[Alumni-chat] Patrick Cates Problems with Antioch

[ktj71 at juno.com]

With a PhD in Higher-Ed research, I’ve spent ridiculous amounts of time & effort “tracking” poor old AC -- sometimes on salary, sometimes not.  In Nov ‘04 I dropped out of the ‘old’ alumni-chat because, as I said then, “chances of turning [AC] into a marketable (to say nothing of selective) baccalaureate program seem very slim.”  IMHO that’s still true, but who wants to chat about it and why? -- there’s a bean-counter question.  

       From Gare Calhoun’s 3/15/07 post thru the 5/21 Cates/ Bower/ Devine exchange, I kept a fairly complete record.  Gare’s data are probably better, but here are a few things I noted:
  
       The 3/15/07 chatlist population = about 222: 155 regular chatters, 65 digest subscribers, & 1 or 2 “new.”   (Wonder if it has grown or shrunk?)

       By 5/21/07 I counted 42 participants, leaving 180 lurkers.  A dozen or so happily joined in the 1st or 2nd day; then it quieted down. 

       At least 12 of the 42 had a current institutional “role” besides ‘alum’:  G.Calhoun;  J.Robinson;  B.Winslow;  B.Devine;  Duffy;  R.Grimes;  M.Jensen;  M.Brower;  A.Maruyama;  E.Miller;  D.Patterson;  C.Feuerstein.  

       Frequency of posting varied from once (21 people) to 15 times (1 person).  These are rough hand-counts, but here’s my array:
    28 = 67% = once or twice
      8 = 19% = 3 times
      3 = 7% = 4 or 5 times
      0 = 6, 7, 8, or 9 times
      3 = 7% = 10, 14 & 15 times (1 each)

       Personally, my interest in this somewhat repetitive dialogue among so few of us has dwindled.  I thoroughly enjoyed Patrick Cates’ playful jab at the “new new” curriculum, and was dismayed by the puritanical replies he got.  Sure, the Faculty has already spent 3 years (so far!) trying to “implement” (i.e., to fix!) a weird Curric mandated by the BOT and its hand-picked Renewal experts (including June Jervis, fmr prez of Evergreen) back in June ‘04.  Yes, Faculty modifications have helped.  But in studies from the ‘40s right thru the ‘90s, AC’s main “draw” was co-op; and much of what results from “Renewal” seems to be less co-op and a smaller student body.  

        While I’m posting, a tardy reply to Mike Brower who in March wrote:  

<< ...solution is NOT to divorce Antioch College from what is left of the University system.  (Sorry Katy Jako, I know that some years ago, when the University was much more vast and sprawling, you advocated this.)  Today the other University branches (there are only 5 others left!) subsidize Antioch College and without them we would close tomorrow.>>  

	I advocate reorganizing, not divorce.  Antioch has always been ONE degree-granting institution.  In ‘77 all units belonged to AC;  in ‘78 they (PLUS the college) belonged to the Network, which the BOT re-named AU.
	I worked for AU from ‘85-6 into ‘92-3 when only 3 ‘campuses’ existed outside of YS:  NE, SoCA, Seattle.  In Aug ‘96 I started Antioch Independence Fund when AU Chanc Guskin fired AC Pres. Crowfoot - very ugly.  It held almost $1.25 million in Feb ‘03 when BOT cancelled the meeting where we’d planned to discuss ‘the gift.’  But no, I was out in Berkeley & not paying attention when the Network was “vast and sprawling.”    	Katy Jako ‘54