[Alumni-chat] Antioch presidents

Tue Feb 12 21:43:34 EST 2008

I go back to Henderson who in my day was sensible, practical, and in 
his quiet way a visionary but had the charisma of a cuttle fish.  He 
went on to be the first to establish the multiple campus system, i.e. 
SUNY, although with the inevitable politics the results were not 
exactly as he envisioned them.  He was a more modest version of Clark 
Kerr whose ideas of the multiple chance, multiple campus, three 
tiered system was about as close as you could get to providing for 
different levels of academic promise and opened the possiblity of 
students moving from say a community college on up to Berkeley if 
they were motivated, inspired and smart.  I taught at Berkeley during 
the sixties when, one might say the vision exploded in his face.  But 
both Henderson and Kerr were quite extraordinary educators.

MacGregor arrived during my senior year and was as they say a horse 
from a different garage.  He and his sidekick Knickerbocker turned 
the whole campus into a group dynamics experiment.  The method was 
more important than the accomplishment.  MacGregor was good cop and 
Knickerbocker was bad cop.  Given the engagement of students in the 
first place pushing around in group dynamic groups (I forget the 
terminology) the whole thing was a bad trick.  Nor was MacGregor 
scholarly except in the sense that he used Antioch as a playground 
for his games and then published some of the results.

Looking back, Henderson was the last good president of Antioch.  Art 
Dole: would you agree?

David Apter "50

At 04:48 PM 2/12/2008, you wrote:
>The mention of Henderson - MacGregor - Gould prompts another 
>comment. (Gould was president during my five student years at the College.)
>    I know less about Henderson than about MacGregor or Gould, but 
> my sense here is that something cyclical
>was operating -- or at least MacGregor and Gould had
>very different styles and strengths (as well as being very different 
>personnae).  MacGregor was more the (dare I say "academic"?) 
>visionary, who wrote about organizational behavior but was not 
>thought to be good at details, or fund-raising, and Gould was the 
>administrator/seeker of funds that the College then
>needed after MacGregor.
>    Although matters were better (relatively) financial then than 
> they were later, they were still pretty close to the edge -- the 
> endowment was small, and small "perturbations" could make matters 
> dangerous. When Boss Ket gave the money for the library, but didn't 
> give money for its maintenance, that extra demand on the college's 
> operating budget hit hard.

>Steve Wasby '59
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: <Sistersara at aol.com>
>To: <alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu>
>Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 3:47 PM
>Subject: Re: [Alumni-chat] Antioch presidents
>
>
>>
>>In a message dated 2/12/2008 12:03:43 P.M. Central Standard Time,
>>aadole at roadrunner.com writes:
>>
>>The  discussion of Jim Dixon and other Antioch Presidents has not examined
>>Algo  Henderson and Doug McGregor. As a student and then an assistant
>>instructor.  I observed both these men from afar. When they were in power
>>they had to  guide the college through WWII and post war dislocations. The
>>faculty  improved in quality. Marvelous students were attracted to the
>>college. The  administrators (Dawson, , Pillard, Alexander,etc.) seemed
>>resourceful. Many  innovative educational ideas were introduced, including
>>the  strengthening  of Community Government, drama and music, and the use of
>>achievement tests to recognize student mastery of required  subjects.
>>
>>Others may wish to add to their accomplishments.
>>
>>Art  Dole '46
>>
>>
>>
>>Art, I would add Sam Gould to your list, and group these three Presidents
>>together as the Post-Morgans, who retained Morgan's financial model for the
>>college, based on using the physical assets for two divisions of income
>>generating students, running the college year round, and thus 
>>having about 2/5ths
>>more students and income than the number of beds and classroom facilities and
>>teaching staff would normally accommodate.  What we have, accordingly,  is an
>>economic model for the college that produced sufficient 
>>surplus  income, so each
>>of these Presidents were able to lead innovations of their  own choosing, but
>>at the same time the nearly identical economic structure  served the college
>>well in Depression, War, and the post war period of growth  and adjustment.
>>Gould's AEA, for instance, beginning in the mid 50's added  another 150-200
>>students to the enrolled student body, yet did not need to  provide physical
>>facilities for them.  Their needs were met by outsourcing  the teaching and
>>serving other needs with a small administrative staff.
>>
>>I think it important to outline the College History in these sorts  of bare
>>economic terms, subtracting from the exposition the values and educational
>>ideals for the moment, so as to actually assess Morgan's economic structure
>>clearly.  What is important in my mind is that no matter what the economic
>>condition of the larger national economy -- Morgan's economic 
>>model  both produced a
>>constant surplus that could be invested to self-finance  improvements in the
>>college -- and it isolated the College from some of the  dislocations of the
>>business cycle, war economics, and the like.
>>
>>Would it be possible to return to something like Morgan's economic model in
>>the future?  Don't know, but think it should be discussed in detail.   It may
>>well have been the primary reason why all three of these Presidencies were
>>fairly successful though with different content.
>>
>>In looking at Higher Education generally, I suspect we are at the brink of
>>some heavy duty major changes -- current economic structure of 
>>Higher Ed., has
>>just become too expensive for middle income families, and given the anti-Tax
>>mood of so much of the Country, I really don't see Government opening  up a
>>new river of subsides.  Quite generally, we need a new economic model that
>>produces the necessary outcomes, but is simply more efficient.  By the way,
>>apparently Ohio ranks 40th in the nation in the percentage of 
>>residents who  have
>>at least one year of Higher Education.  That surprised me -- I think  back in
>>the days I lived in my native Ohio, it was about 10th.  Just an odd
>>demographic figure I ran across while thinking about elements of 
>>election strategy.
>>
>>
>>
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>
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