Endless Knots

ANTIOCH COLLEGE’S SUSPENSION LIFTED!

Just received this email from the Boston Antioch College (my alma mater) Alumni Group:

At 2 p.m. EST, the Antioch University Board of Trustees, in historic collaboration with the Alumni Board, agreed today to lift the suspension of operations at Antioch College originally slated for June 30, 2008. This decision, which follows intensive discussions between the University Board of Trustees and the Alumni Board, means that Antioch College will continue to offer academic credits and degrees to current students.

Amazing effort on part of alumni to raise the money needed to keep operations going. And indicative of the commitment of the Board of Trustees, most of whom are alums, to be open-minded and reverse a highly controversial decision.

I will write more about this in the days to come but this is quite a story in collaboration.

Meanwhile, here's the New York Times/AP article, Antioch College to Stay Open, already running on its site and on the International Herald Tribune site.

And from the collaboration point-of-view, alumni et al were able to listen to the college-wide meeting that took place in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which went on for three hours this afternoon, via streaming audio, and to participate in an 90-person chat, where people were able to post questions that others answered, identify who was speaking, and clarify points. Meanwhile, there was live blogging coming from the meeting itself, documents sent around to alums --and posted to the alumni website--while we were listening.

High fives to everyone involved. As Steve Schwerner, college alum and professor emeritus, said, "That [meaning the Board of Trustees' reversal of its decision] was the easy part."

I've written a number of posts about the Antioch situation.

Memorial service for Carolyn Goodman, October 7, 2007

Carolyn Goodman's memorial service takes place Sunday, October 7, 2007, at 4:00 PM at New York Society for Ethical Culture, 64th Street and Central Park West, New York, NY. Please send an email to melbrady at optonline dot net if you're attending.

I've done a number of posts here about Carolyn's remarkable life and career. Click on Obits in the Categories list to the right or click here or here or here, for the original post on her son, Andrew, and the remarkable and, in retrospect, extraordinarily sad postcard he sent from Mississippi on the day he was murdered in 1964. As mentioned, Carolyn's youngest son, David, was a classmate of mine at Antioch.

Wikipedia entry on Carolyn Goodman here.

Parental controls

So all of us have topics that kind of set us off, right? Stuff that comes up about which, if you're so fortunate as to have them, your kids say, "Oh, Mom. Don't bother with that. It just upsets you." And then the next 14 times you mention this thing that bugs you, they patiently say, "Mom, promise me you won't bother with that again, ok?" And then you promise and of course something else incredibly irritating related to the thing that sets you off happens, which, naturally, makes you complain for the 15th time, at which point even your son-in-law starts screaming, saying, "You promised us you wouldn't get involved with that again..." And on it goes. I'm certain there's not a single other parent reading whose kids have ever reprimanded her/im in this way.

Sooooo....in the 16th conversation, my very capable techie-foodie-amazingly sensible daughter says, "That settles it. Time for the parental controls. I'm going to fix your computer so that any time this [unmentionable, unspeakably aggravating] topic comes up, it will be screened out." Which is why I can't even type the word that peeves me so, because if I do type it, like here,   , this is what happens.

Since I first posted this on Sunday, I've had several conversations with people asking WHAT IS IT? How about posting your conjectures below? Careful readers of the previous paragraph, no cheating!

Dr. Carolyn Goodman - Oct 6, 1915-Aug 17, 2007

A few hours ago, I received this email from my friend of forty years, David Goodman:

My mother left this stage at 1:18 AM this morning and is now with my father and brother Andrew and others on the next level. I am sure she is having a fine time.

Complete obit in New York Times, Aug 18, 2007

Readers of this blog may remember my post of June 21, where I included, with his permission, the extraordinary postcard that David gave me in May when I had dinner with Carolyn Drucker Goodman (his mother) at her apartment on New York's Upper West Side. At nearly 92, she remained extraordinarily dignified, surrounded by the memorabilia of an historic life and the good taste of a sophisticated intellectual who'd lived in the city and known fascinating people.

Carolyn Goodman, as in the mother of Andrew Goodman, as in Goodman-Schwerner-and-Chaney, the three young civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964, here with the other two mothers at Andy's funeral.

David's light touch in reporting his mother's death is emblematic of her spirit. She carried herself with rare dignity and grace along avenues where others would have been crawling on the pavement begging. I don't know how anyone survives their child's death, no less brutal murder by the Ku Klux Klan, but she did, while maintaining a complex and influential career as a psychologist (assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein Medical School among other honors-see the jump page for her entire resume and list of publications) and maintaining a lifelong dedication to the Andrew Goodman Foundation that she and her husband started in 1966.

From the moment I met Carolyn in 1969, I wanted to be like her. It was just months after her husband had died suddenly of a stroke, barely five years after her son's murder. ("Andy's death killed him," David once told me.) She was 54 and, at 22, I was overcome with admiration at the composure of this absolutely gorgeous woman, who'd lost her child and husband in such rapid sequence. I was struck also with her beautiful skin (milk baths were the secret, David said).

Many times since, when I've felt overwhelmed by the cards on my table, I've thought of Carolyn, her just continuing, never wallowing, just continuing, positively, without complaint or fury, just continuing.

In 2002, I was honored to present her with the Champions of Freedom Award from Freedom House, here in Boston. She was nearly 88 at the time, still very beautiful, warm, and articulate about the choices she'd made in her life.

So tonight I've lit a very special candle, given to me by Sylvia, my Antioch college roommate, about the time we both met David. Today is Sylvia's 60th birthday and she too was with me for our last dinner with Carolyn on May 18, 2007.

My name is Mary Lou Merriwether

On June 9, 2007, the Board of Trustees of Antioch University decided to suspend operations at Antioch College effective June, 2008. I've posted about this before. Today, I'm cross-posting this letter to fellow alums on college-related chat lists, wikis, and such. What do you think?

Photo from Dayton Daily News, May, 1967
Mary Lou Merriwether, on set of THE ANTIOCH ADVENTURE

 

Dear Antiochians,

My name is Mary Lou Merriwether. I attended Antioch for ten days in the Spring of 1967, during which time I studied, went on coop, found a boyfriend, was cheated on, learned to dance, and graduated, riding out of town in a cap and gown on a BMW R69S.

My real name is Jessica Lipnack. I was the star of “The Antioch Adventure,” Marc Stone’s genius film that people on this list still want to see. (Also had a cameo in Thanos Fatouros’s “Antioch Adventure: Part II”—even got the T-shirt).

Like nearly all who went there, I loved Antioch.

Even NPR is worried about Antioch

My old friend, John McChesney (take no offense at the "old," John :), who taught  literature at Antioch for six of its most rambunctious years, went back for the annual college reunion last weekend and posted this story to "All Things Considered." More typically of late, John has been reporting from Iraq, where he's been embedded with the Arkansas National Guard (and worrying his friends to death).

I was not surprised to get a call from John when the Antioch news broke. Everyone who's ever loved the place is worried and talking...And the college chat rooms are running wild with rumor and innuendo. As an alum, I too grieve for the Antioch that we all loved; as someone who's served on the board and who's had to make hard business decisions, I am relieved that the Board of Trustees pulled a sinking ship to drydock before it took on too much water.

But, I'm very uncertain how to reach my fellow alums, who are disturbed, furious, and hurt about being left out of the decision. Process is very important, always and forever, but even when it's flawed, the right decisions often are made. We need all our diplomats to step forward now and work together to build a viable college for the 21st century.

Antioch goes on co-op

For any of its graduates, Antioch College's co-op program, which sent its students out to work for about six months of every year, was its crown jewel. Out in the real world, the thinking went, students would learn how to put their ideas and their ideals into practice. I loved it as it gave me time to apply what I was learning and to think about  my next steps. The Board of Trustees, which governs both the college and the five graduate and continuing-ed campuses across the US, has, in effect, sent the college on co-op. For the next four years, the college will close as a study takes place to redesign a 21st-century institution.

The NY Times, AP, LA Times, and just about every other publication that can get its hands around this story has been covering it. Most, including an unthoughtful op-ed in the NY Times, focus on the superficial aspects of the story -- Antioch's rep as a haven for mad(wo)men, where faculty let the students run wild, and the administration offers the same to the faculty, while the trustees look the other way.

I am a proud graduate of the 1970 class of Antioch College and a former member of the Board of Trustees. The cacophony of complaints that is blasting out of Yellow Springs, Ohio, the beautiful little village where Antioch is situated, lacks grounding in the reality of running a small liberal arts college without an endowment. The NY Times printed four letters to the editor in response to the knee-jerk op-ed it ran on June 17. But it didn't run mine:

To the Editor:
Michael Goldfarb’s swan song for Antioch College (“Where the Arts Were Too Liberal,” Op-Ed, June 17, 2007) violates two key principles of obituary writing. First, be certain the “person” is dead; and second, fact-check the forensics before reporting cause of death.

Antioch closing/reopening on CNN

CNN is reporting on the close-open case of Antioch College. Who knew my beloved alma-mama could cause such interest?

Antioch Adventure Continues-Boston Alum Meeting

Further to developments at Antioch College, I received this email today from Barbara Waldruff, Chair, Antioch College Alumni Group of New England, a meeting, fellow nearby alums, June 26, 2007, with one of the trustees, as per below:

Dear fellow Antioch alumni,

I certainly hope I'm not breaking the news to you that a week ago the Antioch University Board of Trustees voted to close the College, at least temporarily, in July of 2008. (E-mail me if you'd like to receive relevant documents and links, including a copy of President Lawry's letter to the Antioch community.) This news came as a shock to every member of the Boston alumni planning group. We thought many local alums would be eager for more information about

The reasons for the trustees' decision

The short-term implications for the College, its people, and its physical and financial assets

The proposed restructuring of the College and reopening in 2012

How those of us who care about Antioch and its values and traditions might be able to help

We asked Dan Fallon, Class of 1961, Vice Chair of the Antioch University Board of Trustees and the Program Director of Higher Education at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, to meet with College alumni in New England, and he graciously agreed. The time and place of the meeting will be

Tuesday, June 26
6:00 p.m.
320 Dudley Street, Brookline
(my house)

Put it on your calendar now! If you plan to come, your RSVP would be greatly appreciated. Just reply to this e-mail. If you need directions, please ask. Ample free parking is available on Dudley Street, and on request we'll arrange transportation from a nearby Green Line stop.

We of the planning group encourage you to attend. This will be your best chance to learn about the important changes at the College. And we hope you'll encourage your Antioch friends who may not be on our e-mail list to attend as well.

Sincerely,
Barbara Wallraff
Chair, Antioch College Alumni Group of New England

Antioch College to close :( - and maybe reopen :)

Congratulations to The Board of Trustees of Antioch University, on which body I once served, for taking a very difficult decision, voting to close my alma mater, Antioch College, effective July 1, 2008. Dayton Business Journal reports at 4:29 PM EDT Tuesday, June 12, 2007:

Burdened by declining enrollment and financial problems, Antioch College will suspend operations at its Yellow Springs campus July 1, 2008.

The college's board, which voted June 9 to close the Yellow Springs campus, said it intends to possibly reopen a "state-of-the-art" campus in 2012 if sufficient financial funding can be secured.

"The decision was taken in light of the college's very fragile financial circumstances, resulting from low enrollments and insufficient funding from other sources, including endowment income and gifts," Antioch President Steven Lawry said in a statement Tuesday.

The college has 330 students for the 2006-2007 year, down 36 percent from its 1997 enrollment of 522.

Tuition at Antioch College costs $26,492 per year.

Antioch College has been synonymous with alternatives in higher education for nearly 200 years. Horace Mann, the Bostonian who married Mary Peabody of The Peabody Sisters as in Megan Marshall's fine book, founded Antioch College in 1852.

When I attended Antioch in the '60s, there were 2,000 students, alternating work and study programs around the world. In five years, I went from Yellow Springs, Ohio, where the college is situated, to New York (sold books at Barnes and Noble at 18th and Fifth), to Los Angeles (worked as admin in USC's grad psychology program) to Yellow Springs (managing editor of the Antioch Record, the college newspaper) to Oxford University (studied Elizabethan drama and philosophy) to the Yucatan, Mexico (studied Mayan culture) and back to Yellow Springs to graduate. Education like this is hard to come by.

Antioch has fallen to the pressures of maintaining a small liberal arts college with an even smaller endowment in the 21st century.

Specifying four years to come up with a state-of-the-art plan for a new college is quite a challenge, a radical one. But Antioch is deserving of nothing less.

Standing O to the board for having the guts to do this.

NB: The college's closing will not imperil the fine Antioch University graduate schools across the US. In fact, it may strengthen them as the graduate schools have been subsidizing the college for many years.