[Alumni-chat] Antioch future vision

[Jonny]

On Nov 7, 2007 10:29 AM, <Imabused at aol.com> wrote:

> Sistersara,
>
> You are not saying anything new here. Without doubt Antioch has not had
> the
> income, has not maintained buildings, and has not had a flourishing
> support of
> the school. I agree.
>
> Perhaps you misunderstood my meaning. Maybe you thought I was saying, we
> simply need to increase the number of students and academic offerings. Of
> course I
> am not saying that at this juncture. The people who were supposed to be
> the
> stewards of the school have failed at preserving the critical aspects of
> the
> school. Now we do not *simply* need more students and academic offerings.
>
> But where I beg to differ with you is this "visioning" thing. The
> visioning
> needs to be in school bureaucrats learning how to first A) maintain the
> great
> quality and reputation of this fine school so that then B) the school can
> learn
> to find financial donors who will invest and then C) learn to do effective
> outreach to high school students who are considering and *not considering*
> going
> on to college. And none of this can be done without a change in the
> underlying structure of the College vis-a-vis Antioch university. The
> College strives
> for some participatory government. The university has no such interest.
>
> When you have kids you learn "don't fix what ain't broke." Personally I
> feel
> that it is a complete waste of time to look at replacing the curriculum.
> Restore it, yes.
>
> When people talk of this visioning, they essentially are saying the
> College
> "failed" and therein place blame on the College for this phony exigency
> and
> potential closure. The College did not fail. Where the College is at fault
> is in
> not bringing attention to the crappy structure of the university which
> gave
> essentially no power to the College. Where the alumni are at fault is in
> not
> coming together in a collaborative manner to enlist and engage this great
> mass of
> creative and powerful people to fortify the school in ways other than
> financial support. I personally feel at fault for leaving the job to the
> alumni board
> and not finding support for a separate effort.
>
> Did I make myself clear this time?
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Jane Slater
> Class of '80
> Ashland, OR
>

Hey jane, you took my point but then I found an even more interesting nuance
to parse out: Bear with me: I do think the college has failed somewhere, but
I'm not sure where yet... welll, I have some ideas but they aren't grounded
in solid research. I would agree with you though on one point enough to
reiterate because I get so tired of hearing this, so let me restate for the
record: This context has very little to do with the acedemic environment or
the curriculum. Nor does it have to do with the students. That is simply
crazy talk and it devalues the incredible learning experiences that form the
basis for this shared antiochian narrative that keeps us all responding to
emails against our better judgement and having even less time to submit
articles to the record. yikes.

Anyway, I'm not ready to go as far as to say it is completely the
university. All I see in the university is the exact same set of actions I
would expect a corporation to take. As much as it makes me want to take
multiple showers to wash off the pomp, Toni and the rest of the boogymen,
they too are caught in the snare. So, while I loathe it - I live in america,
where we 'normally' view 8 to 15 optical celbrations of the exact same stuff
for every 8 really-real super-survival episodes we are able to hop, skip
jump and sing our oblivion through per viewership opportunity. The more I
learn about McGregor the more vexed I am that a part of what could have
served to constitute a sustainable model seems to have been kidnapped just
as it was primed to help us integrate non-residential programs into our own.
This , more then most of the banter & tantrum surrounding the misconceptions
between current and former cultures or the board's inner motives is what
gets my goat. To return to my regularly scheduled tantrum, however:

On the other side, I think there has been reluctance and fear on the
colleges behalf, as demonstrated in the college's unwillingness to express
exactly who it is (made so obvious by mischaracterizations of the current
campus culture & the programs it sustains).

As for the college, it may have been distracted somehow in the last 30 years
or so from working on the model itself; unable to 'grow into itself' so to
speak. Whether this is due to the growth stunting formula or symptomatic of
learning under challenging environmental conditions is too blurry to make a
call on. I tend to think it may have been because they were working too hard
on the mission part and couldn't get an extension till monday.

In either case this does provide the impetus a community needs to form the
basis for group reflection and shared, spontaneous reorientation in the best
interest of generating new realizations of identity through the radical
performance of embarrassingly humble acts, such as dealing with the peices
of bath tissue that drag along clinging to the bottoms of our institutional
wellies.

Hence I'd argue it isn't completely a question best phrased 'keep what we
have', but more of a 'keep making what we have, now with 25% more keeps made
per have, but we aren't having any of that weird shit that didn't keep very
well' sort of thing

jonny

ps. have I ever told you I love Ashland, OR? Hills are steep, the water is
yummy and folks tend to be fairly nice. Reminded me a little of YS if I
remember - same sort of multi-generational vibrancy. If we ever are allowed
to recruit again I'd be dropping hints to the kids that sit on that
coffeehouse porch on the corner by the laundromat if it is still around. Was
center of resource sharing hub circa late 90's or so. If our courtesy of
financial-behemoth-of-whatever printed admissions 'materials' are not
generating the enthusiastic response we expect we may find ourselves forced
to resort to relationship-driven organic marketing techniques involving the
horrors of 'listening' and 'engaging'. I know it is risky to think about
relying on such unproven methods, but again as a kid I'm prone to toxicity
so such instability is hopefully forgiveable in light of the advanced case
of un-excellency I suffer from.

>
>
>
>
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