[Alumni-chat] Alternatives for co-op going forward...

[E. Daniel Ayres]

The recent discussion about "how things have changed" with respect to co-op
jobs is an important consideration, but.

 

Restriction of co-op locations to Washington DC, some place out west, and
Yellow Springs just so the college can have at least one full time staff
member locally available to provide support seems pretty lame to me.  If I
had a kid going off to college and interested in co-operative education,
programs at other co-op schools might be more attractive.

 

One of the most important resources from the '60s was the so-called
"Moocher's Guide."  Reviving and expanding that process to include all
"supportive of the college" alumnae who sign a commitment to preserving and
resurrecting residential liberal education at Antioch College might well
help address a lot of the "issues" which were raised during the "plot" to
emasculate the Co-op program.  (irony/humor?)

 

Elimination/reduction of support for "own plans" co-op jobs is a key
weakness.  When I wanted to be near my girl friend/future wife, I was able
to go out and find my own reasonably high paying and interesting employment
as a swimming instructor so I could live in State College, PA for a
semester.  The Antioch College of the early '60s did not encourage me to do
this, but was accepting and supportive when I made it clear that I had the
situation completely under control, the job lined up, my own apartment
reserved, etc. some weeks before I left campus.

 

Frankly, prior to graduation, possibly as a capstone requirement of the
co-op program, "own plans" job creation for at least one co-op period would
be a valuable and strength building requirement.  If a group of students
wanted, like some in the thirties did, to create their own enterprise so
that they could have meaningful work in a period of high unemployment,
Antioch College extramural faculty should be right in there working as a
catalyst.

 

My parents had an empty sleeping room option available when I became a
student at Anticoh.  It didn't "go begging" for long because of the
"Moocher's Guide."    A modernization of that tool might greatly reduce
"house hunting overhead" and provide much needed social network support for
co-ops in many of the "best places to work" in the US.  I never understood
why so few extramural faculty seemed at all interested in the possibility of
exploiting the Alumnae as a resource.   As a part of the "plan to save
Antioch" how many graduates who are residents of major cities could make
commitments to house or in other ways support co-op students?  How many
could be instrumental in the creation and maintenance of new co-op job
opportunities?  Most importantly, why did the college never put an effort
like this on the agenda for the Development Office?

 

E. Daniel Ayres '66 

Aka. ZundapMan

http://home.comcast.net/~eayres