[Alumni-chat] What will the BOT do?

[Liza (eadler2001 at yahoo.com)]

>For me, the staggered quarter system worked splendidly, and I was astonished to learn of the changes to the co-op program (and year schedule) that occurred after my graduation in 1968.  After reading Bob Devine's discussion, I can understand some of the reasons, but it still seems like a loss to me.  I had never thought about how things worked (or didn't work) from the faculty standpoint.  My grandfather taught at Antioch for most of the time I knew him -- he seemed to have summers free, although as a senior professor he might have had advantages not available to everyone.
>
>John Hevelin '68
Hi John,

The post of mine to which you responded was a follow-up to one in which I said 

>I always thought of co-op as an integral part of the post-Morgan Antioch education. And as Travis said in another thread, co-ops had a tremendous impact on many of our lives. I was shocked to hear that the requirement had been cut to 3 co-ops in only 3 locales.
Rowan responded with a comment to the effect that the co-op communities were not an idiotic idea. 

I wondered if perhaps I was making an erroneous assumption--based on ignorance of what the the co-op communities involved--that this new model had lost many of the advantages of the Antioch education I experienced. I also thought that changing to a trimester-based system involved a loss as well, but, again, I wasn't there, didn't know the rationale for the switch, and didn't experience it. 

Again, I didn't want to make assumptions based on ignorance of a system I hadn't experienced firsthand. 

Bob Devine's response crystallized a lot of things for me (and saddened me immensely). 

I don't think I was a better student than you, but I was in a hurry in those days. I completed high school in three years and Antioch in four. In retrospect, I wish I'd taken longer.

I, too, found my co-ops away an invaluable experience. I think they fostered a sense of independence and self-reliance that it would have taken me years to acquire otherwise. They played a tremendous part in making me the person I now am (for better or worse). 

What I found socially disruptive was not graduating in 4 years, but having to pick up and move every twelve weeks. And I think that the effects of doing that stayed with me for some time. (The disruptive aspects might have been exacerbated for me by the strikes of 73. I was on spring/summer co-op when the spring strike took place. By the time I made it back to campus, very few of the people I knew pre-strike were around.) What I was suggesting was that we _retain_ a certain number of away co-ops but also have an expectation of completing, say, two in Yellow Springs. 

This would enable people like me who find moving every quarter socially disruptive a chance to get to know their cohort a little more slowly. It would be easier for students on co-op to take, say, one class a quarter and more easily complete their studies in four years (with a staggered quarter system). We might be able to involve students in campus renovation in a way that was win-win financially for both the students and the college--and I think that participating in rebuilding Antioch (in any number of ways--not just renovating the buildings) would be tremendous in enhancing the sense of community. Just a thought. You are certainly free to disagree.

I'd still be interested to know if there was some sort of visionary rationale for the co-op communities or if, like the move to a trimester system, they were a compromise based on current realities.

Incidentally, while I can't speak to your grandfather's experience, I was on the faculty of a liberal arts college for some time. Their calendar involved two four-month semesters separated by a one month January winter study experience. I'm sure most of the students thought the faculty took the summers off, but I generally was putting in about 70 hours a week during the summers (doing research--which generally involved students in some way--but not formally teaching). I took maybe three weeks a year of genuine vacation.