by Horace Mann
ANTIOCH COLLEGE REUNION 2010 TOXICITY REPORT – By Dan C. Shoemaker, Ph.D.
11:27 pm in Alumni, Op/Ed, reunion by Horace Mann
ANTIOCH COLLEGE REUNION 2010 TOXICITY REPORT
Antioch College’s 2010 Alumni Reunion celebrated the college’s past, but not its recent past. The 50th Anniversary year for the class of 1960, Reunion was organized to celebrate the participation of Antiochians in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and the institution’s long-standing commitments to equality and social justice. The Morgan Fellows organized a presentation on the historic Gegner Barbershop incident, and the Alumni Board inaugurated the Walter Anderson Award, to honor the outstanding achievements of Antiochians of color. Among the recipients of various other awards were longtime Antioch faculty Steve Schwerner and Al Denman. There is no doubt that the College’s legacy on matters of social justice is a proud one, worthy of celebration (although one must note that the frame around the events was not big enough to include subsequent efforts to promote social justice by Antiochians of a more recent vintage). And yet, as inspiring as the Reunion events were, I could not shake the feeling that I was at a Magic Show, in which the direction of my attention to Social Justice victories of the past served as a distraction from outstanding Social Justice deficits of the present and immediate future. There was very little open discussion of the fact that Antioch College is presently an institution without accreditation, a registrar, admissions staff, co-op staff, recognized student body, recognized tenured faculty, or existing structure for shared governance, despite the fact that the College is slated to reopen in fourteen months.
