The Re-Unmaking of a College: The Politics & Economics of the SLAC Crisis

by | Jun 27, 2026 | Op-Eds & Analysis, Pedagogical Reckoning

By Liz Flyntz · Pedagogical Reckoning · May 16, 2026

On April 14, 2026, Hampshire College’s board of trusteesvoted to close the college at the end of the fall 2026 semester. The announcement was not (or at least, should not have been) a surprise. In March 2026 its accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education,placed Hampshire on notice and warned it could withdraw accreditation over the college’s enrollment and finances. The Massachusetts Department of Higher Educationcould not confirm Hampshire held sufficient resources to operate th…

Antioch College: Key Issues with Citations

by | Jun 27, 2026 | Op-Eds & Analysis, Pedagogical Reckoning

By Liz Flyntz · Pedagogical Reckoning · Jun 1, 2026

Antioch enrolled 115 degree-seeking students in 2025–26, down from 121 the prior year. (Yellow Springs News, September 2025)
The six-year graduation rate is 26 percent. (College Scorecard / U.S. Dept. of Education)
U.S. News ranking has fallen from #100 among national liberal arts colleges (fall 2023) to #183–201 (2026 edition). (Wikipedia, Antioch College)
The college recently withdrew from the Great Lakes Colleges Association — a consortium it helped found (GLCA)

The Pattern and the President ↗

The Pattern and the President

by | Jun 27, 2026 | Op-Eds & Analysis, Pedagogical Reckoning

By Liz Flyntz · Pedagogical Reckoning · Jun 11, 2026

The goal of this article is to look closely at Dr. Jane Fernandes’s record across multiple institutions and ask whether she is the right person to lead a college like Antioch, with all its particularities and its current dire financial state. To be fair, Fernandes took a job offered to her, after a search firm that Antioch’s own board and hiring committee selected recruited her. Very few people with higher-education executive experience would have taken it: turning around a financially distresse…