<p>My guess is it has a whole lot more to do with the college spreading itself thin with these satellite campuses. Loosing it's focus because of the satellites. Kids didn't understand what the college is...because of it's satellite campuses or when they visited because of the Lauren Pope article it didn't live up to their exepectations because of the students that were there at the time of the visit. And finally, given the lack of (marketing) focus the school lost their alum and lost the alum contributions. It's a pity. Having grown up in the midwest it was, along with Oberlin, one of the "it" colleges to go to if you perceived yourself as any kind of liberal thinker and back in the "old" days had pretty darn good faculty to boot.</p>
<p>Expanding to over 20 satellite campuses? An early version of the University of Phoenix -- minus the profits.</p>
<p>In a way, they experimented until they just blew up. The fact that institutions change and some win and others lose is really a sign of vitality rather than a problem. Frankly, I find the fact that there has been so little movement among the top 30 national universities more of a problem.</p>
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Expanding to over 20 satellite campuses? An early version of the University of Phoenix -- minus the profits.
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<p>Exactly. Just 35 years ahead of their time. Oh, and one little difference compared to U of Phoenix: the way Antioch tried to do it, they actually needed to pay professors and stuff.</p>
<p>I knew they were in trouble when we received yet more recruitment brochures this spring after all application materials at other LACs had to be in. Due to the history, I encouraged my daughters to investigate, and they were a decided NO. Too protest/PC oriented, too many drugs. I remember the utopian reputation way back when, and was saddened by the current drift.</p>
<p>I visited Antioch several times three years ago including attending an evening program of panelists that had something to do with oppression of females. The panel consisted of the president and three other academics - all "Antiochians." Three of the panelists focussed on Carol Gilligan's NYT article (1978?) while the fourth, a faculty at Columbia, was the only one to point out the numerous flaws on the NYT/Gilligan thing as scientific research. I felt that I was in a time capsule. Then one of the speakers tried to explain that Catepillar Tractor was responsible for the paralysis of a protester when the Israeli's were buldozing some houses - as though Catepillar was designing D8 dozers to be used for that purpose.</p>
<p>I went through many buildings. Antioch has a farily substantial physical asset and I found the place VERY rundown. The 60ish hotel (Yellow Springs Inn?) was vacant, open to access, stripped of furniture & carpets, painted with grafitty, and thoroughly smelled of urine - disgusting. The auditorium was in disrepair with wall paper peeling off, etc. The Kettering Labs (?), built (someone told me) for Manhatten project research or something similar during WWII, was in disuse. The campus was, to me, depressing yet full of the promise of what once was there.</p>
<p>Today Antiochians are proud of having a mission of pursuing Social Justice. Two thoughs come to mind, 1) because enrollments dwindled, the Antioch pursuit of social justice does not have a wide following ...maybe people don't feel compelled to find and right wrongs the way they do at Antioch and 2) I have never worked for a commercial establishment that would want to hire a social justice advocate - I can imagine such a person as a pain in the backside.</p>
<p>Sad news for the incoming students. I wonder if individuals who'd rather not attend now could legally withdraw (if they chose to) without penalty under contract law, claiming bad faith on the part of the college for not representing their tenuous situation at the time of processing applications. Of course, maybe they hoped to get more enrolled, but still. </p>
<p>And recover not only the deposit money but damages for the opportunity costs of not going elsewhere.</p>
<p>Maybe I should have been a lawyer. As it is, maybe I'm a trouble-maker. I don't want to further harm Antioch College, but they may have harmed some students here.</p>
<p>They probably can withdraw, but of course the problem is that they don't have anywhere else to go. And it's very hard to sue a non-profit organization that seems to be going bankrupt anyway; it'd take years with no likelihood of money down the road. </p>
<p>I hope these poor incoming freshmen can find other options by talking to the schools that they previously turned down, hoping at the worst that they'll be accepted for next year. My heart breaks for them and their families.</p>
<p>Very bad behavior (if not downright bad faith) for a school that allegedly believes in "social justice".</p>
<p>Ok, I'm defensive because I love this school, but I don't think it was unrealistic to hope they'd get better enrollment numbers than they did because of the current admissions climate. Until they had this year's numbers, they may have had reason to hope for an upturn. They had done a lot of renovations in the past year and revamped their first year program. They would have gotten NO ONE to enroll if they'd said, oh and btw, if enrollment numbers don't increase, we may have to close. And if nobody wants to hire people who care about social justice, our country is in a sorry state.</p>
<p>Antioch University has many branches including graduate schools- in the U.S., including one in Keene New Hampshire.is it just thus college that is closing or having trouble? Does anyone know?</p>
<p>I believe the branches are doing well. I got my masters from the NH branch and it's a grerat program and quite profitable.</p>
<p>It is just Antioch College that is going belly up. The university locations continue as they were.</p>
<p>Yeah, bethievt, I was thinking about you even as I typed my muckraking post.
I really don't want to suggest harm to a college, especially Antioch. It was a GREAT, GREAT place, full of creative, committed, smart students. And this is confusing, but do I correctly understand they might reopen?
BTW, this weekend I was with some people socially who said they heard Kenyon was closing. Obviously they're not up on their CC lore.
As for social justice, don't get me started on how important that is or I might never stop typing. It's not just a hippie thing. I've talked a lot to my own kids who are taught about the '60's as a hippie era, and I've told them that's a glossy, poor version of the history as I lived it. Sit-ins, summers for voter registration in Mississippi, marches, meetings, tremendous upheavals within families over the Vietnam positions of sons/daughters that parents didn't support -- that's my memory of the '60;s. Not those glazey pictures of the girls in Haight Ashbury. That's also part of it, but it had both components - social activism and cultural change. I'm sorry they teach so much of the latter that the former may be overlooked.
These things are pendulums. I hope that the selfish strain in US culture finds its natural point of collapse and kids will become more active again.
I think college students care deeply about the environment, and that is a huge cause. When I recycle now or ask where to do so on a campus, I can see a certain relief and appreciation that an older person cares. They don't want to inherit a rotten planet and are starting from their own homes, perhaps working outward. I see a direct line between that and the '60;s activism. Peace initiatives and race relations are other issues that still concern me, and I always look for indications that another generation is carrying it forward, if in their own language (and not with signs) that's okay with me.
I wish we could harness the great interest of students in technology and business towards dedicating their high-paying careers to developing cost-effective environmental alternatives for oil dependency. Then all the social scientist kids would put their mental muscle to change the lack of political will to implement all the technology we've known since the '70's about how to do these improvements (since we do know how). "If I ran the zoo, said young Gerald McGroo, I'd make a few changes or two." --Dr. Seuss
I told you I could type forever on this...so will stop.</p>
<p>The state university I attended as an undergraduate and as a law student included plenty of students in both graduating classes who were interested in social justice, and still working for it today.</p>
<p>Anyone know if provisions have been made for the incoming freshmen at the other campuses? I hope at least they get to keep their financial aid, and get housing!</p>
<p>Major universities that were hotbeds of radicalism, such as Berkeley and Wisconsin, have liberal traditions and are still vibrant campuses today. The state of Wisconsin has recycling laws, of course we recycle and the dorm floors have all the bins... One can focus on social justice at many other colleges, UW- Washington and Wisconsin- both have large numbers joining the Peace Corps every year. LAC's do not have a monopoly on some ideals. Although sad for alumni and the few would be students, the closing of Antioch does not mean the death of the ideals. BTW, ALL colleges change lives.</p>
<p>^^ When you're at a funeral, why say that other people could have done your life just as well? Nobody is comparing here, just discussing Antioch College and mourning a bit, too. </p>
<p>You totally misread me if you think I think there's a "monopoly" on social justice at LAC's or a causal relationship. Social change requires lots of people, and the big universities have that. The protest leader in my freshman dorm section (an unofficial post, obviously!) had a dad who was a UWisc prof at Madison, so she brought all that knowledge into the LAC. Madison was two years ahead of us in protest tactics, or so it seemed to me. </p>
<p>Both bethievt (from Antioch) and me (from Oberlin) well remember students from nearby Kent State, all in Ohio. When Kent State kicked its students off campus (Spring, 1970) on hours' notice to shut itself down, they had no place to go except the nearby LAC's for floor-space to sleep. They'd have done same for us, in a heartbeat -- it was all one situation.</p>
<p>Other schools took in the Katrina refuges. I hope that any "homeless" Antioch students won't be shy about seeking places at other schools and that those schools will be generous. This is an emergency situation/crisis and the greater university/college community should stick together and help the several hundred students, 40 faculty members, and who knows how many other staff members out.</p>
<p>One problem with schools weak with finances like Antioch is that the students tend to be affluent enough to afford the place and are sometimes just rich posers. No idea of social justice beyond dressing down and hiding their family wealth.
I know this sounds harsh, but back in "the day" I considered Antioch. My cousin and her husband are grads. They feel very positive about their experiences, but that was 30 years ago.</p>
<p>You could be right danas, but I think wealthy people have lots of cushier options for their kids than Antioch.</p>
<p>Bethie...
Depends upon their academic strength. My cousin studied the brain at Johns Hopkins and got her PhD. in Neurobiology. Her husband got a PhD in Russian at Brown and teaches at RISD and Boston College.
The students that Antioch could support 30-35 years ago are not the students that have attended in recent years, from what I can gather.
I bow to you as an alum. I have no problem thinking that you know better than I do.</p>