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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AT ANTIOCH COLLEGE:
A STRATEGY FOR RENEWAL
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Tmstees
June 2004
Ifmen and women ofcharacter andpurpose come to see the significance ofthe present
situation, they can make our small communities such live, interesting, adequate places to live in
that young people ofquality will prefer to stay there. (Arthur E. Morgan, May 1945)
Purpose
One year ago, in June 2003, Antioch University’s Board of Tmstees passed
the following resolution:
RESOLVED, that the Chancellor and the Chair ofthe Board are directed to establish a
special commission, to be known as the Sesquicentennial Commissionfor the Renewal of
Antioch College (the “Renewal Commission”) to develop a plan, strategy, and timetable for
the renewal of Antioch College. The Renewal Commission shall be composed of members
of the Antioch University and Antioch College communities and others, and may utilize the
services of external consultants and advisors as it deems necessary to accomplish its work.
FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Renewal Commission shall consider the following
questions:
I. What educational vision will enable Antioch College to flourish while maintaining its core
values of improving the human condition and the centrality of experiential education within the
context of a liberal arts education?
Academic Program
Curriculum
Co-op
Community
AEA
2. What structure can be established to insure long-term financial viability?
Right-size
Enrollment management
Development
Physical Plant
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 2
3. How can we best facilitate effective leadership at all levels (administration, facnlty, students)
and a campus climate where the educational mission thrives?
:.. Governance
:.. Accountability
:.. Culture
4. How can the College be integrated into the University creating a mutually beneficial
relationship of collaboration and respect?
:.. Structure
:.. Communication
RESOLVED FINALLY, that the Chancellor and the Chair of the Board shall appoint members of
the Renewal Commission within thirty (30) days and shall deliver its final rep0rl to the Board of
Trustees no later than the June 2004 Board meeting. Progress reporls shall be made at the October
2003 and the February 2004 Board meetings.
Part One of this binder is comprised of five tabs, constituting the final report of
the Renewal Commission to the Board of Trustees:
Tab 1 – Introduction & Charge
Tab 2 – I. History and Current Situation
II. Foundational Commitments
Tab 3 – III. Turning to the Future
IV. Experiential Learning at Antioch College
A. Basis for Transformational Change
B. Experiential Learning Communities
C. Community-Based Co-op
D. Cultural and Intellectual Freedom
E. Community, Governance, and Leadership
F. Outcomes-based Assessment
G. Curriculum and Faculty Development
H. Technology Support
I. Enrollment Management
J. Physical Facilities
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
K. Comprehensive Campaign
L. Implementation
Tab 4 – V. Financial Plan
Tab 5 – VI. Summary and Conclusion
Page 3
The following appendices, referenced in this report, can be found in Part Two of
this binder.
APPENDICES
Appendix A. History and current context of Antioch College
Appendix B. Four possible calendars
Appendix C. Rationale and vision for cultural and intellectual freedom
Appendix D. Sample outcomes statement for an Antioch College graduate
Appendix E. Example of criteria to assess writing competence
Appendix F. Benchmarks as proposed by current Antioch faculty
Appendix G. Considerations for recruitment and retention
Appendix H. Financial Plan (full version)
Part Three of this binder contains additional material.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 4
I. History and Current Situation
A brief history of Antioch College is attached to this report as Appendix A,
For the purposes of this report, it is important to understand how Antioch’s
history has shaped its mission, values, structure and resources.
From its inception, Antioch College has made a distinctive commitment to
education not merely for the benefit of its students, but for the improvement of
the human condition. Horace Mann, a distinguished national educational leader,
served as the founding president ofthe College, In his commencement address of
1859, Mann, whose health was failing, issued a ringing appeal to the graduates, “I
beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to
die until you have earned some victory for humanity!” This charge continues to
be cited at every Antioch commencement.
Antioch has always been in the forefront of efforts to extend equal
opportunities for higher education to aIL The College became the first institution
in the nation to admit women as degree candidates on the same footing and to the
same degree curricula as men. The school was an early leader in admitting
African-American students and it was an active positive force in the civil rights
movement. In keeping with the spirit of the late 1960’s, the Antioch Community
embraced an agenda of admitting substantial numbers of disadvantaged students,
primarily urban students of color,
For most of its history, Antioch College has had small enrollment and
endowment, and consequently has experienced repeated episodes of financial
instability, Having once suspended operations for lack of funds in 1881-82, the
College was about to close its doors and liquidate its assets in 1919 when a new
trustee, an engineer named Arthur Morgan, proposed a radical redesign of the
College curriculum that he felt could save it and benefit the nation. The other
trustees responded by electing him president. Morgan called his plan for Antioch
College “practical industrial education,” Its components were to be alternating
ten-week periods of work and study, called co-operative education, and rigorous
standards of general education aimed at developing versatile competence rather
than highly specialized lmowledge.
The Morgan plan succeeded in building enrollment and achieving a
measure of financial stability for the College. Interestingly, Morgan’s
commitment to funding education through work and commitment to community
rather than philanthropic largesse led him to decline an offer from Charles F.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
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Kettering, inventor of the automobile electric self-starter, to provide the College
with a substantial endowment.
Morgan’s communitarian philosophy required treating students as adults
and involving them fully in the life of the College. Academic governance was
shared by the Community Council, with its center of gravity in student affairs,
and the Administrative Council, which dealt with academic curricula and faculty
affairs, including recommendations for hiring, promotion, and tenure. These
institutions, which include faculty, students, staff, and administrators in their
membership, continue to govern College life today, as does the tradition of
frequent community discussion of issues affecting the life of the College.
The success of Antioch’s unique combination of rigorous liberal arts
education with work experience enabled the College to attract outstanding faculty
and students, particularly during the long period of growth from the end of World
War II through the early 1970’s. Faculty included such luminaries as Heinz
Eulau, George Geiger, Jerome Kagan, Judson Jerome, David Epstein, Donald
Keats, Walter Anderson, Ruth Churchill, Harry Steinhauer, and many others.
Students attracted to the College included Clifford Geertz, Rod Serling, Coretta
Scott (King), Herb Gardner, Ed Fisher, Arno Karlen, Deborah Meier, Steven Jay
Gould, Eleanor Holmes (Norton), Mario Capecchi, and Joan Argetsinger (Steitz).
As Antioch’s leadership in co-operative education, service learning, genuinely
academic study abroad and community governance built its reputation,
enrollment grew steadily, reaching a peak of2,470 students in 1972. Despite this
growth, the College’s endowment remained small.
In the late 1960’s, when the “baby boom” generation reached college age,
and demand for higher education reached an all-time high, Antioch College
undertook the development of “Antioch College Centers” located in various sites
around the country, and serving primarily nontraditional students. No strategy or
plan was developed, but rather the acquisition and development of centers
occurred on an opportunistic basis, in some cases through the efforts of local
students wanting to establish their own postsecondary access. With hardly any
endowment to cushion its investment, the College found itself forced to subsidize
its “off-campus” centers, which ultimately accumulated to more than 30 sites.
Faculty in Yellow Springs grew increasingly impatient and frustrated, arguing
that the poorly planned expansion was destroying the strong academic reputation
that had been built over the past half century, and that the College was
squandering resources it badly needed to maintain its quality in Yellow Springs.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
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June 4, 2004
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A restructuring offederal funding programs for low-income students was
perceived by Antioch’s newly admitted students from disadvantaged backgrounds
as threatening to their continued enrollment in higher education. As a result, they
initiated a strike that gathered energy from the many concerns for the College’s
direction at the time. The College lacked the economic, political, and
management capital to respond appropriately, and the result was widespread
intense disruption that damaged the College’s reputation beyond immediate
repair. Enrollment fell steadily, to 1,100 students in 1977 and 500 students in
1981, while the permanent faculty shrank from more than 150 to less than 40
instructional staff during the same period.
Despite the trauma of a precipitous reduction in size, Antioch College
continues to attract and graduate extraordinary students of unusual character and
ability. The College excels annually in benchmark data supplied by the National
Survey of Student Engagement, routinely scoring in the 99th percentile on
“Enriching Educational Experiences,” and above the 90th percentile on such
dimensions as “Active and Collaborative Learning,” and “Student-Faculty
Interaction.” In the most recent NSSE survey, conducted in 2003, Antioch was
cited as an exemplar for receiving highest scores in the nation in two benchmark
categories, enriching educational experiences for first-year students and for
seniors, and ranked in the top ten percent of seven of the other ten measures.
In a study conducted periodically by Franklin and Marshall College
tracking the baccalaureate origins of Ph.D. holders (a cumulative analysis of all
Ph.D. holders from 1920 through 1995) ranked Antioch 20 among 498
Baccalaureate institutions in the number of PhD. degrees awarded to its
graduates. Antioch alumni earned 1363 Ph.D. degrees in that period, where the
range was 4400 for the top ranked institution, Oberlin College, and 149 for the
lowest ranked institution. Of even greater interest is a recent survey by Franklin
and Marshall covering only the years from 1986 to 1995, a time when the number
of students at Antioch College rarely exceeded 600 students in any given year,
and the College was continually struggling administratively and financially. In
that ranking, Antioch placed 32 among 498 Baccalaureate institutions in the
number of Ph.D. degrees awarded to its graduates. Antioch alumni earned 249
Ph.D. degrees in that period, where the range was 959 for the top ranked
institution, again Oberlin College, and 41 for the lowest ranked institution.
Graduates of the College continue to excel in a variety of professions and
enterprises, justifying the assessment made by Loren Pope, former education
editor for the New York Times, in his current web-site and in his book, Colleges
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
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that Change Lives, in which he asserts about Antioch: “There is no college or
university in the country that makes a more profound difference in a young
person’s life, or that creates more effective adults.” That this extraordinary
American educational institution continues to succeed at very high levels is a
tribute to the enduring strength of a special mixture of academic and intellectual
influences and especially to a hard-working talented and committed faculty and
staff that persists in its dedication to the development of students.
Unfortunately, the current curricular structure ofthe College is financially
and academically unsustainable at its current size. Without transformative
change, Antioch College is unlikely to survive. In 1997, Antioch set an
enrollment goal of 800 students by the year 2000, but the number of degree
students has remained under 600 through 2004. For seven of the past ten years,
the College has incurred unbudgeted operating deficits of $500,000 to over $1
million. Investments in admissions marketing, retention initiatives and financial
aid have failed to generate significant gains in enrollment. A recent consolidation
of administrative and financial functions at Yellow Springs failed to prevent
another substantial unbudgeted deficit. First-year retention has declined from
85% in 1985 to 65% in 2002, while the four-year graduation rate has declined
from 48% in 1985 to less than 25% at present, although declines in the six-year
graduation rate are more modest.
The underlying problem is that the school’s small size and endowment
carmot provide the financial resources required to support a traditional liberal arts
education, even with the advantages provided by the co-op program. As a result,
the curriculum is sparse, faculty are underpaid and vulnerable to demoralization,
buildings are poorly maintained, tuition discounting is excessive, admissions
selectivity is lower than the College’s aspirations, and students are dissatisfied.
These problems have contributed to the deterioration of campus climate, volatile
relationships within the College community, allegations of racism, dysfunctional
governance and disempowered leadership. Antioch has embarked on a capital
campaign with a goal of raising $65 million, of which about $30 million has been
committed. However, in view ofthe College’s history of financial instability,
some prospective donors are reluctant to provide full support without a
comprehensive plan to address the College’s basic problems and grasp the great
opportunities that lie before the College community.
Antioch College has survived through reliance on financial subsidies from
the five non-residential campuses of Antioch University, which are the successful
survivors of the expansion initiative of the late 1960’s. But these subsidies
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
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exceed levels that are sustainable over the long term, because they deprive the
non-residential campuses of funds they need to remain competitive in their local
markets. Moreover, inexorable increases in the costs of providing a residential
liberal arts education at all colleges, driven by the inability of traditional forms of
instruction to realize productivity gains from new technology, signifY that
Antioch College’s financial problems will get worse over time without a new and
fundamentally different approach.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
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II. Foundational Commitments
In developing a transformative vision for Antioch College, the Renewal
Commission began with an affirmation of four foundational commitments derived
from the school’s unique mission, history, traditions and educational philosophy.
First is Antioch’s commitment to liberal education as the best and most
powerful form of learning for a world characterized by complexity and change.
The essence of a liberal arts education is its engagement with the ideas,
knowledge, skills and habits of mind that sustain a free, democratic and humane
society. Such a society requires citizens, and above all leaders, with a broad
understanding of the philosophic, historic, scientific, social and artistic
underpinnings of Western and other civilizations, together with an ability to
conduct independent, critical examination of important problems and develop
creative, realistic solutions in cooperation with others. Only a liberal education
can provide students with these understandings and capabilities.
Second is its commitment to education for the advancement ofthe human
condition. A liberal education has value for its own sake, of course, and as
training for a productive professional career. Antioch College, however, aspires
to produce leaders who also are prepared and inspired to “earn some victory for
humanity,” in the words of Horace Mann’s historic challenge. The
accomplishments ofthe College’s graduates in this regard demonstrate the value
of Antioch’s education for this purpose.
Third is Antioch’s commitment to experiential learning. The most
productive form ofliberal education for the advancement of the human condition
is one that combines campus-based study with real-world experience. Antioch’s
co-op program and international education, as well as other forms of experiential
learning such as service learning, field studies, and community projects, provide
students with insights and perspectives on the nature of the world they hope to
improve that cannot be gained from study alone. At the same time, Antioch’s
campus-based academic curricula provide opportunities for in-depth analysis,
discussion and reflection that are difficult to obtain outside educational
institutions. Antioch’s model of experiential learning provides a kind of
education that is available at no other college.
Fourth is the College’s commitment to learning in a diverse and inclusive
community. From its inception, Antioch has led American higher education in
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 10
including women, minorities, low-income students and other groups under-
represented in higher education. Long an essential part of Antioch’s educational
philosophy, collaborative learning increasingly has been recognized as critical to
educational success. Moreover, if Antioch graduates are to lead efforts to
improve our society, they must gain experience in acting as responsible citizens
and leaders of a diverse and inclusive college community. The College’s
commitment to student involvement in and responsibility for community life
remains essential to an Antioch education.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 11
III. Turning to the Future
The challenge for Antioch College is to devise a new paradigm for higher
education that renews Antioch’s educational and financial viability, yet continues
to reflect Antioch’s unchanging commitments. The model proposed by the
Renewal Commission flows directly from its historic foundational commitments
and adds a fifth, consistent with the others and complementary to them:
student-centered, problem-focused learning, rather than faculty-centered,
subject-based teaching.
Traditional methods of classroom-based education position faculty
instructors as repositories of specialized knowledge, whose role is to teach that
knowledge to inexpert students, whose role is to absorb the information presented
to them. Since specialized knowledge is assumed to be in the teacher, faculty are
organized by academic disciplines and curricula are organized into subject-based
courses, with content pre-determined by teachers. Faculty members often teach
essentially the same courses year after year. Since all students are expected to
master the same subject matter, student research plays a secondary role in most
courses, and there is little value in collaboration (indeed, it is often discouraged).
Assessment of student progress is based primarily on a system of credits for
mastery of subject matter, which is treated as an end in itself rather than as a
means for achieving larger purposes.
In contrast, a student-centered, problem-focused educational model
positions faculty members as experienced and knowledgeable mentors, guides,
and facilitators of student learning, rather than as more limited sources of
infonnation. Curricula are organized around important problems or themes,
rather than academic subjects, and students are expected to engage actively in
processes of independent and collaborative research, analysis and problem-
solving. Course content is not pre-detennined, but changes dynamically in
response to student discoveries and interests, and as the character of key problems
change over time. Because important problems are always complex, typical
courses are multi-disciplinary and require students to master and apply
specialized disciplines as tools for problem-solving, rather than as ends in
themselves.
Multi-disciplinary approaches in tum require collaboration among groups
of students and faculty, in order to take advantage of different kinds of expertise
and to pursue different aspects of the problem under investigation. Faculty must
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 12
have a strong grounding in specific disciplines, but also must be able to connect
their special knowledge with that of others. Student assessment is based on
definitions of educational outcomes that emphasize the mastery of knowledge,
skills and dispositions as they relate to the problem-solving purpose of education,
rather than on the accumulation of credits for subject-based courses that teach
knowledge for its own sake.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
IV. Experiential Learning at Antioch College
Page 13
A. Basis for Transformational Change
The characteristics of a student-centered, problem-focused approach to
learning are ideally suited for Antioch College because of its traditional
commitments to the liberal arts, to education for the advancement of the human
condition, to experiential learning, and to learning in community. They require
substantial changes, however, to the forms through which Antioch currently
delivers its educational programs.
Despite Antioch’s interdisciplinary majors, the current academic program
is modeled more on the traditional faculty-centered, subject-focused teaching
approach than the new paradigm described here. Despite Antioch’s commitment
to experiential learning, there is little integration at present between campus
academic study and co-op experience. Despite Antioch’s educational philosophy
of learning in community, neither the academic program nor co-op currently takes
adequate advantage of collaborative learning methods, or even of participation in
a self-governing community. To be an engaged citizen of a democracy makes
many demands, including balancing freedom with responsibility, entering debate
with reason and informed opinion, making decisions within limited resources, and
learning by doing. The College currently implicitly promises to teach these skills,
but lacks clear provision for doing so explicitly.
In sum, the current curricular structure does not fully support the
achievement of Antioch’s educational mission, as defined by its foundational
commitments. This might be one reason why more than two decades of effort to
improve the College’s performance have failed to achieve significant results.
Although the Renewal Commission’s work was instigated by the College’s
chronic and seemingly intractable business and financial problems, the
Commission is convinced that an effective renewal initiative must begin with a
transformation of Antioch’s educational program that better suits the institution’s
fundamental purposes and commitments.
We present here an overview of a transformational vision. To respond with
seriousness of purpose to our charge required that we imagine a new Antioch, and
that we do so in sufficient detail to persuade ourselves and others that the vision
we assemble can be constructed in reality. Therefore, the rich detail in much of
our report was driven by the necessity of our task, and is not meant to be minutely
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
.– -T
Page 14
prescriptive. Indeed, in some areas only broad strokes are drawn. What is laid
out here is a broad conception. Traditional roles of faculty, staff, students,
academic library, and co-op, will change. To make this vision real will require
the work of many people, centered in the Antioch College community. For this
purpose, we propose a plan for implementation that is to be carried out by the
College with constructive assistance from an ongoing oversight body reporting to
the Board of Trustees. We believe that to grasp the vision we present in response
to our charge requires familiarity with the details that emerged from our analysis.
No plan ofthis kind shall, however, be fully comprehensive. The vision is what
is important, and with it a courageous ambition to strike out boldly, leading a new
generation to the high purposes to which Antioch has always been committed.
B. Experiential Learning Communities
In keeping with Antioch’s new commitment to student-centered, problem-
focused learning, the College plans to replace its traditional faculty-centered,
subject-based courses with experiential learning communities (working title)
whose character is unique to Antioch College. These ELCs will constitute the
core of an Antioch education. Antioch faculty are in philosophy and praxis
already non-traditional and open minded. Antioch faculty are already very unlike
their colleagues in higher education. The new model presents them with the
opportunity to act upon their strengths by rebuilding the way they organize
teaching and learning.
“Learning communities” have evolved relatively recently as a way of
delivering liberal arts education. Typical learning communities combine the
students and faculty from the equivalent of several courses into one topically
organized unit that focuses on an important problem or theme, exploiting the
different disciplinary perspectives of engaged faculty. Variations of this idea
have grown substantially in popularity in the past 20 years. Some form of
learning community can be found today at more than 500 colleges and
universities in the United States. Research studies have found that learning
communities typically increase student retention, improve student academic
performance, and are associated with higher levels of student and teacher
satisfaction. These findings hold for a variety of learning community settings and
for a range of coursework and types of students.’
I Taylor, K, with W. S. Moore, J. MacGregor, and 1. Lindblad, 2003, Learning Community Research and
Assessment: What We Know Now, National Learning Communities Project Monograph Series, Olympia,
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
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Antioch’s new, unique, and powerful learning environment will develop
experiential learning communities designed to integrate students’ on-campus
academic study in a learning community with experiential learning, through such
forms as field studies, community work, internships, and through linkages with
co-op work, service learning, or other off-campus experiences. Typical ELCs
will have 30 to 45 students, two to three faculty from different academic
disciplines, and student-faculty ratios of 15 to 1. Much design work will need to
be carried out during an implementation planning phase, but, here are some
illustrations of how these ELCs might work.
• The ELCs will focus on an important problem or theme from multi-
disciplinary perspectives. An environmental issues ELC, for example,
might involve 45 students, three faculty from different disciplines (say,
biology, economics and literature), and a few advanced students serving as
teaching assistants. Students interested in social justice issues might
register for a year-long ELC that combines one term of on-campus
academic study on factors affecting the distribution of economic wealth
and political power with one term of off-campus co-ops with community
development agencies, social service agencies, employment agencies, legal
services organizations, or other relevant institutions.
• The content ofELCs will vary according to the students’ stage of
development and the problem under examination, but will typically include
four main elements:
1. core knowledge about the problem, drawn from different disciplinary
perspectives and delivered through traditional classroom lectures,
discussions, and readings,
2. collaborative, student-directed projects that focus on particular aspects
of the problem, carried out under the guidance of a faculty advisor,
3. some form of experiential learning, such as participation in related
co-ops, field studies, community work, service learning projects,
internships and the like, and
4. presentation, critical review and integration of student projects and
experiences, with a view toward summing up results and drawing
implications for relevant communities of practice.
Washington: The Evergreen State College, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate
Education, in cooperation with the American Association for Higher Education.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
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• Throughout each ELC, educational activities will be linked and shared
through on-line technology that will enable students and faculty to engage
in discussion, pose questions, find and distribute source materials, share
ideas and discoveries, submit and review assignments, and provide
critiques and assessments where appropriate. During periods of off-
campus work, students will be linked in on-line “virtual ELCs” to maintain
communication with other students and faculty involved.
• Antioch’s curriculum will be structured to match stages of student
development. First-year ELCs will be devoted to general education, with
emphasis on developing the foundations of knowledge and the work
competencies that are fundamental to the liberal arts at Antioch. Special
emphasis will be placed on the development of written, oral, quantitative,
and graphic presentation skills, and on developing the experiential and
community learning methods necessary at Antioch. Second-year ELCs
will develop familiarity with the languages and work of leading thinkers in
various disciplines, and will introduce students to important problem areas
and communities of practice, encouraging their experimentation with a
variety of analytic and problem-solving skills. Third-year ELCs will focus
on developing refinement and fluency in the vocabularies of specific
disciplines, as well as an ability to cross disciplinary boundaries. Students
will develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of practice and the
challenges of contributing to their communities of practice. Fourth-year
ELCs will focus student work on specific areas of inquiry, with an eye
toward a capstone senior project as a means of integrating and culminating
their academic and experiential learning.
• Although ELCs will vary in length, a typical ELC might consist of one or
two IS-week terms of full-time involvement by students and faculty.
Full-time ELCs will have greater flexibility in scheduling on-campus
classes and off-campus experiential learning activities, since conflicts with
other classes will not arise. Some full-time ELCs, however, might be
divided into two semi-independent “modules” of a half-term each, and
some half-time, term-long ELCs might be offered. Offering these shorter-
term or half-time ELCs will enable the College to offer more ELCs and
hence provide more curricular choices to students.
• Because ELCs will be scaled at 30 to 45 students and two to three faculty
each, the new curriculum will offer significantly fewer ELCs than the
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Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
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number of subject-based courses now offered under the current curriculum,
where the average class size is eight students and one instructor. However,
this apparent reduction in student choice will be offset by the greater
flexibility within each ELC for individuals or groups of students to pursue
particular interests related to the ELCs’ broad theme or problem, The
student-centered, problem-based educational philosophy that underlies the
ELC concept, along with the engagement of several faculty “guides” with a
range of disciplinary expertise, will enable students to explore different
aspects of the problem, define what is important and interesting to them,
identify and learn the disciplinary knowledge that is necessary, and
collaborate with other students on educational projects that were largely of
their own devising.
• The final structure of the curriculum has yet to be determined. The Dean
and faculty have developed four alternative structural calendars that are
displayed in Appendix B. These four calendars serve as a point of
departure for further development led by the faculty. Calendar B
represents the current leading candidate for implementation. Under
Calendar B, students will spend their first year on campus in at least two
IS-week ELCs. Students will have the summer oftheir first year off, but
will have the opportunity to work on areas for academic improvement
identified during their first year. Students in the second and third years will
undertake alternating terms of on-campus ELCs and off-campus co-ops.
The summer after the third year will be devoted to an additional co-op or to
an individualized learning experience designed to augment the basic ELC
curriculum in areas where students need or want to undertake additional
study or independent research. Fourth year students will spend their entire
year in senior seminar ELCs designed in part to support their capstone
senior projects. Unlike the current program, summers will be structured
largely without formal teaching responsibilities, leaving most faculty with
additional time for research, course development and professional
development.
• In planning the curriculum, the faculty will consider including one or more
full-year ELCs for the second or third years on an experimental basis, as
shown in Calendar D. These full-year ELCs will include both a term of on-
campus study and a term of off-campus co-ops related to the same theme or
problem, such as environmental protection, social justice, or health care
and wellness. Half the class will study first, then work; the other half will
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June 4, 2004
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be on the reverse schedule. Faculty and students in Yellow Springs and on
co-op will be linked into “virtual ELCs” for discussions of study
assignments, readings, and co-op experiences. This form ofELC might
provide the best integration of on-campus study and off-campus co-op, but
it will entail significant challenges in coordinating curriculum with co-op
placements, and will require students to commit a full year of their Antioch
educations to a single theme or problem.
• Antioch Education Abroad (AEA), the College’s successful international
study program, already contains many of the features of an ELC. Each
year, nearly 150 students from Antioch and other colleges and universities
ofthe United States participate in AEA programs taught jointly by Antioch
faculty and faculty from host countries. These programs are topically
organized and highly integrated learning communities that provide an
opportunity for learning cross-cultural skills in the context of specific areas
of knowledge. In addition to building upon its comparative advantage,
AEA will develop and offer language instruction and foreign study through
a year-long immersion program, similar to a full-year ELC. This program
will begin with a term of foreign study and language training, typically in
the fall of the second or third year, then continue with one term of co-op in
the same host country. Research and experience suggest that immersion
models oflanguage and cultural acquisition are more effective modes of
instruction than typical classroom language courses.
• Limited opportunities for study outside of ELCs will be offered, provided
that they do not increase faculty load or compromise the integrity and
cohort effect of the ELC model. Such opportunities might enable students
to devote additional time to languages, mathematics, the performing arts,
and other areas of knowledge that might not fit easily within the ELC
structure.
• Student majors will be replaced by individualized Plans of Study developed
at the end ofthe first year. These plans will follow either standardized or
negotiated pathways. Planning and assessment periods will be scheduled at
the end of each year. Pathways will culminate in specialized senior-year
ELC seminars, and will require the completion of capstone senior projects.
All students will receive degrees in Liberal Arts, and, in addition, with the
approval of faculty mentors they will be able to choose an appropriate
name for their concentration.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
u •• I
Page 19
• Faculty will be organized into Curricular Planning Units (CPUs), which
will group faculty members with similar interests. The CPUs will typically
cut across traditional disciplinary/departmental lines. The classical
divisions ofthe natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and arts and
media represent one possible structure, but other configurations will be
reviewed during implementation planning.
In sum, ELCs can be understood as a hybrid form of teaching and learning
that will combine the disciplinary knowledge of traditional liberal arts subjects,
the integrative perspectives of problem-based learning, the experiential dimension
of co-op, and the intellectual freedom of inquiry that characterize independent
study. This is an ambitious concept. The ELCs will challenge faculty to support
a wide range of academic endeavors, even when these do not fall neatly within
the instructor’s disciplinary specialty. They will challenge students to take
greater responsibility for setting their own academic direction and pursuing
relevant knowledge, rather than relying on teachers to tell them what to learn.
Done well, however, the Renewal Commission believes that student-centered,
problem-based ELCs will provide a form ofliberal education excellently suited to
Antioch College’s ultimate purpose and foundational commitments.
C. Community-Based Co-op
The Renewal Commission’s second major proposal is to enrich the
educational and social value of off-campus co-ops by clustering most co-ops in
selected host communities. At present, co-op jobs are scattered around the
country, and co-op students have little contact with Antioch College or other
students during their work experience. The lack of connection with the academic
program limits the educational value of co-op, and disruption in social
relationships and sense of membership in the College community contributes to
Antioch’s high attrition rate, especially for students in the first and second years.
Clustering co-ops in host communities will provide opportunities for students to
add an academic dimension to their co-op experience, maintain relationships with
the College and friends, and reduce the sense of isolation and distance that leads
to poor retention. Although plans are not final, here is how a community-based
co-op program might work:
• Each host community might have about 20 to 30 co-op students in
residence at any given time. Depending on enrollment, Antioch will
develop and maintain relationships with eight to twelve host communities.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 20
Most host communities will be located in metropolitan areas with plentiful
employment opportunities, interesting economic, political and social issues,
and enough Antioch alumni to support the creation of a local alumni
volunteer group. Some host communities could be located where Antioch
University has non-residential campuses, such as Los Angeles or Seattle.
• Students on co-op will be required to participate in regular seminars, and to
make at least one presentation per term on the relationship of their co-op
experience to host community issues and/or to issues relevant to their on-
campus ELCs. These presentations will become part of their permanent
learning portfolios. Students participating in year-long ELCs that combine
on-campus study with off-campus co-op will be required to participate in
on-line discussions and other academic exercises designed to integrate their
work experience with ELC study. Participation in both host-community
and on-line seminars will carry academic credit.
• Host communities will be managed on site by at least one full-time faculty
and/or professional staff, who will be responsible for four functions: (1)
coordination of the local co-op program, including developing jobs,
maintaining relations with employers, and assisting students on co-op, (2)
organization and supervision of the regular co-op seminars described
above, (3) development of an alumni volunteer organization and cultivation
of prospective alumni donors, and (4) recruiting and counseling candidates
for admission to Antioch College. Host community faculty/staff will not
ask prospective donors for money or make admissions decisions; these
functions will remain with the central development and admissions offices
in Yellow Springs.
• Alumni volunteer organizations will be developed to provide support for all
aspects of Antioch’s host community activities. Alumni will be
encouraged to help with co-op job development, foster contacts with
community leaders, participate in co-op discussion seminars as appropriate,
host events for students, alumni and local leaders, support the College’s
fund-raising efforts, and assist with admissions recruiting and counseling.
The Renewal Commission believes that the involvement of local alumni
with the host community program will improve the work, educational and
social experiences of students on co-op, develop increased alumni giving,
boost admissions applications and enrollment, and enhance Antioch’s
reputation in key metropolitan areas.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 21
• Students will be allowed to develop “own-plan” co-ops in locations other
than host communities, but only after at least one co-op in a host
community and only with the approval of their co-op advisor.
• The co-op program will continue to be managed by a central co-op
department in Yellow Springs. With much of the responsibility for co-op
job development, employer relations and student assistance shifted to host
community staff, on-campus co-op faculty will focus on student planning
and advisory functions, and on participation in year-long ELCs that
combine on-campus study with off-campus co-ops.
D. Cultural and Intellectual Freedom
The challenge to defeat racism in all of its toxic forms, and to promote an
inclusive and fully participatory society, is a core foundational commitment of
Antioch College. As Antioch transforms its means of delivering education, it
shall undertake a major initiative funded with new capital to transform the
College into an institution that embeds cultural and intellectual freedom, diversity
and inclusion into its core values, principles and competencies. We have
included a description of the rationale and vision for a major substantive initiative
on behalf of a vibrantly diverse society as Appendix C. Proceeding from a logical
analysis worked out by Martin Luther King, Jr., the initiative promotes the broad
goals of cultural and intellectual freedom for all members of society.
The College shall consider including the following components in this
initiative: the formulation of diversity goals for Antioch College; the expansion of
the responsibilities, title and staff of the Director of the Office of Multicultural
Affairs position; the creation of permanent diversity skills training programs for
faculty, students and administrators; the invitation of senior visiting scholars and
practitioners with accomplishments in the area of diversity; the establishment of
faculty endowed chairs and student scholarships for people with demonstrated
commitments and accomplishments in the area offreedom and diversity; funding
for student-run lectures, presentations, concerts, plays and other events that
celebrate the College’s achievements in cultural and intellectual freedom; and the
development of support services required for students from diverse racial and
cultural backgrounds to succeed at Antioch.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4,2004
Page 22
E. Community, Governance and Leadership
Antioch College has long been committed to an educational philosophy
that emphasizes the importance of shared leadership and governance structures
that involve all members of the community: faculty, staff, students and
administrators. Both the Antioch University Board of Trustees and the Renewal
Commission, however, recognized from the beginning of this project that the
College’s concepts ofleadership, governance and community might require as
significant a transformation as its educational programs and finances. Despite
several decades of significant enrollment and financial problems, the College has
been unable to take effective action on its own to improve attrition, recruitment,
and other aspects of financial performance, an indicator of dysfunctional
governance and disempowered leadership as well as scarce resources. The
Antioch University Board of Trustees has been compelled to intervene often in
the last few years, most recently with the Financial Stabilization Committee to
address the budgeting and financial crisis of 2002, and again with the formation
of the Renewal Commission itself. There have been problems in recruiting
permanent leadership, and next year the College will begin its second interim
Presidency in three years.
During its work this spring, the Renewal Commission encountered its own
difficulties with the Antioch College community. In March, its meetings were
disrupted by masked students demanding that the Renewal Commission provide
immediate redress for alleged racism at the College. Members of the Renewal
Commission were subjected to verbal abuse, banging on windows, and physical
intimidation. Two members who addressed a community meeting were
threatened with being physically restrained from leaving the room until they
agreed to the demands of protesters. From this experience and subsequent
discussions with students, faculty and administrators, the Renewal Commission
found that there have been serious racial tensions on campus, that many believe
the College has devoted insufficient support for multicultural affairs, that the
climate of trust required for educational communities to function has deteriorated,
and that expectations of free and respectful discussion and debate have been
disregarded. Moreover, there seem to be few effective mechanisms for building
respect for community.
The Renewal Commission makes the following recommendations for
improving Antioch College’s community, governance and leadership.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 23
• The Renewal Commission is concerned that the College’s problems with
leadership, governance, and community climate are caused in part by
defects in the overall University governance structure. The Renewal
Commission, therefore, supports the recommendation ofthe Chair ofthe
Board of Trustees that the Board convene a board retreat at its October
meeting to consider the basic concept and structure of the University, the
College’s relation to the University, and the College’s educational,
marketing, operational and financial relations with other campuses
(especially McGregor). A review of College governance and University
structure was included in the original charge to the Renewal Commission
in June 2003, and these matters have been discussed conscientiously at
several meetings. Nonetheless, the Commission believes that full
consideration of these issues shall be deferred until after the Board has
considered and approved the educational and other initiatives proposed in
the present report at its June 2004, meeting.
• Further, the Renewal Commission recommends that following the October
Board retreat on University governance, the President of Antioch College
appoint a task force for the review of College and Community governance
that will be charged with responsibility for assessing the current College
and Community governance system, examining best practices, and
developing plans for improvement by June 30, 2005.
• The President of the College shall lead the fonnulation of a long-term
strategy for community development, with the goal of creating an inclusive
and respectful culture where responsibility, integrity and diversity are
understood and valued. This plan should detail how experientialleaming
communities will contribute to Antioch’s community life and culture; how
the development of competency in leadership and change will be
accomplished; how Antioch can create and sustain an inclusive culture that
embraces freedom and diversity; how Antioch can develop the competency
in freedom and diversity issues required for a multicultural educational
institution; how effective leadership can be supported at all levels; how
community ties can be maintained with students who are off campus; and
how responsibilities for implementation of the community development
plan should be assigned.
• To educate students who are prepared to advance the human condition, as
well to become effective participants in community and governance,
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 24
Antioch College’s new curriculum will build on its informal traditions to
create a core competency in leadership and change for all students. Means
to develop these characteristics shall be considered as general education
requirements for all students, and perhaps such learning shall be introduced
within all first-year ELCs. Definitions of appropriate knowledge, skills and
dispositions with regard to leadership, governance, community and change
will be included in the regular outcomes-based assessment process. This
core component of Antioch’s new curriculum will develop knowledge and
competency in leadership, group process, community-building,
cross-cultural and global understanding and cooperation, the theory and
practice of intellectual freedom, the history and practice of social change,
strategies for organizational change, and ethical and moral dimensions of
leadership. The Commission further recommends that the faculty consider
including a focus on Antioch College as a case study in this component of
the curriculum. In addition to its educational benefit, a deeper
understanding of the College’s leadership, governance, community issues
and change processes might contribute to improvements in these areas.
• Antioch College must become an organization that self-directs, self-
manages, and self-corrects in strategic ways. It is a place for teaching and
learning but it must become a learning organization, a self-aware
organization that can own, shape, and adjust its future agendas. The North
Central Association formulated the explicit challenge to the College to
become much more effective, for example, in linking planning, budgeting,
development and enrollment management. The strategic planning
enterprise, mandated for all of Antioch’s units, is thus of paramount
importance for the College and a sine qua non for the new Antioch.
• Antioch College shall review best practices in open-book management and
consider implementing an appropriate form of this approach so that
members of the community can develop a more comprehensive
understanding of the business factors involved in important decisions. If
adopted, the faculty shall consider including study of open-book
management and the business dynamics of the College as part of the case
study on Antioch during first-year ELCs.
• The College shall review the its Honor Code as the governing standard for
behavior by all members of the Antioch College community, and determine
ways by which it can effectively be implemented and honored. All
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 25
community members shall be required to sign the Honor Code as a
condition of their membership in the community, Violations shall be dealt
with promptly and fairly with protections for the rights of accused violators
as well as for the interests of the community,
F. Outcomes-Based Assessment
A shift to student-centered, problem-based learning requires new methods
of assessment. The Renewal Commission proposes that Antioch College adopt a
system of assessment based on educational outcomes defined by the faculty,
rather than on the accumulation of course credits, For Antioch, the definition of
educational outcomes should be derived from the foundational commitments
described in Section A, above. Some of the broader outcomes will include the
following.
• For Antioch, the essence ofliberal education is engagement with the ideas,
knowledge, skills and habits of mind that inform and sustain a free,
democratic and humane society. Antioch graduates shall understand the
perspectives on history, on the natural world, on individuals and society, on
literature and texts, on the arts, and on human existence and values on
which Western and other cultures are predicated.
• Antioch is committed to education for the advancement ofthe human
condition. The ELCs will promote viewing social problems from multiple
disciplinary perspectives, and they will encourage integration with co-op
work, and with people from all walks oflife who reside in host
communities, and reflection on these real-world experiences. Students will
gain skills in leadership and change as members of a functional self-
governing campus community. In addition, Antioch graduates will master
the skills required for critical thinking, creative thinking, communication in
first and second languages, development and use of information, and
quantitative analysis.
• Antioch is committed to experiential learning as an essential component of
its liberal education. Antioch graduates shall be able to engage in
productive work with economic value, meet the work expectations and
ethical standards of their employers, use their work experiences to motivate
and inform academic study, and use academic study to inform and motivate
contributions to their communities of practice.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 26
• Antioch is committed to learning in community. Antioch graduates shall
be able to practice leadership, cooperate with others to formulate and
achieve goals, act responsibly, exercise judgment and sensitivity to context,
employ and respect a diversity of perspectives, develop and act on ethical
convictions, participate actively in the civic life of the community, and
understand how to achieve constructive change in complex organizations
and societies.
• Finally, Antioch is committed to student-centered, problem-based learning.
Antioch graduates shall cultivate intellectual curiosity, engage in learning
as an active and life-long process, exhibit intellectual honesty, and develop
competence in identifYing and solving important problems.
The specific definitions of outcomes that correspond to these commitments
and the mechanics of the assessment process will be determined during the
implementation phase. Nonetheless, in its intensive work over the past two
months the faculty organized a campus design team that sent us materials
containing a sample outcomes statement for an Antioch graduate, presented here
as Appendix D. An example of criteria that could be used specifically in
assessing competence in writing is presented as Appendix E. The full set of
benchmark principles developed by the faculty design team is contained in
Appendix F. Guiding objectives recommended by the Renewal Commission are
as follows.
• Faculty will specifY the knowledge, skills and dispositions that Antioch
graduates must possess, together with the methods by which these are to be
evaluated. Assessments must be credible, transparent and respected, and
the profile of the Antioch graduate that emerges from the standards
specified by the faculty must be clear and ambitious.
• Assessments will be developmental, allowing students to proceed through
progressively more demanding benchmarks. The assessment process will
be linked to the developmental aspects of the curricular structure described
as Experiential Learning Communities in Section B, above. Two forms of
assessments will be made: (1) on-going oral and written assessments by
faculty members of student work in each ELC, and (2) comprehensive
assessments at the end of the first and second academic years and at
graduation. Evaluations will focus on two domains: (1) the liberal arts,
and (2) the individual pathway chosen by the student through Antioch’s
curriculum.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 27
• Students will develop learning portfolios (electronic and print) as the
principal method for planning, organizing, directing, summarizing and
assessing learning. Portfolios will include ELC and co-op evaluations, key
papers, evaluations of experiential learning, self-evaluations,
documentation of performances and projects, assessment results, materials
from the senior capstone experience and similar materials. Comprehensive
oral and written review of learning portfolios will constitute an important
part of the assessment process at each stage.
• Outside reviewers will be brought in to join with Antioch faculty in
reviewing candidates for graduation. These reviewers will be drawn from
faculty of other colleges and universities, prominent business leaders and
professionals, and public servants. The participation of outside reviews
helps to provide public validation of the assessment process and
disseminates knowledge about the quality of Antioch graduates.
G. Curriculum and Faculty Development
The strategy outlined above will require significant investments in
curriculum and faculty development, both at the outset and on an ongoing basis.
Learning community curricula developed at other colleges and universities can
provide examples and sources, but no other institution incorporates the
experiential learning component that will be integral to Antioch’s model. Much
ofthe new curriculum will require original design. The development approach
proposed by the faculty design team and recommended by the Renewal
Commission includes the following items.
• Both at the outset and on an ongoing basis, faculty members will need time
and financial support to visit campuses with learning communities and
participate in professional development programs designed to help them
develop the pedagogical skills required to teach successfully in a
student-centered, problem-based, technology-supported educational
program.
• Both at the outset and on an ongoing basis, faculty will require summer
stipends to develop ELC curricula, including definitions of course
objectives; introductory lectures and discussions; lesson plans, reading
lists, and student assignments; schedules for student project proposals,
approvals, interim reports and final presentations; plans for integrative
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 20Q4
Page 28
discussions at the end of the ELC term; and methods for interim and final
assessments.
• Especially with the installation of new technology support, faculty will
need training and support in the use of information technology in
experiential learning communities. Co-op faculty will also need to develop
ways to manage relations between the central co-op department and the
faculty, staff and students in host communities.
• Faculty will also need support to attend conferences on teaching and
learning, both to test their ideas about our new pedagogy and to help
disseminate to the higher education community the innovative curriculum
they have developed.
• On an ongoing basis, faculty will need financial support and release time to
keep up with their respective academic disciplines, attend and participate in
academic conferences, and conduct research related to their disciplines.
Experience at other institutions indicates that the time demands and
problem-based character of learning communities makes it more difficult
for faculty members to keep up with their base disciplines unless special
provision is made for this purpose.
• The Renewal Commission also recommends that the College invest in
faculty careers as a way to retain and attract the dynamic, innovative
teachers that Antioch will need for successful implementation of the ELC
program. The College should seek to increase faculty salaries to levels that
are competitive with its peer institutions, and to ensure that it provides an
adequate sabbatical leave program for purposes of research, curriculum
development, and further training in educational technologies and
information services.
• If faculty are to be effective in the new Antioch, they will need additional
support from administrative and professional positions in several areas.
New positions to direct co-op activities in host communities and to provide
educational technology services to faculty members should be included.
H. Technology Support
A stUdent-centered, problem-based, multi-disciplinary curriculum
incorporating experiential learning will require more advanced technology
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 29
support than traditional classroom-based educational programs. With greater
responsibility for developing learning projects and pursuing ideas and
discoveries, students need access and references to information and learning
sources not just on campus, but around the world. The larger size ofELCs, their
greater variety of disciplinary perspectives and learning projects, and their
outcomes-based assessment methods increase the quantity and complexity of
teaching and administrative demands on faculty, who must have excellent support
from technology ifthey are to succeed. The new Antioch College will be:
• A dynamic and engaged learning environment that combines face-to-face
educational activities with technology-mediated learning and
communication support.
• A place in which the digital library and full access to digital information
and leaming technologies is at the core of the student learning process, and
in which librarians playa significant role in creating and supporting student
learning.
• A learning environment that models the technology-mediated world in
which students will be living and working after graduation.
• A place where technology fosters a deep sense of community by
maintaining links among students and faculty both on and off campus, and
that keeps all members of the community informed on a timely basis of key
events, developments and issues at the College.
• A learning environment in which faculty teaching is supported and
enlivened with technology, and in which technology helps make better use
faculty time in finding educational resources, advising, scheduling,
assessment and administrative activities.
• A place that uses technology to facilitate the use of the Internet by
socially-engaged students to make and maintain contacts outside Yellow
Springs, thereby moving beyond the geographic limitations and insularity
of the campus.
In order to realize this vision, the Renewal Commission recommends that
Antioch College make major investments in its technology infrastructure and
support services.
• The College shall build a technology infrastructure capable of supporting a
student-centered, problem based educational program with significant
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 30
off-campus experiential learning components and a strong emphasis on
community. This includes high-speed wireless networks, adequate
bandwidth to support intensive use, the ability to support virtual ELCs
involving both on and off campus students, and the necessary support staff
and systems to facilitate the use of this infrastructure by faculty, students
and administrators.
• Campus information technology shall be integrated into a digital library
that will serve as an “information commons” for all educational activities.
Digital library and technology support staff shall be integrated into a single
office to ensure maximum coordination and seamless service to faculty and
students. The library’S physical plant shall provide adequate space and
facilities for technology-mediated instruction, study and research.
• Antioch College shall adopt the outsourced service model using the
FirstClass system to provide Internet-based information services. This
model was developed by the PhD in Leadership program and is also used
by the Seattle and Southern California campuses.
• The College shall upgrade its Datatel system, link all administrative offices
through this software, and ensure that all Datatel packages are fully utilized
throughout the campus. The information technology (IT) function at the
College shall include a Datatel expert to support the use of the system’s
modules.
• All members of the Antioch community shall be expected to become adept
at using modern information technology in their teaching and
administrative work. The College shall provide adequate faculty
development programs to enable faculty to achieve and maintain
proficiency in the use of information technology.
• All students shall be required to have a laptop computer with wireless
network capabilities. Students shall be provided with training and support
in the use of Antioch’s educational technology services. Students shall be
responsible for the purchase and maintenance oftheir laptops; these
expenses shall be included in student budgets for the purpose of awarding
financial aid.
The College shall become part ofthe University-wide initiative to share
on-line courses with real-time voice-over-Internet and document sharing in ways
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 31
that expand learning opportunities and reduce the time and costs of providing
these programs,
I. Enrollment Management
Enrollment growth is an essential component of the renewal plan proposed
here, even though we have prepared a plan that can be sustainable and is
financially viable at a relatively small enrollment size. Under current conditions,
Antioch College needs about 800 head count students to achieve budgetary
stability. Under the proposed plan, our financial projections show a similar
break-even point at only 677 head-count students. The experientialleaming
communities we recommend for the new plan offer financial advantages to
Antioch College through their ability to deliver a high-quality liberal arts
education with higher student-faculty ratios than Antioch can achieve at its
current size with a traditional subject-based curriculum. But ELCs do not
represent a financial panacea; most of the potential financial gains derived from
higher student:faculty ratios will be required to support improved technology,
adequate staffing for co-op and related activities in host communities, and higher
faculty compensation.
To achieve sustainable financial equilibrium, enrollment growth is
necessary to take advantage of scale economies in admissions marketing,
technology, facilities, support and administrative costs. Furthermore, with less
than 600 students in total and less than 400 students on campus, and with ELCs of
30 to 45 students each, students will have only a few ELCs from which to choose
each year. More choices could be offered by developing half-time or half-term
ELCs, but shorter-term ELCs may tend to dilute the educational advantages of
focusing on a single large problem from multiple disciplinary perspectives over a
substantial period of time. Enrollment growth is necessary to support enough
ELCs to satisfy student demands for educational choice.
The Renewal Commission proposes that Antioch College set a goal of
attracting 900 or more degree-seeking students by fiscal year 2014, ten years from
now. This will represent an increase of more than 50% over Antioch’s current
enrollment ofless than 600 students. Enrollment growth will be achieved through
a combination of increased admissions and reduced attrition. More specifically:
• Enrollment of degree students shall grow from an average of 600 degree
students in 2004 to 900 degree students in 2014. The enrollment and
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 32
financial plan anticipates a temporary decline of about 50 students in
enrollment during the next two or three years due to uncertainty over the
new educational program. After 2006-07, the plan projects enrollment to
grow steadily.
• The College also must achieve a significant increase in its retention rate, as
measured by the federal methodology for calculating two-year retention.
Two-year retention shall rise from current levels of under 60% to a rate of
70% or over by 2008-09.
• Many enrollment experts suggest that retention varies as much or more
with initial admissions selectivity as with program quality. Antioch shall
reduce its acceptance rate from the current level of over 80% of applicants
to less than 70% by the fall of2007-8, with an ultimate goal of60% or less
by fall of2010-11.
• The average unfunded discount rate shall be reduced from its budgeted
level of 45% in 2003-04 to a rate of 40% or less by 2008-09. The average
total discount rate, including both funded and unfunded financial aid, shall
decline from the budgeted level of 59% in 2003-04 to a rate of 50% or less
by 2008-09.
• The College shall also achieve steady increases in enrollment of students
from under-represented populations. The enrollment task force established
to develop an implementation plan shall establish goals for increased
diversity and establish a system for measuring achievement against this
plan on an annual basis.
To achieve these goals, The Renewal Commission recommends the
following enrollment management initiatives. Additional detail is provided in
Appendix G.
• The College shall establish a more integrated approach to an enrollment
management system focused on students and student success. The College
shall establish an Enrollment Management Oversight Committee reporting
to the President that will coordinate admissions, financial aid, student
services, registrar, institutional research and other functions that affect
enrollment. This group shall develop a strategic enrollment plan for
Antioch that sets clear and measurable goals, defines strategies and tactics,
sets realistic timelines, develops appropriate staffing and budget plans,
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 33
assigns responsibility and accountability, and provides for effective
assessment.
• The College shall reposition the “new Antioch” in the higher education
marketplace and broaden its appeal to prospective new students. Antioch
shall consider, refine and market test a branding strategy that conveys such
messages as: (I) the new Antioch’s experiential learning model provides
students with superior preparation in applying academic study to the
solution of real-world problems, a skill that is critical to success in
personal, professional and civic life; (2) the new Antioch’s
student-centered, problem-driven, outcomes-based approach provides more
freedom for students to discover and pursue their own interests than
traditional academic curricula with pre-determined course content; and (3)
that as a participative learning community, Antioch provides students with
more responsibility for the life of the College and more opportunities for
leadership development than can be found at other schools, where students
have little influence.
• Once the new Antioch brand has been defined, the College shall invest up
to $2 million over four years in an intensive “guerilla marketing” campaign
that relies on the use of innovative print materials, e-mail outreach to key
groups or prospects and those that influence them, intensive engagement
with alumni, and partnerships with centers of influence who can channel
prospective students to the College.
• The admissions office shall develop ways to take advantage of staff and
alumni volunteers associated with the communities that host Antioch’s
co-op program. Admissions shall pay for part of the staffing and expenses
associated with host communities in return for admissions support in the
form of visits and presentations to local high schools, events to introduce
prospective students to co-op students and alumni, invitations for prospects
to attend co-op discussion seminars, and development and supervision of
alumni volunteer admissions recruitment and interview committees in each
host community.
• The College shall provide funding for adequate enrollment management
staff and marketing expenses. Since admissions marketing drives
enrollment, rather than the other way round, admissions staffing and
marketing expense ratios shall be based on the target enrollment of 900
students, rather than current enrollment. Budgets shall include adequate
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 34
support for market research and regular surveys designed to identify factors
that determine conversion of inquiries to applications and of applications to
yield. The College shall consider providing a staff position to focus on
public relations, publications, web development, communication with
alumni admissions volunteers, development of partnerships with groups
who can channel prospective students to the College, and recruitment and
marketing programs based on e-mail and list-serves.
• As part of its effort to increase student retention, Antioch College shall
assess the performance of its current student services operation and develop
a plan to provide robust and consistent student services within the
framework of the renewed Antioch. Staffing and budgets must be
consistent with those of comparable residential liberal arts institutions, and
managed by a senior-level administrator with strong professional expertise.
• The above assessment activities shall also address the area of residence life.
It is critical to ensure that staffing ratios and competencies are appropriate
for enhancing the retention of a growing residence life population within a
learning community environment.
• Compensation, professional development, career paths and performance
evaluation methods for all enrollment management and student services
officers must enable Antioch to recruit, develop and retain competent and
dedicated professional staff without excessive turnover.
J. Physical Facilities
The success of the renewal plan outlined here will depend heavily on
significant investments to build and renovate the College’s physical facilities.
Because of its long period of financial difficulty, many buildings are in poor
condition and there has been no significant new construction in many years.
Substandard facilities make it difficult to recruit new students, particularly
because many of Antioch’s competitors undertook significant building programs
during the capital markets boom of the 1990’s. In addition, students and their
parents take quality of facilities as a proxy for the educational quality and
financial health ofthe institution, because those attributes are often difficult for
outsiders to judge directly. Facilities are also important in retaining students.
Surveys and interviews of students who drop out cite poorly maintained facilities
as the most important factor in their decision to leave. Finally, the move from
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 35
classes of six to twelve students to ELCs of 30 to 45 students will create the need
for changes in classroom facilities. There may also be advantages in designing
living spaces to accommodate students registered in the same ELC. Space for a
resident adviser shall be designed into each new residence unit
The Renewal Commission recommends that as part ofthe implementation
phase, the College appoint a Facilities Task Force to supervise the development
of a master plan for the campus, in consultation with the Physical Facilities
Committee of the Board of Trustees. The Renewal Commission suggests
including the following projects during the first phase of the development plan for
their potential contribution to admissions, retention, ELC classrooms and
technology support.
• The construction of new apartment-style residence halls to replace the
Presidents dormitories. These will be relatively small-scale units
accommodating a total of 100 students or less, perhaps constructed with
wood. Estimated cost: $3 million, including demolition.
• The construction of a new Antioch College Union on land currently
occupied by Spalt Hall, which will be demolished. Estimated cost: $10
million, including demolition.
• Conversion of the present Antioch College Union building into classroom
space needed to teach in ELCs. Estimated cost: $1.5 million.
• Renovation of the library, including a new front end addition that includes
a digital information commons, state of the art technology, digital library
spaces and equipment. Estimated cost: $2 million.
• Renovation of the Curl gymnasium facility into a Health and Recreation
Center including a weight room, exercise facilities, etc. Estimated cost: $2
million.
• Renovation of North Hall. Estimated cost: $1.5 million.
The foregoing projects, totaling $20 million, are vital to the success of the
renewal plan, and shall be completed within the next two years, if possible. The
Renewal Commission further suggests that the Facilities Task force consider the
following projects for a second phase of campus development.
• A new science building to replace the current outmoded and outsized
facility. Estimated cost: $15 million.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 36
• Additional new residence halls. Estimated cost: $4.5 million.
• Major renovations of Birch Hall, Mills Hall, Kelly Hall (into a modem
small theater and community spaces), Main Building, the physical plant
building, McGregor, and an addition to the Student Center/conference
facility and student services. Estimated total cost: $11 million.
The total estimated cost for these second-phase projects is $30.5 million.
K. Comprehensive Campaign
Many ofthe Renewal Commission’s proposals entail significant funding
challenges for the College. The projections on capital investments and transition
costs included in the financial plan that is included with the Commission’s reports
call for the following types of investment.
• New and renovated facilities to support the College’s educational programs
and enrollment goals. First-phase projects amount to an estimated $20
million investment in the College’s physical plant.
• Initial investments in technology infrastructure to support the on-line
learning and communications requirements of the new Antioch’s
experiential, student-centered learning model. Infrastructure costs are
estimated at $3 million.
• Additional endowment for scholarships, diversity support, and unrestricted
operating support totaling $19 million.
• Start-up costs for curriculum development, faculty development, and tenure
buy-back/early retirement support. These total $1.7 million.
• An investment in marketing and communications to reposition the “new
Antioch” in the minds of prospective students, donors, alumni, parents and
other key constituencies. This is estimated to cost $2 million over five
years.
• Funding for operating deficits during the first few years of implementation,
which will be caused by possible temporary declines in enrollment and
tuition revenue, and increases in operating expenses for faculty and staff
compensation, information technology, admissions and financial aid, the
establishment of host communities for co-op, and general and
administrative costs.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4,2004
Page 37
The total funding required to make these investments is about $55 million.
However, about $30 million could be applied toward the goals of Antioch’s
current capital campaign. This would leave $25 million in additional funding to
be raised. Of this amount, about $19 million would represent new endowment.
In order to raise the necessary funds, the Renewal Commission proposes
that Antioch College subsume the new requirements into its current
comprehensive campaign for Antioch College. Adjustments in printed materials
and timelines may be necessary. The success ofthe renewal plan depends on
generating enthusiasm from donors, obtaining commitment for support, and
beginning implementation quickly, so that the class entering Antioch in the fall of
2006 will be able to take advantage of new experiential learning communities,
new community-based co-ops, and at least some ofthe new facilities proposed
here. Extending this time horizon will require additional years of subsidy from
the University, and will risk loss of the sense of excitement and momentum that
has been generated by the Commission’s work. In order to move ahead on this
schedule, the Renewal Commission recommends that the college add campaign
expenses of five percent of the total, or about $2.5 million, to be spread over four
years from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2008.
L. Implementation
The Renewal Commission recommends that lead responsibility for
implementation be vested in Antioch’s President. Upon Board approval of the
Renewal Commission’s vision, the President shall appoint Implementation Task
Forces for each of the major areas involved in this plan, such as curriculum,
assessment and faculty; co-op and host communities; community and governance;
technology; enrollment management; physical plant; capital campaign; and
financial planning. These task forces shall include faculty, administration, board
members, students, staff, and outside consultants as appropriate.
The Renewal Commission also recommends that a successor Oversight
Commission be appointed by the Board to meet on a periodic basis to review
progress in implementation planning, ensure that such planning remain consistent
with the vision and goals developed by the Renewal Commission, and provide
counsel and support to the President and various Implementation Task Forces as
appropriate. This commission will submit a progress report to the Board at each
of its meetings, beginning in October 2004, until at least October 2007.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 38
The Renewal Commission further proposes the following timetable for
implementation.
June 2004
• Board approval of Resolutions proposed by the Renewal Commission
based on this report.
July 2004
• Appointment ofImplementation Task Forces by the Antioch College
President
• Implementation plan is mapped out by Implementation Task Force
• Communications Campaign launched by BOT Communications Committee
• Fundraising for the new Antioch is integrated into the Campaign for the
College
• Appointment of an Oversight Commission to assist with implementation
• Faculty begins designing new curriculum
• Launch faculty development plan
• Faculty retirement/tenure buy-back offer is designed
October 2004
• Board retreat on University structure and governance
• Progress report from the President and the Oversight Commission on
implementation planning
• Focus groups and other market research on ELC idea continues
• The Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, in consultation with the
Oversight Committee, develops a marketing plan
December 2004
• Plan for co-op host communities is developed by Coop department
• Campus Master Plan for physical facilities is designed in conjunction with
Board committee
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 39
January 2005
• Completion and submission of implementation plans for the start-up phase
of the renewal plan by the President to the Oversight Commission
• New marketing materials are completed.
• New buildings are designed
• Design of new courses continues
• Faculty and administrative staff training and development continues
• Coop department begins developing host communities by engaging alumni,
developing housing, etc.
February 2005
• Review, revision, and submission of implementation plans by the President
and the Oversight Commission to the Board.
May 2005
• Revised implementation plan submitted to the Oversight Commission
June 2005
• Submission of implementation plan to the Board
• Strategic plan for Community is completed
September 2005
o Students are able to enroll in first pilot ELCs
o New construction. Groundbreaking for Antioch Union and ELC
classrooms
Jan- Sept 2006
o New dorm construction
o Library and gym renovation
o Pilot ELCs continue for all students
o First co-op host community established
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
September 2006
o All new students are enrolled in ELCs
Page 40
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 42
Capital investment plans have been prioritized and front-loaded in order to
achieve maximum impact on admissions and retention. The Commission
believes that the fund-raising process can adhere to an accelerated
timetable because ofthe development work that has already been
accomplished for the current comprehensive campaign.
• Total capital investment required to implement the plan will amount to
about $55 million. This includes $20 million for physical facilities, $3
million for information technology, $19 million in new endowment
(including $9 million for scholarships and $10 million for support of
freedom and diversity programs), $10.5 million in start-up and transition
expenses, and $2.6 million in fund-raising expenses.
• Ofthis amount, about $30 million is already included in goals for the
capital campaign that is already underway. This leaves about $25 million
in additional funding required to support the renewal plan.
• Start-up and transition expenses include $1.7 million in curriculum and
faculty development and tenure buy-outs; $2 million in marketing and
communications expense aimed at prospective students, donors, educators
and foundations; $200,000 in funding for temporary adjunct faculty needed
to serve students not enrolled in ELCs; and $9.6 million in projected
operating deficits from fiscal year 2005 until break-even is reached in fiscal
year 2010.
• Of the $9.6 million in operating deficits included in estimated start-up and
transition expenses, $3 million will be funded from extensions of the
current $600,000 in operating subsidies from the University from fiscal
year 2004 until break-even is reached in fiscal year 2010.
• Operating deficits during the transition period will be created by temporary
declines in enrollment caused by student uncertainty about the change-over
to the new curriculum, the need to continue providing steep discounts on
tuition until the new curriculum and facilities are in place, additional co-op
expenses for host communities, increases in admissions and students
services budgets aimed at maximizing enrollment, additional expenses for
technology services (including the digital library), increased depreciation
expense associated with the construction of new facilities, and additional
compensation expenses aimed at retaining key faculty and staff, whose
support and stabilizing influence will be critical to student retention during
the transition.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 43
• By fiscal year 2010, however, these investments in curriculum, co-op,
community development, faculty, facilities, technology, student services
and marketing will payoff in increased admissions, increased retention,
reduced need for tuition discounts, more affordable student-faculty ratios,
stronger reputation, and increased giving from more involved alumni. The
financial plan forecasts achievement of break-even financial performance,
without further need for operating subsidies from the University, within six
or seven years from now, at an enrollment of about 700 degree-seeking
students. By that time, student-faculty ratios will have increased from the
current level of 10 to 1 to a more sustainable 15 to 1. The longer-term
enrollment goal shall be at least 900 students, in order to take advantage of
economies of scale that still exist at this level of enrollment and to provide
more ELCs for students to choose, especially in the second and third years
when half the students will be on
co-op.
The renewal plan proposed in this report will require strong support from the
board, faculty, staff and students if is to succeed in reaching these objectives. The
most critical need is to enlist the support of donors for the capital investments
required for implementation. If Antioch College can raise the money, the
Renewal Commission believes that this plan can not only save the College from
potential financial failure, but re-establish it as a leader in progressive education
for future generations. In doing so, the College will have earned the kind of
victory for humanity for which it was originally created.
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4,2004
VI. Summary and Conclusion
Page 44
The Sesquicentennial Commission for the Renewal of Antioch College has
engaged its charge with enormous respect for Antioch College and devotion to all
that it represents. The Commission has reached out to the larger community in
higher education, adding distinguished and experienced representatives of
academic life to its core membership, and submitting its work to review by
external experts. It has met with students, faculty, and other community members
in various settings, and engaged in much research and discussion.
After each commission member had submitted a personal vision of
expectations, hopes, and guidelines for an ideal Antioch College, our meetings
became an anxious mixture of anticipation of a brighter future with apprehension
at the immensity ofthe challenge before us. As we searched for a solution that
seemed true to the College we were serving, testimony from current Antioch
faculty began to take shape and formed the germ of an idea that swept through the
commission like a thrilling shock of recognition. From that moment forward, the
concepts presented in this report increasingly took substantive form. We sought
at every tum to be severe critics of the visionary plan we could see taking shape.
We made site visits to institutions we believed were practicing some of the modes
of instruction we had in mind. We constructed multiple financial plans. We
sought critical counsel from experienced outsiders and confronted harsh
difficulties. In the end, although each member made compromises, we came to
surprisingly uniform and strong consensus on the ideas laid out in this report.
We have prepared a transformational vision for a college of the future. It is
a college that knows how to offer students genuine engagement with the real
world of work, commerce, and everyday life in its many forms. It is a college
that is uncompromising in its commitment to rigorous liberal education, its
advocacy of comfortable familiarity with valuable knowledge, skills, and values,
and its dedication to civic virtue lived in a functional community that requires
personal sacrifice for the common good. It is a college that honors its students by
teaching them how to learn, and gives them pride by requiring that they
demonstrate clearly the knowledge they have won. In this way, it is a college that
also demonstrates to the world at large that it takes its mission to heart and can
prove the claims it makes about the capacities it builds.
Experiential liberal leaming at Antioch College is an idea that took root.
almost a century ago, but lies at the heart of the future-oriented transformational
Antioch College Renewal Commission
Final Report to the Board of Trustees
June 4, 2004
Page 45
vision we propose for the Antioch College of today. We are confident that the
curriculum we propose, with learning communities that are integrated with co-op
work, vibrant host communities that help to reinforce the academic spirit of the
liberal arts, and an interconnected mutually supportive Antioch community will
attract excellent caring students. They will encounter a diverse society of persons
of many values, backgrounds, and experiences devoted to cultural and intellectual
freedom aimed at eliminating the encumbrance of racism and enabling all of its
members to create a local community in which they can thrive.
The model we have constructed is one that is carefully calibrated to provide
the resources that will guarantee its long-term health. This will be a fiscally
responsible college, one that is affordable to its students, pays competitive wages
to its employees, and sustains a positive budget. Although offering an
outstanding academic program in a most attractive format, it will also be a
financially robust institution, capable of investing in itself. We believe that as it
proves its virtue, it will also attract the attention of philanthropic investors, who
will want to enhance its future.
We began our work with the legacy of two giants, Horace Mann and Arthur
Morgan, hovering over our deliberations. We cannot know whether we have met
the high ideals they imposed upon themselves and their work. But we have been
guided by the course they set for Antioch College. Horace Mann married as a
young man, and his wife, Charlotte Messer, died tragically as a young woman
less than three years after their marriage. More than a decade later he married
again, this time to Mary Peabody of the famous Peabody family of Boston.
Mary’s sister Elizabeth was with the couple when they heard a great and
inspirational speech. She reported his opinion, which we will wish also for the
report we submit today to Antioch’s Board of Trustees.
We hope that our report, like the speech that Mann heard, will, in his
words, give “laws to the imagination and landmarks to the affections.”
