[Alumni-chat] Antioch future vision

[Imabused at aol.com]

Several days a week I carshare with my friend's son, who is 18, who attends 
community college in a nearby town. Yesterday I talked about Antioch to him. He 
-- and other young people of this area -- have never heard of a school 
without grades, and that offers a work-study coop regimen as an integral part of the 
academic program. 

It brought me back to my senior year of high school. 1974. My best friend, 
Janet O'Brien, told me she'd heard about a college fair at the school library, 
so we went as a lark. Some woman was there and talked to us for about 3 minutes 
about Antioch. I don't think we spoke to another person there.

Both of us, Janet and I, ended up on a plane the next Fall to Yellow Springs 
sight unseen. Both of us graduated from Antioch College. It took a 3 minute 
explanation of the school for us kids to be sold.

In my humble opinion, Antioch does NOT need major restructuring... only 
inasmuch it would need to return to a full range of academic courses and 
comprehensive listing of coops to choose from. I very strongly disagree that Antioch 
needs to completely revamp. 

Just like at my high school back in 1974, today there's probably at least two 
kids from every damn high school in the country that would love -- LOVE -- to 
attend a school like this one. My friend's kid could probably be convinced to 
attend, who knows? 

Is it too much to hope that the Alumni Association would consider pulling out 
of this particular agreement with the board of trustees? In my union, we have 
to have membership agreement to agree to any contract with management. There 
are a lot of alumni, students and faculty who find this agreement 
unsatisfactory.

What does the Alumni Board have to say?

Jane Slater
Class of '80
Ashland, OR


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