and happy bidding! Best, Christian Feuerstein '94 (and Alumni Board member) From bdevine at antioch-college.edu Tue May 22 09:24:27 2007 From: bdevine at antioch-college.edu (Robert Devine) Date: Tue May 22 09:36:26 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Brian, I remember you speaking to the faculty in '94, and clearly remember the reservations that you and other students cited. We switched from the quarter to the trimester system in 95-96 for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was high student attrition. The quarter system, without a summer study term, was a disaster for student continuity and community cohesiveness. Every student was on a different sequence, and students had to re-invent social networks every time they returned to campus, in addition to completing the work for four courses in what was essentially 10 weeks. The calendar shift, like many changes, was a compromise to (a) reduce the skyrocketing attrition by having more consistently defined "divisions", (b) to maintain the integrity and reliability of the alternating co-operative learning model by implementing a summer academic term term to make true alternation possible, and (c) to strengthen the academic program by lengthening the weeks of actual course delivery. The long and short of it is that the calendar change was successful in addressing these issues. In 1996 enrollment was 509; by 2001 it was 650 FTE (an 800 "headcount" including AEA and non-matrics). In 1996 attrition had risen to 34%; by 2001 it was in a comfortable 12-18% range. There's another way to think about the current -- and past and future -- "new curriculi" at the College. The curriculum of a liberal arts institution like Antioch has to evolve to stay current and competitive. Think about the changes that have taken place in your field since you graduated from Antioch! The knowledge, the pedagogical approach to delivery and the organization have to be constantly changing, sometimes incrementally, and sometimes in larger scale paradigm shifts. We can call such shifts a "new curriculum", but the truth is that the College's curriculum has to be constantly undergoing change to keep up with the changes in disciplines/interdisciplines, the best practices of undergraduate teaching and learning, the characteristics of our learners (e.g. How many students came to Antioch with a laptop, cell and ipod array when you were a student?), and whatever vision we might have of what's ahead. I'm among those who would rather not use such changes as the centerpiece of fundraising, but that's another story. Antioch simply can't be the same Antioch it was when you went to school here (let alone when I attended the College). It has to reinvent itself with the most creative energy it can muster. Since it lacks critical resources, that usually means the sweat equity of faculty, administrators, staff and students. When we stretch ourselves out to go through these reinvention processes, while continuing to deliver the existing program to current students, it's a little demoralizing to be told that our work is "half-assed". We're putting everything we have into building the future for this amazing institution, and Mike Brower is speaking the absolute truth in suggesting that we need help in doing so. Bob Alumni Chat List on Monday, May 21, 2007 at 11:31 PM -0500 wrote: >Hi! > >On May 21, 2007, at 6:14 PM, Robert Devine wrote: > >> "half-assed" -- without even being familiar with the new curriculum >> -- and > >While I can not assess the new curriculum without more information, >it does seem like every few years there is an attempt at a solution >by changing the curriculum or going from a semester to a quarter >system. I spoke out at the Faculty meeting in '94 and commented at >the time that the switch to a quarter system wouldn't make a >difference in my own view of the school. I personally picked Antioch >over Evergreen in large part do to what I believed, and still >believe, was the better approach Antioch had to curriculum. > >As alumnus I hear "new curriculum", and it sounds like the same >solution that has been tried over and over. I can see where it would >inspire Faculty, but I don't see reasons why it would change the mind >of an entering student (or a parent writing a check). > >It would be interesting to see a published list of what the students >thought would make the school more attractive. Finding out attrition >statistics or hearing about why someone did not choose Antioch would >also be interesting. > >Cheers, > -Brian > >-- >_______________________________________________________ >Brian "Krow" Aker, brian at tangent.org >Seattle, Washington >http://krow.net/ >http://tangent.org/ >_______________________________________________________ >You can't grep a dead tree. > > >_______________________________________________ >Alumni-chat mailing list >Alumni-chat@w3.antioch.edu >http://w3.antioch.edu/mailman/listinfo/alumni-chat Robert H. Devine College Professor Antioch College Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr From bdevine at antioch-college.edu Tue May 22 09:42:52 2007 From: bdevine at antioch-college.edu (Robert Devine) Date: Tue May 22 09:54:50 2007 Subject: [Alumni-chat] Where should I find information... In-Reply-To: <6CE667C7-1E57-4965-B857-0A53669CFFE7@230volts.net> References: <6CE667C7-1E57-4965-B857-0A53669CFFE7@230volts.net> Message-ID: Alumni Chat List on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 1:05 AM -0500 wrote: >Could someone point me to a document that could clearly explain the >"Antioch Interdisciplinary First Year Curriculum". Navigating the >official Antioch College website I haven't found exactly what I'm >looking for. >I want to be able to explain to someone what Antioch is doing right >now. Not how it was when I was a student. Yazz, I can't off the top of my head point you to a single document. There are a number of documents in fact, that the faculty has been working on throughout this year -- alongside the simultaneous delivery of the second round of the First year Program. I'll have to snurfle around the website and listservs to find the documents, and that might take a little time. To give you some idea of what the Core program looks like, I'm pasting in a syllabus for a Core program in "Revolutions: Theory and Practice" that I've taught with colleagues in each of the first two years of this first year offering. Bob Antioch College CORE 173 Revolutions: Theory and Practice (1/8/07) Instructors Scott Warren, Associate Professor [ mailto:swarren@antioch-college.edu ]swarren@antioch-college.edu Bob Devine, College Professor [ mailto:bdevine@antioch-college.edu ]bdevine@antioch-college.edu Prexy Nesbitt, Visiting Professor [ mailto:prexynesb@hotmail.com ]prexynesb@hotmail.com Do you have or know what it takes to cause revolutionary change in today?s society? This Core Program Learning Community examines theories of social, political, philosophical, scientific, cultural and artistic revolutionary movements, and extends its inquiry to the structure and dynamics of revolutionary or anti-establishment thought. Many events in history have been called ?revolutionary.? Why? What qualities do they have in common that merit this designation? How are they differentiated from other processes of change? What are the conditions that precede, support or make such revolutionary change possible? What is the relationship between theories of revolution and practices of revolution? How do some individuals and/or groups become agents of revolutionary change? How are paradigm shifts or major innovations in humanities and physical/social sciences (i.e., Black Studies ) similar to such movements as the Russian, Haitian, Cuban and French socio-political revolutions, the philosophic revolutions of Plato and Kant or such ?cultural revolutions? as the development of print and associated emergence of the public sphere, the Protestant reformation, the ontological changes brought about by photography and film, the rise of the internet, and the like. Three professors from Africana Studies, Communications, and Philosophy will assist students in addressing these and other questions in an attempt to gain insight and acquire skills toward becoming more effective change agents. Students will also benefit from experts from beyond the Program, through workshops, lectures and community engagement. Each professor will mentor students and assist them in identifying disciplinary interests and pathways to future ELC programs, Coop Communities, Independent and Abroad study programs. Student participation in this Core Program Learning Community will aspire toward excellence, mutual respect and fairness, civility and rigorous intellectual inquiry in all aspects of this program. Qualities and conditions of participation will be assured by a Program Covenant, to be developed with students during the first week of the program and signed by students and professors alike. GOALS (LEARNING OUTCOMES) ?Acquire a broad knowledge of structure, dynamics and nature of social, political, cultural, and scientific change ?Appreciate the theoretical bases of popular notions of revolutions ?Develop skills of collaborative learning, community engagement and civil discourse ?Gain an introductory knowledge and methodologies of Africana, Philosophy and Communications studies. ?Increase skills needed to become an effective change agent. CREDITS EARNED Successful completion of all Program requirements will be awarded as follows: Africana Studies (4 credits), Communications (4 credits), Philosophy and History (4 credits) and Core credit (3 credits, field determined by consultation with student and faculty mentor with relevant expertise). PROGRAM OBJECTIVES Written Communication -Reflective writing -Short essays on Core program topics -Major integrative research paper Quantitative methods -Appreciate the benefits and limitations of quantitatively derived information -Appreciate the distinction between the uses and prestige of quantitative and qualitative information -Reading literature based on or derived from quantitative data; assessing evidence -Organizing and picturing data involved in broad social paradigm shifts Oral Communication -Group presentations -Classroom discussion and dialogue -Individual semi-prepared and extemporaneous presentations -Organization, clarity, effectiveness, and use of voice Critical thinking -Journal reflections on topics of inquiry, community engagements and assignments Cross cultural intelligence -Skills of comparative analysis in entering diverse communities of practice Social engagement -Projects with Community partners -Service Learning Reflection -Journal reflections on every aspect of the program, including the drawing of connections between readings, discussions, classroom activities and community engagements. Group process and interaction -Attending to group process, maintenance and leadership -Working effectively in group and community settings REQUIRED TEXTS Bambara, Toni Cade (1996), Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions: Fiction, Essays and Conversations. New York: Random House, Inc. Brecher, Jeremy (1997), Strike. Cambridge, Ma.: South End Press. Cornford, Francis MacDonald, trans. (1970), The Republic of Plato. New York: Oxford University Press. Fanon, Frantz (1963), The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press. Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1994), The Russian Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press. Hurston, Zora Neale (1995), Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography. New York: Harper Perennial. Lukes, Steven (2005), Power: A Radical View. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Shakur, Assata (1987), Assata: An Autobiography. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. Soboul, Albert (1977), A Short History of the French Revolution: 1789-1799. Berkeley: University of California Press. MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES Weekly Schedule Monday 1:00-2:30 Tuesday 10:00-11:30 1:00-2:30 Wednesday 10:00-11:30 1:00-2:30 Thursday 10:00-11:30 1:00-2:30 Friday Variable hours ? 3 hours of student community engagement 1. Participation in community meetings, on community day, & required periodic attendance at AdCil, ComCil, Greencil, etc. 2. Service Learning Projects with local community partners -Three hours per week -Reflection papers on social engagement with community partners -3rd Week -13th Week -Focused analysis of the organizations? function -How they do or not live up to their mission -How they are organized and make decisions -Whether work is recuperative or transformative Community Partners - From which to choose ??D" ?pThe Vale ?pDayton Access ?pAACW ?pFood not Bombs ?pHome Inc. ?pMoveOn ?pCommunity service ?pPeace Movement ?pMens Group ?pDayton Women?s Health ?pEast Side Community Center ?pAFSC Dayton ?pHouse of the People ?? ?? 3. Journals Maintain a journal of responses to all reading assignments (focus questions provided before hand), lectures, audio-video presentations, community engagement, plans and independent research for your final project, your peer group meetings, and your meetings with professors, mentors and advisors. Journals must be kept in an electronic format. 4. Written Work a. Reflection paper on community life and governance due 8th week b. Reflection papers on social engagement with community partners 3nd week, 13th week c. Weekly essays on each Core Program topic (9): Weekly, weeks 3 through 12 5. Small group presentations a. Small group presentations related to weekly topics - throughout the term 6. Final Project The theme/focus for a final project is to be selected from one of the course units and will be an exploration of a problematique or issue raised, but unresolved during said unit. Projects should demonstrate the following: independent exploration beyond materials covered in unit; engagement with some primary source materials; interest in pursuing a related line of inquiry; plans to pursue some aspect of the subject during the first Coop Community. The project may take such creative forms as: a video production, a paper, an oral presentation, an installation, a community project, a poetry collection, etc. COURSE UNITS I. Introduction: Building a lens for looking at Paradigm shifts - Bob Devine, Scott Warren -Approaching "revolutions" from the perspective of Philosophy, Africana Studies, Communications and Social Theory -Paradigm shifts, evolutionary change .. -Differentiating evolutionary change from revolutionary breaks ? paradigm shifts -Structuration theory and the dialectic of agents and structures in revolutionary change -Coercive, structural and ideological power and resistance Required Reading Kuhn, Thomas (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (entire work). (reserve and handout) Sztompka, Piotr (1994), "Revolutions: the peak of Social Change," The Sociology of Social Change. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 301-321. (xerox handout) Steven Lukes, (2005), "Power: A Radical View," and "Three Dimensional Power," Power: A Radical View. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 14-59, 108-151.(text) Skocpol, Theda (1994), ?Explaining Revolutions,? ?Revolutions and the world-historical development of capitalism,? and ?France, Russia, China: A Structural Analysis of Social Revolutions,? Social Revolutions in the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,, pp. 99-168. (reserve) Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. (1997), "Structural Theories of Revolution," in John Foran, ed., Theorizing Revolutions. London: Routledge, pp. 38-72. (reserve) Additional Resources Sztompka, Piotr (1990),Society in Action: The Theory of Social Becoming. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Skocpol, Theda, and Trimberger, Ellen Kay (1993), ?Revolutions: A Structural Analysis,? in Jack A. Goldstone, ed., Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative and Historical. New York: Harcourt Brace, pp. 63-68. (reserve) Goldstone, Jack, ed., (2003), Revoloutions: Theoretical, Comparartive and Historical Studies. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thompson. (reserve) II. Internet (Cultural and Communication) Bob Devine -Emergence of a decentralized many-to-many, switched-interactive, consumer stimulated access and retrieval communication system -The social production of the internet: the confluence of techn-meritocratic culture, hacker culture, communitarian culture and entrepreneurial culture -Impact on centralized, one-to-many distribution systems; the shift from mass production to production by the masses -Communities, virtual communities and social capital -Democratic deliberation and civic culture on-line -Economic life on-line -Promises and perils of the digital divide Required Reading Manuel Castells (2004), "An Introduction to the Information Age," in Frank Webster, ed., The Information Society Reader. London: Routledge, pp. 138-149. (handout) Stine Gotved (2006), "The Construction of Cybersocial Reality," in David Silver and Adrienne Massanari, eds., Critical Cyberculture Studies. New York: New York University Press, pp. 168-178. (handout) Fred Turner (2006), "How Digital Technology Found Utopian Ideology: Lessons from the first Hackers' Conference" in David Silver and Adrienne Massanari, eds., Critical Cyberculture Studies. New York: New York University Press, pp. 257-269. (handout) Ted Friedman (2005), "Apple's 1984", Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture. New York: New York University Press, pp. 102-120. (handout) Lisa Nakamura (2006), "Cultural Difference, Theory, and Cyberculture Studies: A Case of Mutual Repulsion," in David Silver and Adrienne Massanari, eds., Critical Cyberculture Studies. New York: New York University Press, pp. 29-36. (handout). Nie, Norman H., Hillygus, D. Sunshine, and Erbring, Lutz (2002), "Internet Use, Interpersonal Relations and Sociability," in Wellman, Barry,and Haythornthwaite, Caroline, eds., The Internet in Everyday Life. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing. (xerox handout) Stromer-Galley, Jennifer (2004), "Will Internet Voting Increase Turnout?" in Howard, Philip N. and Jones, Steve , Society Online: The Internet in Context. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, pp. 87-102. (reserve) Rice, Ronald, and Katz, James E. , "The Internet and Political Involvement in 1996 and 2000," in Howard, Philip N. and Jones, Steve, Society Online: The Internet in Context. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, pp.103-120. (reserve) Sassen, Saskia (2004) "Sited Materialities with Global Span," in Howard, Philip N. and Jones, Steve, Society Online: The Internet in Context. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, pp. 295-306. (reserve) Nakamura, Lisa (2004), "Interrogating the Digital Divide: The Political Economy of Race and Commerce in New Media," in Howard, Philip N. and Jones, Steve, Society Online: The Internet in Context. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, pp. 71-84. (reserve) Papacharissi, Zizi (2004), "The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a Public Sphere," in Webster, Frank, ed., The Information Society Reader. London: Routledge, pp. 379-392. (reserve) Additional Resources Lessig, Lawrence (2002), The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World. New York: Vintage Books. Webster, Frank, ed. (2004), The Information Society Reader. London: Routledge. Servon, Lisa J. (2002), Bridging the Digital Divide: Technology, Community, and Public Policy. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing,. Castells, Manuel (2001), The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (reserve) III. Africa: From Slavery to Colonialism to Anti-Colonial Independence Movements and National Liberation Struggles (Social & Political) Prexy Nesbitt -Slavery and Colonialism -Anti-Colonial Resistance and Independence -National Liberation movements -Kenya, Algeria, The Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa African Struggles into the 21st century and the U.S. response -Africa in the Epoch of Market Capitalism and U.S. Imperial Strategies -Africa and the Decline of U.S. Hegemony Required Reading Ahmad, Eqbal, The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad, ed by Carollee Bengelsdorf, part I- ?Revolutionary Warfare and Counter-insurgency. Cabral, Amilcar, ?The weapon of theory?, ?National liberation and culture?, ?Identity and Dignity? ?Connecting the struggles? in Return to the Source and Unity and Struggle Fanon, Frantz, The Wretched of the Earth (text) Neto, Agostinho, ?Who is the Enemy?? in Braganca and Wallerstein, Immanuel, ed., The African Liberation Reader Vol. 3 Rodney, Walter, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (reserve) Media Amistad Black Man's Land Basil Davidson series Lumumba Battle of Algiers Catch a fire The Hero A Luta Continua Additional Resources Bauer, Gretchen and Taylor, Scott, Politics in Southern Africa Birmingham, David, the Decolonization of Africa Clark, Nancy, and Worger William, South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid Duke, Lynne, Mandela, Mobutu and Me Elkins, Caroline, Imperial Reckoning Foster, John ?A Warning to Africa: The New U.S. Imperial Grand Strategy?, Monthly Review, 58, 2, June 2006: 1-12 Gleijeses, Piero, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959 ? 1976 Hochschild, Adam, King Leopold?s Ghost Ousmane, Sembene, God?s Bits of Wood Saul, John, The Next Liberation Struggle: Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy in Southern Africa Watts, Michael, ?The Empire of Oil and the Scramble for Africa?, Monthly Review, 58, 4 September, 2006: 1-17 IV. Birth of Western Philosophy Plato (Philosophical & Scientific) Scott Warren Required reading Cornford, Francis MacDonald, trans. (1970), The Republic of Plato. New York: Oxford University Press (complete work). Selected readings on the transition from myth and religion to rational thought V. Failed U.S. Labor Revolution of early 20th Century (Social Political) Bob Devine -Industrialization and the needs for a predictable & reliable workforce; the demands of industrial work discipline -Synchronization of labor and the need to replace agricultural time with industrial time -Prohibitions on the social life of work, the drift toward Puritanism, and the extension of industrial discipline into the non-work life of workers; Fordism -Replacement of task-orientation with time-serving, machine-tending -The Myth of American Exceptionalism -The failure to build a socialist party and movement in the US -Case studies -The Great Upheaval, Mayday and Haymarket, Homestead Steel, the Pullman Strike, Triangle shirtwaist fire, Everett Massacre, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Mother Mary Harris Jones, the Lawrence Bread and Roses strike, the Palmer Raids, Great Migration, Red Scares and Red Summer of 1919, the decline of the Wobblies Required Reading Brecher, Jeremy (1997), Strike. Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press. (text) Sharon Smith (2006), "Are American Workers Different," and "The Peculiarities of American Capitalism," Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States. Chicago: Haymarket books, 2006, pp. 3-60. (handout) Suggested Reading Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Marks, Gary (2000), It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. (reserve) Film The Wobblies John Sayles, Matewan Additional Resources Von Drehle, David (2003), Triangle: The Fire that Changed America. New York: Grove Press. Papke, David Ray (1999), The Pullman Case: The Clash of Labor and Capital in the Industrial Era. Lawrence: University Of Kansas Press. VI. The Russian Revolution (Social & Political) Scott Warren Required Reading Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1994), The Russian Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, (entire work). Carr, E.H., The Bolshevik Revolution Hobsbawm, Eric, selections from The Age of Revolution. Film Potemkin Strike Seeing Red VII. (A) The Historical Development of radical struggles in African-American Communities (B) Afro-Caribbean struggles from the Reagan administration to the first Bush regime (Social and Political) Prexy Nexbitt -The Legacy of Pan-Africanism: Nationalism or Internationalism -Violent and non-violent strategies for change/the civil rights movement and the Black Panther Party -From the Guevara model through third world resistance to global social movements and U.S. Interventionism -Resistance movements in the context of the U.S. "Global War on Terrorism" Required Reading Ali, Tariq, Pirates of the Caribbean Bellegarde, Smith, Patrick, Haiti: the Breached Citadel Kelley, Robin, Freedom Dreams Manning, Marable and Mullings, Leith, Let Nobody Turn Us Around, (2000), pp 365 ? 633 Film Film on M.L. King Film on Malcolm Murder of Fred Hampton What we want/What we believe Guest Speakers Dr. Tracy Matthews Nicole Lee (on Horace Campbell) Suggested Reading: Some Selected Key Works Baldwin, James, Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son Brock, Lisa, Between Race and Empire: African Americans and Cubans before the Cuban Revolution James, C.L.R., The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L?Ouverture and the San Domingo Resolution Kolko, Gabriel, The Age of War: The United States Confronts the World Plummer, Brenda Gayle, Rising Win