[Alumni-chat] What will the BOT do?

[Sistersara at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/3/2007 3:55:46 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
alumni-chat_forum at antiochians.org writes:

I  think  you're mistaken about the College's budget being in the  black.  If 
we look at the Record in 1951, we find out that
McGregor  was struggling with the need to slash the budget by $250-300k (a 
lot in those  days) because of a predicted 25-30% drop in enrollment and the 
pressures of  inflation.  As a result, the Record predicted a tuition jump of 10% 
in 2  years, and the College abolished its Deans of Men and Women jobs, 
replacing  them with CG responsibilities and committees.  The saving grace for the  
College was the GI bill and a whole new market for student recruitment.   The 
illusion of a "golden era" in which the College enjoyed stability and  
financial security is nostalgia at its best.  The GI bill and the baby  boom 
provided the only years of relative solvency.    

Bob



Bob, the prediction of a drop in enrollment in 1951 was based on recent  
World War II experience.  Remember this is the early period of the Korean  War, 
very large draft calls were in the works, the possibility of war with China  was 
being discussed, after having removed most of our occupation troops from  
Germany, the decision to create NATO resulted in the return of large numbers of  
American troops to Germany, Holland, Italy, etc., All this set the stage for  
large draft calls, and all colleges were predicting a very large drop in  
enrollment as a result.  But by the end of 1952 and the beginning of the  
Eisenhower era, the predictions of large scale land war decreased as did draft  calls, 
and colleges stopped being concerned with the issue.  By 1953 there  was a 
whole new cohort of GI's from the Korean War, who had GI benefits, and who  used 
them to pay for college.  When I entered Antioch, the last class of  Korean 
era GI's were 4th and 5th year students.
 
To compare you need to compare the costs of Antioch then and now.  In  1957 
you could attend Antioch on A or B div for about 1200 total, tuition, fees,  
room and board.  C div was about 1500.  The 1200 was about double the  cost at 
the end of WWII, or about 600. The cost of Antioch pretty much  tracked the 
increase in the cost of living, and median incomes.   If  you look at median 
family incomes from those periods, you will note that  Antioch's costs are well 
within the ability of a significant part of the  American Middle Class to pay 
out of a combination of current income and  savings.  This is just not the case 
with an annual cost of nearly 30  thousand dollars.   College and University 
education has been made  into a commodity that substantially benefits the 
Financial Institutions that are  subsidized to provide the loan system.  It is in 
their interest that  inflation has created a market for their financial 
product.  It is really  time to comprehend this and understand that it requires high 
level political  action to change the calculus.  
 
In the post war period, Antioch developed a significant market for its self  
among Liberal and Progressive Jews, Quakers and Unitarians.  When Dixon  
became President in 1959, the Antioch Student body was about one third Jewish,  and 
the addition of Quakers and Unitarians brought that "liberal religious"  
faction of the student body up to over 50%.  The attraction of Antioch to  Jews 
had a great deal to do with the fact that most other selective Liberal Arts  
Colleges had a Jewish Quota, and particularly among more Progressive -- or shall  
I say Civil Rights Aware Jewish groups, the idea of competing within a small  
quota for a place at say Harvard or Amherst or even Oberlin was very  
distasteful, but it was an attraction of Antioch.  That didn't change till  1966 when 
the 1964 Civil Rights Act provisions outlawing Quotas took  effect.  
Understanding how informal networks can enhance your applicant  pool is absolutely 
essential for a small college, but I don't think this was  well understood in the 
aftermath of the late 1960's.  It isn't the whole  strategy but it is a key 
part of it.  
 
I think the commentary on "meaningful" jobs and the cost of living in New  
York City is pretty bankrupt.  Today is Labor Day -- we celebrate something  of 
the contribution of the great American Workforce to the country, and it  
should be "meaningful" to have an experience out of the college culture as a  
fairly short term participant observer in that workforce.  Moreover there  are 
hundreds of communities in the US that have a great deal of interest to  offer 
that is "meaningful" that are not the Big Apple.  Many of these  places are not 
all that expensive.  And as things go, many are fairly  safe.  
 
Antioch's problem is that it doesn't have the assets to invest in targeted  
job development.  It takes staff and a travel budget.  Moreover,  Antioch 
should not be suggesting to incoming students that an Antioch identity  suddenly 
confers the ability to make a difference.  That comes with learned  skills, and 
most 18-22 year olds don't have all that many skills yet that are  highly 
valued by employers.  The college should be focused on developing  the entry level 
jobs likely connected with career interests, and then increasing  the value 
the student can add to the employer's mission job by job.  But it  also has to 
be understood as a partnership between College and Employer -- and  from what 
I have heard the College these days doesn't have the assets to invest  in 
working with employers to encourage their role in the educational  mission.  In 
the late 1950's we had 14 PD staff advisors each responsible  for about 100 
students and about 50 to 60 jobs.  Three weeks out of a  quarter they traveled, 
meeting with employers, developing new jobs and the like  -- the rest of the 
time they were involved with reading post job papers and  reports, and dealing 
with the students bids for listed jobs and making  placements.  It took that 
level of support to do it properly.  



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