[Alumni-chat] revamping vs. marketing

[Spock, Dan]

I guess I'm not an advocate for total restructuring at all (sorry if I seemed to be supporting that) especially if it's imposed in a top down sort of way which has been shown not to work terribly well anywhere, including at Antioch I might add.

If the people who are charged with implementing change don't buy in, change isn't ever going to happen. So initiative from the grassroots is always better than autocratic fiat. And more Antiochian. Funny, but as an alum I had thought of myself as from the bottom rather than from the top!

I restate my belief that the most important thing to maintain through these troubles is Antioch's unique ethos. To be nimble and opportunistic in seeking new ways to give expression and continuity to this ethos should be no sin, indeed it is everything. We live in in fluid times and a lot of what we hold dear won't make it through this century wirhout a huge amount of committment and energy from a lot of people.

But I continue to think that there's a wealth of resource and knowledge out there among alumni that could be tapped in ways that could be both refreshing to us all (the entire Antioch community, including alums.) I think one of the contributing stealthy causes of this crisis is that too many of us have drifted away from the College and just haven't been tracking how Antioch's struggles with the economics of higher ed, curriculum reform, the governance issues, have been steadily eroding the College's viability. Mea culpa. But I've gotten a hell of an education in the last few months and I feel like caring again.

Many of us alums don't have alot of money, but we have real life experience in organizing and activism, raising money, exploring new educational approaches and academic disciplines, making contributions in the public and non-profit sector, in business, the professions, working in fields that are booming: communications, new media and technology, green technology, etc., etc. Not everybody has been doing this with Horace at the back of the mind goading them on, but they've done it and done it for the same reasons they were attracted to Antioch in the first place. I'd like to see some DNA transfer for an enhanced College, but also just for a chance to participate in Antioch's revival.

Duffy (hi Duffy!) has said that the millennial generation coming up is more altruistic, is looking for ways to make a difference in life. There's a lot of power in that for Antioch because the ethos offers that exactly: civic engagement, active particpation, lifelong learning. I'm thinking there's room enough for this in the existing Antioch academic framework without detracting one iota from what the current faculty or students have to offer the College which is as important as anything I can think of. But maybe what we have to learn from each other will spark something entirely different. Who knows? Nobody has to think of it as a revamp. I think of it as an excellent way for alumni to re-engage with the College in really substantive, meaningful ways, for everybody, to give something back, an excellent way for students to see exactly what people do with an Antioch education in their lives. An excellent way to extend across the generations the essence of what it is that makes Antioch unique.

I'm spending way too much time on this!

Over and out,

Dan Spock, 1983

-----Original Message-----
From: alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu
[mailto:alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu]On Behalf Of Pam Olsen
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 10:33 AM
To: alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu
Subject: [Alumni-chat] revamping vs. marketing


Jane might be on to something here.  Perhaps better marketing is more
imporant that an entire restructuring.  Afterall, the faculty have some
pretty good ideas about what was working and what wasn't, and what they'd
like to do.  It's going to have to come mostly from them if it's going to be
vital and work.

I know that here in good old North Idaho, very few people have heard of
Antioch.   That's probably true in nearby Spokane, Washington, too.  How
many other communities simply aren't aware of it?

> From: alumni-chat-request at w3.antioch.edu
> Reply-To: alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu
> Date: Wed,  7 Nov 2007 14:16:43 -0500 (EST)
> To: alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu
> Subject: Alumni-chat Digest, Vol 9, Issue 5
>
> 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.

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