[Alumni-chat] Antioch future vision

[Sistersara at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/6/2007 10:34:22 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
Imabused at aol.com writes:

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. 


Jane, the problem is that the College must operate more or less in the  
black.  For this to happen it has to attract sufficient tuition paying  students to 
support the infrastructure, Faculty and Staff, and have the kind of  budget 
to constantly keep this updated.  The high point of the last 15  years was 
about 1992, and enrollment with a few dips and rises, has just gone  down and down 
-- never really getting close to the point where you could say the  budget 
was balanced, and the program was growing.  You can't go on year  after year 
deferring all repairs,  cutting Faculty, Staff and Programs, and  expect things 
to work out well.  The grand experiment with that sort of  thinking has 
profoundly failed.  At the community meeting last weekend, a  rep of the Alumni Board 
said it would cost 40 million to cover necessary  building and infrastructure 
repairs, starting with a very unsexy heating system  that currently has a 
loss of 40% of the heat before it reaches  buildings.   It will cost millions to 
rebuild.   It isn't a  trade off -- it is a necessity, otherwise the Health 
Department and other  agencies that regulate basic human habitations are going 
to close the place down  as a danger to health and life.  
 
The Agreement and the fund raising allow all of us to take the risk of  
trying to rebuild the place, and part of that is to create the kind of Academic  
Program that will attract lots of students.  Most studies -- some of which  may 
be outdated -- suggest the break even point is around 900 students or FTE's,  
but when the college was very popular in the early 70's, we had 2700  
students.   A whole lot of straight honesty about what went wrong  is going to be 
required of everyone -- and change will be the result.  A  good many of us are 
going to find pieces we love eliminated and/or changed  because times have 
changed since we entered college.  The economy has  changed -- no longer can a 
middle class family support their son or daughter at  a school such as Antioch 
without taking out huge loans that have to be repaid  for years, and that cut into 
income and job choices after college when Grad  School or starting a family 
might be of interest.  Before the late 70's the  middle class family could 
afford such an education for their children.  And  that is only one profound 
change between then and now.  In the 60's and  70's, colleges did not have to build 
IT networks, and perhaps upgrade them every  two years.  In recent years 
Antioch has lost many prospective  students who took one look at systems, and 
realized they had more access in  their bedrooms at home than any system on campus 
had on offer.  All this  has to be addressed -- along with many other 
matters, and in the end it has to  be integrated into a comprehensive plan.  In the 
process many of our  traditional values need to be examined -- how do we 
realize these, given  new conditions?  How do we do that and in the end have an 
adequate revenue  stream so as to sustain and continue to grow and improve 
Antioch?  The  starting point for this is to realize that what we have been doing 
just didn't  work.   The college lost students, by any accounting standard went  
bankrupt, lost programs, lost Faculty, lost support staff  -- and the  
buildings are falling apart.  
 
 



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