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Report From The
Alumni Board and Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute Task Force
To the
Board Pro Tempore
June 2009
I. OVERVIEW: WHERE WE ARE NOW
At the recent March 2009 Alumni Board meeting, Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute (Nonstop)
submitted a Proposal requesting that the Antioch College Alumni Board collaborate with Nonstop to
further develop outlined ideas “with the intention of presenting them to the Antioch College Board of
Trustees Pro Tempore as a proposal for the reintegration of Nonstop into Antioch College.” The
Alumni Board responded with a Resolution stating:
“…In the hope of strengthening the united movement that has informed the Alumni Board’s
creation of three separate entities; one for finance, CRF; one for academics, Nonstop; one for
governance, the Board Pro Tem, the Alumni Board establishes a Taskforce to foster collaboration and
to build consensus with representatives of the key stakeholder groups who have played such an
important role in our movement to develop an independent Antioch College: Nonstop, the Board Pro
Tem, and the Alumni Board. The Taskforce is charged to develop the proposal presented by Nonstop to
this Board yesterday [March 6] for presentation to the Board Pro Tem.”
The Taskforce, composed of members from the Alumni Board and Nonstop, was charged by
the Alumni Board in March to develop jointly a revised Proposal, which we now submit for
consideration to the Board Pro Tempore (BPT).
The Taskforce’s revised Proposal builds on the work that Nonstop has accomplished to date
with the fiscal support of CRF, and suggests ways in which the critical work of the current transitional
period can be approached collaboratively with committed, professional and accomplished
stakeholders— members of the BPT, members of the former faculty and staff of Antioch College,
multi-generational College and Nonstop alumni, and Yellow Springs villagers—who together
understand the value of a revived College in their community and for the world of higher education.
As we submit this Proposal, the BPT is still working to secure the Definitive Agreements that
will deliver an independent Antioch College, and the June 30 conclusion of CRF’s 10-month funding
of Nonstop is plainly in sight. Given still variable timeframes for major tasks ahead—the final signing
of the Definitive Agreements by the BPT and Antioch University; searches for new Antioch College
leadership; securing accreditation and degree granting authority; determining when the College will re-
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open—many critical reference points remain unknown. Facing these realities and recognizing the
importance of sustaining the momentum reflected in the recent and multifaceted efforts to revive the
College, our Proposal identifies a series of curricular and planning initiatives that can be started in
coming months and evolve during the expected transitional period.
The series of projects outlined in our Proposal are designed to contribute directly to curricular
development and necessary institutional start up tasks, and are structured so that the initial research
phase and grant writing for each project can start almost immediately. They assume the direct
involvement of current Nonstop personnel in working relationships with the BPT and other
collaborators the BPT might engage. Nonstop personnel—faculty, staff and students/alumni—
represent an important bridge that carries the experiential wisdom of a living community in Yellow
Springs, developed through the integration of academics and cooperative education along with shared
governance. All of these proposed projects seek collaboration and ongoing support from the BPT
during this anticipated two year transitional period, but are designed to additionally attract fiscal
support through federal Stimulus money (much of that being available only for the current calendar
year), as well as grants from state and federal agencies and foundations. Nonstop’s track record and its
contributions to the revival effort will be a valuable component of any grant narrative. Researching
appropriate funding sources, anticipating application deadlines, and fully developing concepts,
collaborators and necessary documentation for these proposals should start immediately. While CRF
will cease its funding of Nonstop on June 30, Nonstop is in the process of establishing not-for-profit
status so that it can provide a fiscal sponsorship umbrella for these projects as soon as possible. Ideally
some or all of these incubator projects with their important curricular components could be
incorporated early into the necessary transitional work of the new College.
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II. ABBREVIATED SUMMARY OF PROPOSED PROJECTS
FISCAL OVERVIEW & NONSTOP TRACK RECORD
The innovative projects that follow build on Nonstop’s record as a progressive educational
initiative that has registered undeniable local impact; expand on Nonstop’s experience engaging multi-
generational students and alumni in classrooms and public events programming; and creatively sustain
the compelling story of the greater Antioch College community’s ongoing resistance to closure and
commitment to revitalization. Significantly, most of these projects outline ways that the new College
and the village of Yellow Springs can collaborate meaningfully during a period of reinvigorated local
economic development and the revival of the physical, human, academic and cultural resources of the
College. Such a collaborative orientation will continue to build a notable national example of how
multiple stakeholders (former College faculty, staff, Nonstop and multigenerational College alumni,
villagers), drawn together by the tragic closing of the College, can find creative, ethical, and
economically responsible solutions.
The following outline offers an abbreviated summary of the five project proposals and the two
sections that review fiscal considerations and Nonstop’s accomplishments. Please consult the
Appendices for the extended discussions.
Curricular Research. The following three projects are primarily focused on researching liberal arts
curricula and points of contemporary interdisciplinary integration; reinforcing Antioch’s fundamental
commitment to cooperative education and building a diverse student body and workforce; and
responsibly addressing the economic, pedagogical, and sociocultural issues facing small liberal arts
colleges today. Please see Appendices 1-3 for extended discussion of the following projects.
1. Develop the Liberal Arts Learning Institute; Conference & Events Programming
• Develop a liberal arts faculty “think tank” to produce the intellectual and pedagogical
foundation for the new Antioch College.
• Host national academic conferences on contemporary pedagogical and economic issues in
higher education.
• Support Nonstop liberal arts faculty and collaborators to accomplish research projects on
progressive liberal arts curricula (including humanities, sciences, social sciences and arts).
• Sustain and expand cultural and public affairs events programming and workshops that will
continue to engage with and provide visibility for an educational community in Yellow
Springs;
• Sustain progressive youth-oriented events programming to keep prospective regional students
attentive to the Yellow Springs educational community.
2. Re-engage and Build New Relationships with Co-op Employers
• Start the relationship building and resource cultivation essential for supporting a strong
Cooperative Education Program that could take up to two years, especially in the current
economic climate.
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• Work closely with other curriculum-based proposed projects (i.e. Liberal Arts Learning
Institute, Diversity, Sustainability/Environmental Studies, Fiber/Media Literacy) to build in and
seek grant support for Co-op components.
• Study other programs (Berea, Warren Wilson), pre-professional programs, and other projects
that could offer special opportunities for Antioch students.
• Consider past practices at the College and Nonstop regarding work and its role in building
community.
3. Cultivate Increased Diversity
• Develop strategies to increase representation of formerly underserved groups in the student
body, and within the faculty and staff.
• Start relationship-building by faculty, staff and alumni (Antioch College and Nonstop) who
have existing experience with area schools, youth projects, social services and cultural
organizations through specific projects.
• Build on committed, meaningful collaborations and developed policies such as CSIP
(Consensual Sexual Interaction Policy) and GARI (Guidelines for an Anti-Racist Institution)
that will attract a more diverse pool of prospective students as well as a more diverse pool of
faculty and staff in the near future.
Entrepreneurial Projects with Critical Curricular Components. The following projects combine
multiple components that would be phased over the next few years; offer ways to develop timely
curricular components in areas that would build on strong programmatic offerings of both Nonstop and
the former Antioch College including Co-op; and develop major entrepreneurial partnerships between
the new College, the village of Yellow Springs, and other institutions in the region. Please see
Appendices 4 & 5 for extended discussion of the following projects.
4. Research Sustainability and Environmental Studies/Science Curricula, Develop Work &
Training Opportunities with Campus Rebuilding
• Research curricula for Environmental Studies and Environmental Science.
• Develop youth work projects on sustainability projects and community agriculture in Yellow
Springs, and on green building projects at the new College.
• Develop long term vision to prepare Co-op students (or semester-long work/classroom models
like the Environmental Field Program) to work as peer advisors on sustainability or greening
projects in small communities in the region.
5. Develop Area Fiber Optics System, Media Center and Media Literacy/Arts Curriculum
• Take advantage of Stimulus funding to develop greatly enhanced information services capacity
for educational institutions and potential new clean industries in the area by replacing existing
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cable TV/internet/phone access lines and services with one very robust public/private fiber
optics provider.
• Build diverse educational, cultural and entrepreneurial partnerships/collaborations between new
Antioch College, village of Yellow Springs, and possibly other area schools like Central State
University.
• Establish an Area Media Center were citizens are trained to produce media, that has
collaborative relationships with other local media and arts projects, local schools.
• Develop Media Literacy/Arts curriculum that educates and serves students and citizens in both
“reading” (critical viewing) and “writing” (producing) media.
Proposed Fiscal and Institutional Development Overview. Discussion of how the identified projects
are fiscally responsible and bring critical stakeholders together to accomplish necessary institution-
building tasks and pursue creative economic relationships. Planning overview for the new Antioch
College. See Appendix 6 for extended discussion.
6. Discussion of Cost-Effectiveness of Proposed Projects, Overview of Institution-Building Tasks
• Engage multiple stakeholders in multifaceted projects with sustained impact.
• Sustain a vital, educationally-engaged community in Yellow Springs that will attract
prospective students; engage faculty as consultants during early transition period.
• Funding discussion; attracting additional support through grants, including federal Stimulus
funding.
• 18-month timeline for searching and hiring of academic and financial leadership, transitional
faculty and curriculum development, permanent faculty.
Nonstop History in Brief— Roots in AdCil (ExCil), accomplishments, overview of Nonstop
personnel, curricular focus on strategic localization. Please see Appendix 7 for extended discussion.
7. Nonstop’s Track Record
• Nonstop’s emergence through ExCil (AdCil-in-exile) and Faculty Senate during last term at
College; CRF commitment
• Overview of Nonstop’s accomplishments over last year (enrollment, staffing, institutional
structures, presence in the community, involvement of alumni).
• Budget narrative in brief, in-kind support and donations.
• Assumptions regarding faculty salaries, staffing hires, Nonstop student/alumni commitments.
• Nonstop’s view of education as an inherently social mission, re-situation of classes, learning.
• Nonstop curriculum informed by for relocalization and bioregionalism.
•
Academic support from nationally renown academics via Antioch College faculty petition.
Appendix 1
THE LIBERAL ARTS LEARNING INSTITUTE
1. Curricular Research
The principal purpose of the Liberal Arts Learning Institute is to serve as a collective vehicle of
inquiry directed toward liberal arts thinking and practice. It proposes to work together with the BPT,
and its transition officer and administrators on curricular development and related activities, and will
serve as an umbrella to solicit grant support during the early part of the transition period. The Institute
is analogous to a “think tank”: a collaborative endeavor in educational research which seeks to shape
public and professional discourse through knowledge production. The Liberal Arts Learning Institute’s
work will contribute directly to curriculum development for the new College and enhance the standing
and public profile of Antioch College in higher education, positioning it at the forefront of new
thinking and innovative practice. The Liberal Arts Learning Institute will contribute to higher
education in its research and analysis of curricula, pedagogical best practices, policy, cooperative
education, service learning, interdisciplinary structures, community engagement, international
programming, development of multiple literacies, admissions and recruitment, and applications of
educational technology. The Institute seeks support from the BPT, and additionally will seek grant
support and foundation seed funding to support the necessary curricular research, conferences focused
on liberal arts and higher ed, and menu of ongoing public events.
The Liberal Arts Learning Institute builds upon Nonstop’s efforts of the past year, but with
important differences in respect to goals and methods. While Nonstop has been a temporary sanctuary
for Antioch’s culture, values, and historic heritage, the Liberal Arts Learning Institute looks to build,
together with the BPT and its transitional and academic leadership, the foundation for a renewed
Antioch College.
The work that Nonstop has done in keeping the college learning and teaching alive in Yellow
Springs reminds many of us of what college education is and ought to be in its best moments:
committed teachers and engaged learners making the most of the occasion that has brought them
together. While we rightly take pride in such work, the Liberal Arts Learning Institute also recognizes
that the making of an educational institution goes beyond this immediacy of pedagogical practice in
action. Our individual and collective abilities to deliver educational offerings of the highest caliber
and consequence likewise involve professional work outside the classroom. The Liberal Arts Learning
Institute aims to energize the personal and public intellectual work needed to move members of the
former faculty of Antioch to a new role as co-builders of a better future, in partnership with the BPT
and alumni.
2. The Importance of Continuity during Transition
Throughout its history, Antioch College has enjoyed the distinction of being an educational
institution and community with the courage and wisdom to say “no” to academic orthodoxy.
Distinguished by an openness rooted in its experiential and experimental orientation, the Antioch
Appendix 1: Liberal Arts Learning Institute — 2
curriculum adheres to principles of excellence and rigor while exploring new educational frontiers.
And, since the days of Arthur Morgan, it has insisted on a liberal arts core program that is enhanced
through cooperative and experiential education with the ultimate goal of education as a life-long
activity for the public good.
The Nonstop personnel proposing the Liberal Arts Learning Institute have considerable
experience in implementing Antioch’s innovative curricula and have been impressive in creating an
educational start-up project outside of a traditional campus. Nonstop’s need to communicate regularly
with stakeholder constituencies within and beyond Yellow Springs has underlined the importance of
support technologies as in, for example, the capacity to stream meetings live via the net. Nonstop’s IT
staff and its consultants have been inventive in approaching affordable open source solutions for the
organization’s basic communications needs, and have created a foundation that can be expanded to
support further dynamic learning and networking opportunities during the transitional period. Clearly
creative IT services supporting science, arts, humanities and social science curricula and enhanced
media skills across the educational community warrant research and development during this planning
phase for the new College.
The question of community and its role in the new curriculum cannot remain an afterthought.
Community cannot be conjured into existence or replaced at some later date with a convenient
facsimile once everything else falls into place. For a renewed Antioch to succeed, a provocative
educational community needs to be active, vital, and productive on a continuing basis—well before the
next degree-seeking generation commences its pursuits. The presence of a community of educators
engaging in active research, planning related events, and interfacing with multigenerational colleagues
and audiences, will support an ongoing living academic community in Yellow Springs. Nonstop
faculty, staff and students have worked respectfully and creatively with the village of Yellow Springs,
and hope to build on this relational network with new cultural and educational initiatives and an
invigorated shared public space. Nonstop Presents was designed to expand Nonstop’s educational
offerings into the village for weekly speakers, screenings, and discussions, with specific attention to
drawing in College alumni as presenters. The Institute would expand on these offerings, building on
Nonstop’s track record for grant support, and offer conferences, salons, and specific opportunities for
discussion with guests from the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences. The College during the
last decade offered distinguished month long summer institutes that were both courses and public
events series such as the Documentary, Theater, and Peace Institutes. A number of the Nonstop faculty
have received national attention as arts practitioners and programmers, and Nonstop Presents also
benefited from faculty networking with educators and scholars associated with Ohio State and other
regional universities and colleges. The Institute would also collaborate with Nonstop and recent
College alumni to support programming that was of specific interest to youth, with the intention of
integrating components of this active research into the curricula of the future College.
3. Specific Projects of the Liberal Arts Learning Institute
Recognizing that the construction of a sound educational institution demands years of
cooperative effort, the proposed work of the Liberal Arts Learning Institute takes a long view without
neglecting the necessities of the present. We intend to accrue and create bodies of knowledge valuable
for the success of Antioch College in Yellow Springs. Our work will also help to develop a refined
awareness of the immediate opportunities and resources available to the College as we move forward.
Appendix 1: Liberal Arts Learning Institute — 3
Our focus will be on the following areas, all of which are crucial for the reopening and accreditation of
the College:
• Curricular development for the new Antioch College.
• Research to support re-energized and dynamic Co-op program (see also Appendix 2).
• A reinvigorated shared-governance system that serves as a laboratory for participatory
democracy.
• An IT system that is developed to support dynamic involvement between faculty and students
in distinct curricular areas, for students on Co-op, and information sharing throughout the
various stakeholder groups that will be critical for sustaining the College revival.
• A Faculty Seminar on the history of liberal arts education and contemporary educational theory
and practice.
• The engagement of prominent scholars in the study of progressive educational practice via the
sponsoring of public events and colloquia.
• A program of cultural and public affairs speakers and events for the multigenerational Yellow
Springs community, with attention to an ongoing series of cultural events that would be of
special interest to traditional-aged college students.
• Presentations by Institute faculty to relevant professional organizations, events, and
conferences..
• Publications of articles and dissemination of media projects which contribute ongoing public
and professional dialogues in the field of higher education.
• The production of a web journal to participate in on-line higher education debates and
discussions.
• Foundational information to support new and dynamic admissions materials.
In order to partner with building an active academic community, with its ethical and intellectual
voice recognized as outstanding, we request fiscal support during this transitional period. We look
forward to discussing with the Board Pro Tem a phased plan for supporting some faculty together with
staff and students as researchers, programmers, and presenters, who look forward to working
collaboratively and supportively with new administrative leaders. The umbrella of the Liberal Arts
Institute will facilitate our seeking additional support from state and federal agencies, humanities and
arts funders, and private foundations for the proposed curriculum building. Proposals for both the
curriculum-building and the public events and conference series will build on the track record of
Nonstop innovations and events programming and anticipate the future needs of the new College.
The mission of Antioch College has remained steady over one hundred and fifty years. What
first enabled Horace Mann and others to make meaningful educational experiences happen on the Ohio
frontier had very little to do with institutional amenities, and so much more to do with a vision of
education as connected to the larger goals of cultivating ethically-driven human beings and actively
making a more just and equitable world. Together, we believe that we can again prevail and prove the
Antiochian way to be a viable and desirable path to such goals. The victory for humanity is ours to
win.
Appendix 2
COOPERATIVE EDUCATION
1. Challenges for Re-establishing Cooperative Education
Rebuilding the Co-op program will necessitate a multi-faceted approach that is both curricular
and programmatic. The programmatic portion will entail re-engaging previous Co-op employers,
finding new ones, and educating them about the program. Even with the help of alumni and others, it
will take at least one and more likely two years to develop a significant array of job offerings. With
unemployment currently reaching double digits in many locations, it may take employers more time to
find funding for Co-op student wages. We are optimistic that previous employers will be excited to
partner with Antioch College once again.
Predicting up to two years to rebuild the program is not unrealistic. The National Association of
Colleges and Employers expected hiring for co-op positions to drop by 11 percent this year, the largest
decline since at least 2004. NACE also reports that the shrinking job market is having an impact on
even the most well-established and well-connected co-op programs in the country. An April 14 article
from Inside Higher Education entitled “Cooperative Breakdown” predicted the decreased success of
long-standing co-op programs securing jobs for their students. “As the job market tightens for even the
most seasoned of professionals, students are finding doors slammed in their faces, and universities —
especially those like Cincinnati for which co-op programs are central — are scrambling to deliver on
the promise of programs that seek to blend real-world work experience with time in the classroom.”
The University of Cincinnati co-op staff expected to find jobs for about 82 percent of students seeking
co-op positions this year; which is down from a typical placement rate of 99.5 percent. The actual
placement data is unknown.
Co-op is dependent upon relationships and we fear that the longer employers wait to hear from
Co-op faculty at the new College the less success we will have in re-enlisting them as key contributors
to an Antioch education. While finding employers is key to the future of the Co-op program, the
development of Co-op curriculum must be coordinated with that of the academic curriculum and a
sensitive assessment plan. Creating appropriate educational outcomes, assessment tools, guidelines and
handbooks will take planning, evaluation, and time. Some of the successes of the past will inform
planning for the future, but having the opportunity to research and develop a cutting edge Co-op
program that looks to the future and not solely the past is an exciting opportunity.
2. Retaining the Uniqueness of Antioch College’s Co-op Program
We assume that Cooperative Education will continue to be one of the three pillars of an
Antioch College education. Though experiential education has become more common throughout
higher education, Co-op at Antioch College should continue to remain unique. Antioch College can
stand out as the only liberal arts institution in the nation to require comprehensive off-campus work
experiences for all students. Because of this, Co-op will need to be fully integrated into academic and
community life on campus at Antioch. Unlike internships that are the norm at other schools, co-ops are
full time employment in actual jobs doing meaningful work with responsibilities set by the employers.
Appendix 2: Cooperative Education — 2
Co-op at Antioch should remain a mix of major-related and general education, so that students who
have interests and skills outside of their majors may co-op in jobs outside of their field of study. In
addition to on-the-job-education, the off-the-job learning in the communities in which students live
while on co-op should continue to be valued and critically reviewed.
A plethora of ideas for the future should be considered only after adequate research, and
Nonstop faculty members representing years of experience in Cooperative Education should be
integral members of such an academic team. Some of the necessary research should focus on other
work-related educational models such as Berea, Warren Wilson, and pre-professional programs such as
offered at the University of Cincinnati and Northeastern University. Some programs such as Indian
Health Services work that provides student loan forgiveness could be quite attractive to students who
need additional financial support. Perhaps offering post-graduate career services is appropriate. Other
ideas that have arisen in recent conversations include apprenticeships with College union staff to more
fully integrate the union staff as educators. Federal Stimulus funds along with other state, federal and
private foundation support should be explored as the program direction is researched and developed.
Looking to the future has already been mentioned, but equally important is reflecting on the
past at Antioch to consider what was effective or what interfered with the College’s unique Co-op
experience. For example, work should be a central part of the curriculum and central to the intellectual
fiber of campus. At some points in the recent past Co-op, while important, became an afterthought to
some students, and past practices that may have contributed to such a phenomenon should be
reconsidered. The Federal Work Study Program (FWSP) that helped to maintain a strong connection
between the Co-op program and on-campus work needs to be reconsidered; during the last years at the
College some FWSP jobs were re-distributed to other units of the University. There have been some
valuable discussions about work and its role in both building community and its relationship to
academic class work at Nonstop over the past year. Critiquing and integrating these insights into policy
at the new College will be important work for faculty, staff and students during the transition period.
Appendix 3
CULTIVATE DIVERSITY
1. Social Justice—on Campus and Beyond
To fulfill its mission of working for social justice, the new Antioch College will need to begin
immediately to lay the groundwork for an inclusive institutional culture respectful of difference.
Constructing an educational institution that is welcoming to all who aspire to win victories for
humanity will not happen without a concerted, long-term effort. The recruitment of a diverse
administration, faculty, and staff is essential to effectively recruit a diverse student body–and both are
necessary but not sufficient conditions for sustaining a productive and inclusive learning environment.
A commitment to fairness and respect for all must be present throughout the curriculum as well as in
the cafeteria, that is, in all aspects of the institution.
The College has an ethical obligation to be a conscientious and responsive ‘citizen’ of its
surrounding communities, including the village of Yellow Springs and the greater Dayton area. As de-
industrialization and the deepening recession take their toll on the communities of the region, and the
State of Ohio is forced to cut funding for education and basic services, the needs of these communities
have never been more acute. The new Antioch has abundant opportunities for partnerships with and
service to nearby public and charter schools, service organizations, arts organizations, and community
centers in Dayton and Springfield. Collaborative projects with area universities and colleges (Wright
State University, Central State University, Wilberforce University, the University of Dayton, Miami
University, Sinclair Community College) working on similar initiatives are also well within reach.
Obviously, these collaborations and partnerships should be shaped around the agendas set by local
communities themselves and be perceived as mutually beneficial to all parties. Cultural programming
building on Nonstop’s public events track record can be ongoing during the transitional period, can be
developed in partnership with other cultural and educational organizations, and can support speakers,
films and discussions on many aspects of cultural and economic difference. Funding opportunities
from federal, state, and regional agencies as well as regional and national foundations need to be
researched and considered as soon as possible.
2. Recruiting a Diverse Faculty, Staff, and Administration
The location of the College itself contains advantages and disadvantages in terms of its
attractiveness to U.S. minority populations. The abolitionist history of Yellow Springs, its proximity
to the historically black institutions Wilberforce and Central State University, as well as its
cosmopolitanism and openness relative to similar small college towns in the midwest, may work to
mitigate the smallness and ruralness of the community. A growing Hispanic population is changing
the demographics of the greater Dayton area. And Yellow Springs’ robust anti-discrimination policies
make the town inviting to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people of all ethnicities.
The recruitment of faculty and staff from varied backgrounds can be enhanced by advertising in
journals, newsletters, and listserves that reach specific audiences. Competitive salaries and benefits are
Appendix 3: Cultivate Diversity — 2
important to attract good candidates and to increase the likelihood of retaining those candidates after
hiring. In general, the new College will need to cultivate and maintain a supportive, stable working
environment for all of its employees.
3. Recruiting a Diverse Student Population
The recruitment of students of diverse backgrounds to Antioch College was somewhat
facilitated by the wide variety of geographical locations and experiential opportunities offered through
the Cooperative Education program and through Antioch Education Abroad. Yet the level of
institutional support and campus infrastructure for student services in general, and multicultural
recruitment and programming initiatives in particular, varied enormously. As in the case with faculty
and staff, the development of an ethnically-diverse student body should be a high priority for the new
College, which means that support structures and policies need to be in place from the moment of
opening to ensure a welcoming, intellectually rich, and consistent learning environment for all
students. Nonstop’s Guidelines for an Anti-Racist Institution (GARI) is a useful starting point for these
efforts.
Clearly an important task for the new College will be the development of scholarships and
financial aid in order to make the new College affordable to students from all socio-economic
backgrounds. Financial and cultural support systems for students from working class backgrounds and
students who are the first members of their families to attend college should be planned for and well-
resourced. Careful research needs to be accomplished to examine not only College programs and
policies that might be attractive in recruiting a diverse student population, but also in the kinds of
support networks that are necessary to retain students.
4. Building on Nonstop Institute’s Diversity Initiatives
In addition to the critical goal of attracting faculty and staff of diverse backgrounds to the new
Antioch, the new College should seek to construct working partnerships with local communities of
color. The Nonstop Institute has begun various initiatives for outreach and engagement with
underserved populations within our immediate geographic area. The faculty, staff and students of
Nonstop have gone beyond the boundaries of our facility, and even the village of Yellow Springs,
building the bridges and the mutual respect so vital for successful community partnerships. These
existing initiatives can be expanded and also used as models for similar programs. They include such
directions as joint projects with nearby colleges, and at the former Antioch College co-op placements
that provided much-needed labor for local service organizations. Nonstop also welcomed a multi-
generational student body, and worked to manage the demands of a college classroom with the diverse
backgrounds and academic preparation of its students. Building and benefiting from a multi-
generational student body as a component of overall diversity is a major topic in higher education at
the present time.
Funding would be sought for research that would impact curriculum across the disciplines,
Cooperative Education placements (regional and nationwide), best-practices in building a diverse
workforce, cultural programming and workshops, and student population from both organizational and
Appendix 3: Cultivate Diversity — 3
recruitment/ admissions perspectives. Beside seeking support from state and federal agencies, arts and
humanities funding, and foundations for diversity-related projects, direct assistance for students can be
sought from funders such as the Make-It Program that supports mentorship for first generation college
students and wards of the state, and the Jack Kent Cook Foundation that provides scholarships for
students with special talents who would be unable to develop their gifts without assistance. The
College in recent years had few or no personnel working consistently on grant research, and such
efforts should be started during the transitional period and sustained in the revived College.
The following are examples of some of diversity-related projects that Nonstop faculty, staff and
students initiated:
• Working with the Yellow Springs Youth Council and Yellow Springs Human Relations
Commission to demonstrate our commitment to youth empowerment and to better inform our
own community of the issues facing our local youth;
• Working with the national labor organization Jobs With Justice to begin coalition-building
between the Nonstop community and area unions with progressive social agendas; invitation to
report on Nonstop on the Dayton public access program Citizen Impact, affiliated with
progressive labor;
• Organizing events in conjunction with other universities in the Miami Valley that promote
awareness of Black culture and history (two examples: the Hip Hop Convergence, organized
with Wright State University, and the Yellow Springs Black Heritage Trail, organized with
Central State and Wilberforce Universities and drawing upon historical research that reaches
back at least 5 years into the College’s Africana Studies coursework);
• Developing new policies that set guidelines for sexual interaction between Nonstop community
members (Nonstop created CSIP=Consensual Sexual Interaction Policy, built on the College-
established SOPP), and for Nonstop as an anti-racist institution (Nonstop created
GARI=Guidelines for an Anti-Racist Institution, built on the RDPP, confirmed in 2008 at the
College).
• Hosting Nonstop Presents events that examined issues of diversity in connection with housing,
environmental health, race and gender, literacy studies, and international law.
The faculty and students of Nonstop and the former Antioch College have developed
relationships with area non-profit organizations that can be built upon immediately. During the last
three years of curriculum development with first year learning communities as well as other
community-engagement assignments for upper level classes and senior projects, numbers of Antioch
students became involved in practicums that supported cross-cultural experiences and platforms for
direct observation and/or interaction with social and economic justice projects.
In building the foundations for a more secure and diverse workforce, student body, and
curricula for the new College, former Antioch College faculty and alumni who remain engaged in
some of these projects could partner with the new College during this transitional period. Programs
that would be of mutual interest to the community organizations, faculty research, and the future
College can be designed or expanded and begin to seek support from foundations during the
transitional period. Some examples of ongoing engagement include:
Appendix 3: Cultivate Diversity — 4
• Del Pueblo, an organization that provides support and translation services for migrant workers
of Hispanic origin in the Springfield area, is chaired by an emeritus Antioch College faculty
member, and other Nonstop faculty have also been actively involved in this organization;
Antioch students have worked in the after-school program teaching art and English. Former
College faculty have been able to secure state monies for College students to work with K-12
students from minority populations for past projects. The revived Antioch College has an
opportunity to reach out to and work with these newcomers to our geographic area.
• A Nonstop faculty member who is a member of the Miami Nation will continue work on
Miami cultural history projects in this region, potentially involving students/alums and staff in
her research. She has proposed developing an ethnographic field school experience with the
Miami Nation that could be open to students from other undergraduate colleges. Students could
provide the human power that would assist the eight tribes (including the Miami) with
headquarters in NE Oklahoma who have libraries, archives, economic development groups,
social service programs, and environmentally-focused projects in their communities.
• Daybreak, a Dayton organization that provides services to homeless youth between the ages of
15 and 24, has employed students of the former Antioch College through the Cooperative
Education program. Students completed senior projects through their work with Daybreak, and
an alumnus is currently employed there. Nonstop faculty and students are developing
partnerships and projects that would make a meaningful difference to the young clients of
Daybreak. Again, the new Antioch College will have an excellent opportunity to work with
homeless young people in our vicinity.
Sociologists Lee Bensen and Ira Harkavy coin the term the ‘Cosmopolitan Civic University’ to
characterize what they recommend for the institution of higher education in the near future: an
institution that sees its mission “simultaneously as universal and local” –and positions itself “not only
in but of [its] local communities,” engaged in the “practical realization of the democratic promise of
America for all Americans (and, we would add, for non-Americans as well). It is our hope that the
revived Antioch College will build on the foundational premises and efforts of the Nonstop Institute
and seek to define itself as a ‘Cosmopolitan Civic College.’
Appendix 4
SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES/SCIENCE
CURRICULA, WORK & TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES, LOCAL
COLLABORATIONS
1. Building Curriculum and Special Pedagogical Projects, Collaborations with Local Resources
One of the strong connections between Nonstop and the village of Yellow Springs over the last
year was developed through workshops in Local & Sustainable Agriculture, attended by traditional-
aged students as well as village residents of all ages. The workshops were taught and facilitated by
Nonstop faculty, nationally respected Yellow Springs-based environmentalists, and experienced local
sustainable agriculture practitioners. The concentration of these generative local resources, combined
with opportunities for youth training and paid work posed by the upcoming rebuilding and greening of
major parts of the campus, can be developed into strong proposal(s) for federal Stimulus funds and
other grant opportunities. Fundable projects can lead to faculty/student/village collaborations on
community environmental sustainability education, youth work and skill-building around green
construction projects, and ongoing research on future environmental studies and environmental science
curricula.
Sustainability refers directly to human planning on both local and global levels in response to
the current crisis in energy and climate change. The need is urgent to design systems that are just and
accessible for all in energy production and conservation, food production, transportation, and clean
water resources. Biodiversity must be sustained, and the degradation caused by years of industrial
pollution must be reversed. Ohio with its history of heavy industry resulting in dangerous brown fields,
ethanol production and coal reserves, and critical transportation nexus offers an intensive regional
laboratory for some of these problems. Small communities, rural and urban, within an hour’s drive of
Yellow Springs offer sites of potential collaboration on citizen education projects. For example, once
the College is open, student teams can be educated and trained to travel to small towns and
communities in Ohio and nationwide to facilitate citizen education and train around green-building
improvements, potentially attracting outside funding support for such longterm collaborative peer-
counseling projects. Other fundable elements include research to support the Cooperative Education
component of the Antioch curriculum in finding jobs in environmental research and sustainability; and
curricular research in environmental science, social justice, and environmental policy. A schedule of
conferences and speakers can be planned, building on the track record of Nonstop Presents, to occur
during the transitional period of the next two years.
Laying the groundwork and attracting the funding for these curricular and much needed
experiential educational collaborations need to start immediately. Federal economic Stimulus money
is available (and applications must be submitted this year) for training low-income youth on green
building and sustainable agriculture projects. Former Nonstop faculty are uniquely positioned to create
the infrastructure to recruit local and regional youth, provide them with career and life skills, and place
them with local experts for specific training in energy systems, building, or agriculture. Former
Nonstop students are excellent candidates to be involved with recruitment, community education, and
Appendix 4: Sustainability & Environmental Studies, Science, Work & Training,
Local Collaborations – 2
rebuilding efforts. Such a project could also draw upon a more diverse regional youth population of
high school and gap year students who might come to consider themselves prospective Antioch
College students through their experience in Yellow Springs. Their work would not only support the
College campus but Stimulus funded projects could be designed to include training in environmental
educational techniques so that these young workers’ newly acquired green-building and sustainable
agriculture skills would be transferred back to their home communities. Projects that involve sharing
skills in sustainable agriculture practice among people from Yellow Springs and other small towns,
together with folks from more urban sites in Springfield and Dayton, could lay the ground work for
ongoing educational collaborations. Such a phased cycle of education and mutual support transferred
from one regional community to another over time is the kind of networking and relationship-building
that can benefit many aspects of the future College.
2. Rich History of Curricular and Student Community Innovation at Antioch College and
Nonstop
In addition to Nonstop’s workshops on Local & Sustainable Agriculture, the College in recent
decades offered strong and popular Environmental Studies and Environmental Science programs.
Strengths lay in a science faculty who were engaged both locally and globally in finding solutions to
environmental problems, a socially concerned and active body of students, and a Co-op program that
allowed students to apply laboratory research and experimentation to real world situations including
the Antioch Education Abroad program on Brazilian Ecosystems. The Environmental Studies program
expanded the environmental curriculum by inviting students to apply a broad range of interdisciplinary
modalities to the study of environmental policy and social justice issues, with interdisciplinary
coordination through economics, peace studies, arts and media study. Glen Helen has been used as a
laboratory and a site for study for science-oriented Senior Projects, and its Outdoor Education Center
and high school Honors Institute suggest specific sites for collaborative projects on stewardship and
the local environment with students at the new Antioch College.
Antioch was an early member of the Eco-League, a consortium of six colleges who offer
focused experiential study in Environmental Studies and the opportunity for students to take classes at
other member schools. The Environmental Field Program (EFP), a term-long course of study and
work led for many years by recent Antioch graduates, allowed students to focus on regional
environmental issues in collaboration with local activists and scientists as they traveled and studied
together. EFP courses were designed around the environmental and economic conditions along the
U.S.-Mexican border, the Cherokee Trail of Tears (Tennessee/North Carolina to Oklahoma), and the
Colorado River Basin. Recent conversations with Antioch alums indicate that EFP was one of the
major reasons for deciding to come to Antioch. Summer trips to nationally-respected community
gardening projects in Detroit were valued components of the Environmental Studies curriculum. Over
the last two decades at the College there were ongoing efforts on campus to apply “green” solutions to
institutional choices in purchasing, food services, energy, recycling, renovation, and in maintaining an
organic garden.
A number of Nonstop faculty have expertise and commitments to ongoing interdisciplinary
projects in environmental studies. The range of current faculty research includes environmental
philosophy, arts, prairie restoration and education; documentary media production on citizens’ social
justice campaigns and scientific research on problems faced by nuclear superfund cleanup sites in
Appendix 4: Sustainability & Environmental Studies, Science, Work & Training,
Local Collaborations – 3
Ohio; and the mentoring of permaculture and sustainable agriculture practice, and community
journalism. Nonstop faculty, in consultation with local experts, recently created a statement on
sustainability that would have institutional and curricular implications titled Principles of
Sustainability for an Independent Antioch College.
Staff members and faculty who have been involved in Student Services both at Nonstop and the
College have commitments to wellness and community health issues that are specific to an
undergraduate student population and to the village more broadly. Both the College and Nonstop have
a strong history of student activism around healthy food and the economics and social aspects of food
production, preparation and sharing that include: (at the College) food coops and regular collaborative
meals, contributing to decision-making about food served in the caf, managing the C-shop, the
community garden (that could be expanded in the future to some of the College’s lawns), bicycle repair
and use; and (at Nonstop) sustainable agriculture workshops, weekly community lunches, food bank,
student-initiated weekly big beautiful pizzas. Future student research has been proposed in the area of
alternative/ off-the-grid energy production, straw-bale construction for a new building on campus, and
development of ideas around environmentally sound projects for the golf course. Five years ago a
Yellow Springs Community Health Survey was funded locally, designed by a former Antioch faculty
member, and carried out with the assistance of student interviewers. It is now an appropriate time for a
follow up to this in-depth survey, and local and state funding could be pursued for this valuable
project.
3. Yellow Springs Resources, Ongoing Collaborations
Yellow Springs is home to individuals actively working on sustainability issues who are known
nationally and internationally. Community Solutions, a local organization directed by Pat Murphy, is
educating people about peak oil and climate change through yearly conferences and a recent highly
influential book Plan C (2008). This past year, Nonstop’s Local and Sustainable Agriculture workshop
series was a collaboration with Community Solutions and local organic farmers. The course offered a
forum for learning about seed selection, soil preparation, agriculture policy, permaculture practices and
philosophy, and different strategies for raising healthy and affordable food. The workshops were
located on site at local farms and gardens, and students across generations contributed by volunteering
work. Another two-day workshop presented different strategies for preserving food, using
fermentation, canning, and drying.
The village of Yellow Springs historically has been a seed bed for entrepreneurial enterprise,
encouraged through Antioch College. The population is progressive and actively working on a new
visioning plan to develop a sustainable local economy. Recently, new businesses have sprung up to
respond to the concerns of energy consumption and energy efficient building. Yellow Springs is home
to people with expertise on energy auditing, retrofitting, passive solar design, and straw bale home
building. There is an untapped reservoir of creative capacity that can be encouraged to find energy
solutions, and to help develop local food production systems that can contribute to the economic health
and viability of the Village and the region. Former Nonstop faculty, staff and students have been
attending village meetings and workshops and are clearly committed to contributing actively to the
village’s revisioning process and the public discussion around sustainability.
Appendix 5
FIBER OPTICS ENTREPRENEURIAL COLLABORATION,
MEDIA CENTER & MEDIA LITERACY/ARTS CURRICULA
1. Fiber Optics Collaboration between Antioch College & the Village of Yellow Springs
For thirty years, Antioch College was a respected leader in educating student majors and
nonmajors in media studies and literacy. The new independent Antioch can build on that heritage with
curricular, community and technology-based projects. At a time when the village of Yellow Springs is
visioning sustainable, cost-effective economic development, the College could lead the way by
collaborating with the village to establish and manage a new media grid for the region that would
deliver what is now cable programming, internet access, and telephone services.
A group that includes Nonstop faculty, staff, Antioch alumni and Yellow Springs community
leaders have started researching the technological and business planning required to fund and develop
a fiber optics grid in the village that could be extended to nearby institutions such as Central State and
Wilberforce Universities, and Cedarville College. Federal Stimulus grants are available specifically for
the development and infrastructure costs of these services with attention to underserved communities,
including those in rural areas. Unlike the current grid of T-1 and cable lines owned by Time-Warner in
the village, the proposed new grid would be owned and controlled by a consortium of the new College
and the village. A fiber grid, the next wave of information delivery technology, will increase
bandwidth available for both downloading and uploading data. Furthermore, the allocation of
bandwidth to specific users would be negotiated by the consortium, a significant deviation from a
major cable or phone company managing those decisions and pricings. For schools and businesses, the
specific capacity to control uploading bandwidth and rates for such service would be attractive, and
well-designed pricing policies could lead to considerable cost savings. The cost of all information
services (phone, computer and cable) will be dramatically reduced in the service area. Currently each
business T-1 line runs about $700 per month. Unlimited information through a fiber network might
cost half that amount. Homeowners’ bills for what are now cable, internet and phone services are
anticipated to be reduced by 40% or more.
The costs of installing a fiber network vary from community to community, depending on size,
population density and type of fiber, and whether it is installed aerially on poles or buried. Fiber lasts
twenty to thirty years, with the electronics at the hub being replaced every three to seven years.
General installation costs include building a hub, passing the fiber through neighborhoods and last-
mile connections and electronics. Reedsburg, Wisconsin, built a fiber network for its 9000 residents
for $13.5 million. Communities the size of Yellow Springs in North Carolina and Vermont have also
built and started managing their own fiber optics systems in recent years.
Fiber would benefit everyone, from the resident needing affordable media access, to the
educational institution desiring greater bandwidth for faculty research in the sciences and other
disciplines, reliable transmission of live cultural events, and students posting video and academic
Appendix 5: Fiber Optics, Media Center, Media Literacy/Arts — 2
documentation up to websites. The increased bandwidth would directly benefit the new Antioch
College and provide a unique opportunity for collaboration with other local universities like Central
State, Wilberforce, and Cedarville. At a time when Yellow Springs is envisioning economic
development with a high priority on green businesses and industries, a local fiber system would be
attractive to information service businesses and other internet-dependent and highly networked
industries. Federal funding is sensitive to the involvement of underserved sectors of the community.
Our proposal would extend the local Yellow Springs-Antioch College fiber optics system to the
currently underserved rural schools and residential areas just beyond the village limits.
Federal stimulus money is currently available that will cover 80-100% of the installation cost.
The window for applications is limited—application deadlines occur in June and October (2009), and
April (2010). It is important to move quickly on fiber installation for two reasons: first, the stimulus
money will only be available for one year; and second, in some communities media companies are
already asking customers to pay for the installation of fiber grids that those companies would
subsequently own. This is a unique opportunity for the new College together with the village of
Yellow Springs to thoughtfully manage this critical resource.
Preliminary planning has begun among faculty, staff and alumni who have direct experience
with national consulting and policy work regarding fiber optics technology and community control;
community cable programming and management; IT institutional systems development; starting up
municipal cable access organizations; citizen training in media production and media literacy; and the
history of grassroots media access and production. Yellow Springs village management has indicated
in recent conversations that the village would consider matching funds that the new College might put
toward preliminary research on fiber optic installation, essential preparation for writing the federal
Stimulus grant. Beyond that research, we know that a consultant with specific technological expertise
would need to be identified and retained for the initial feasibility study. Other critical components—a
carefully-researched business plan for this multi-faceted and collaborative project, legal foundational
work, programming considerations, and more—will require extensive research, professional
consulting, and inspired planning during the transitional period.
2. Area Media Production Center, Programming
Federal law established in the early 1970s mandated that cable companies must offer citizens in
the municipalities they serve access to this important communications technology. Public access cable
TV, often with production facilities and citizen training programs, evolved as a result of this mandate.
The legal distinctions between cable TV as a service and the phone system as a utility are collapsing as
technologies evolve, and much of the current policy debates revolve around a new configuration that
will combine these services ideally with access to these services by all. Media programming (now
cable programming), while not considered an essential utility like the phone or perhaps the net, could
be better managed to provide local viewers with more progressive public affairs, international news
and diverse cultural fare and of course the internet continues to expand media options as increased
bandwidth becomes commonly available (also there are many models of more culturally diverse media
programming internationally besides what we have become familiar with in the US). There are many
technological, public policy, and cultural questions that need to be approached and considered, but
there are not-for-profit groups that are doing this work in the public interest; we are in touch with them
and expect to work with them.
Appendix 5: Fiber Optics, Media Center, Media Literacy/Arts — 3
Along with access to these important information highways, citizens and students need to be
media literate—they need to be able to “write” media as well as to “read” media. In other words,
citizens and students need to be able to produce media (using cameras, microphones and editing
systems) as well as to be able to watch media critically. We propose to establish a Media Production
Center in Yellow Springs or on campus that can be accessed by citizens as well as students and
business people in the service area. Training in media production can take many forms, and we
anticipate not only classes in barebones media production instruction but additionally classes in
contemporary media culture(s) and media histories. Some of these courses can originate at the new
Antioch College as part of a Media Arts program and curriculum. Antioch College developed a strong
and popular Communications/ Media Arts program over the last 30years with distinguished faculty and
accomplished alumni in film, community media, radio, photography, media policy-development,
documentary, media scholarship, and media arts. The Communications/Media Arts program at the
College historically supported many interdisciplinary Senior Projects, and further cross-disciplinary
pathways for students could be enriched. Such a Media Production Center could be integrated with the
new College curriculum, or be organized to be decentralized with small units available in different area
sites. However the Media Center project is designed, there would be specific opportunities for
Cooperative Education placements. New leadership at WYSO with its history of curricular
collaboration with the College, the developing YS Center for the Arts with multi-disciplinary arts
aspirations, and the Yellow Springs Schools with a strong history of media production are some
possible collaborators. The new College, working closely with the village of Yellow Springs and
nearby institutions, can build on these resources.
3. Curricular Research
Media culture evolves quickly as producers, both professional and non-professional, respond
creatively to regularly anticipated technological innovations in professional and consumer equipment,
and transmission speed and bandwidth. Recognized media histories across diverse cultures are
foundational for students of media as well as for citizens who desire a less passive relationship to our
information-saturated society. Experience with producing media in multiple genres is critical for a
media literacy that will enable contemporary students and citizens to “write” media, or work (produce
and edit) with images, sounds, and text as an expanded “literature.” The mass and alternative cultural
forms of mediated engagement and expression proliferate constantly, requiring ongoing research and
direct engagement with the fields of journalism, media art, narrative, documentary, and “new media,”
and educational media technologies.
Curricular research on new forms of media culture and literacies must be supported. Many
technology-based pedagogies (distanced-learning, online classes, e-portfolios) provide pre-digested
formats for online exchange, information storage, and chat sessions. Students engaging this kind of
educational software usually learn little about the coding and deep technological structures, or social,
cultural and economic histories that have shaped these commonly used instruments and the cultures
that grow up around them. A liberal arts education is exactly the site where such inquiries into those
cultural, economic, and social exchange structures that deliver and shape the media we receive daily
need to occur. Whatever pedagogical forms a future Antioch education takes, whether taking online
classes while on Co-op or wanting to do video documentation for an Anthropology class, students (and
citizens) should have the opportunity to become truly literate in these forms of mediated expressions,
Appendix 5: Fiber Optics, Media Center, Media Literacy/Arts — 4
documentations, and communications that are increasingly foundational for how we receive and shape
information exchange impacting sciences, social services,business, education, and the arts.
Appendix 6
NONSTOP AS COST-EFFECTIVE INVESTMENT; PLANNING
OVERVIEW
1. Collaboration between Former Faculty, Staff and Alumni of Antioch College/Nonstop, BPT
and the Village of Yellow Springs
Whether the BPT decides to re-open the College in 2011 or 2012, it will be cost effective and
pragmatic to invest during the current transitional period in the expertise, acknowledged
accomplishments, and the human and physical resources that Nonstop personnel as a collaborative
working body have developed and are proposing to develop further through specific projects. Much of
our relationship-building with citizens, students, and alumni in the region and networking among
alums and to academics beyond Yellow Springs of the past year is not easily transferable. Many people
in village government, the local business community, and the citizenry in general have remarked in
conversation and in print about the vastly improved connections over the past year between the
Nonstop “college” community and the village of Yellow Springs. Diane Chiddister, editor of the
Yellow Springs News, wrote in a December 2008 editorial: “Nonstop reminded us that the magic of
learning has little to do with expensive buildings or high-tech equipment, and everything to do with
dedicated teachers and passionate learners, engaged in exploration and critical inquiry… [T]his tiny
group of teachers and learners are the ones who deserve our thanks. Most of all, Nonstop enriched the
village by inspiring us with their example of audacity, perseverance, and the glory of winning a victory
for humanity.”
Our projects recommend new curricular and entrepreneurial endeavors and expand upon
Nonstop’s existing cultural relationships with the village of Yellow Springs as we recognize the value
of strengthening the ties among existing stakeholders in securing the future of an independent College
.
Many former faculty, staff and alumni of the College as well other supporters of an independent
Antioch College remain in Yellow Springs, have supported Nonstop with dollars, letters to the editor,
substantial in-kind donated professional services, and are potential donors to the revival efforts.
When CRF resolved to fund the Nonstop effort in March, 2008, the faculty that would become
Nonstop were the faculty of Antioch College, many of them tenured faculty. Nonstop was one of the
three efforts in stewardship for reviving the College articulated by the Alumni Board’s March 2009
Resolution (see full quote in section I.1). The response of the faculty to create and sustain Nonstop as a
vital living educational community in Yellow Springs, inspired by strategic localization as curricular
development, evolved from their commitment to Antioch College. That resolve is directly related to
the faculty’s tenured status. We believe that the projects outlined in this Proposal speak to many
essential tasks in rebuilding the College. Supporting these projects will additionally serve to sustain an
active, multi-faceted educational community in Yellow Springs that will be vital to recruitment efforts,
and will build on the relationships established by Nonstop over the past year in the village and with
alums.
Appendix 6: Nonstop as a Cost Effective Investment Planning Overview — 2
We recommend phased funding, starting over the summer 2009. This funding will support
many of the current Nonstop faculty and staff as transitional personnel/ consultants to work on
curriculum development and institutional rebuilding articulated in the proposed projects (all projects
will seek additional grant support) along with modest support for existing facilities (rent and net access
for Millworks’ offices and meeting space).
Our overview of necessary tasks in reviving the College (see below) includes an 18-month
search for a permanent President and top academic leadership. Curriculum research and development,
sustained and visible public conferences and events in Yellow Springs, and start up administrative
tasks (including though not limited to preparation of accreditation documentation and pre-recruitment
strategic planning and publicity) will be necessary during that approximately 12-18 month period
before the President, Chief Academic Officer, and permanent core faculty can be selected.
Our Proposal provides a broad overview of those administrative tasks. It assumes the value of
hiring members of the former faculty of Antioch College to work directly with the BPT and their
professional representatives on a range of curricular and administrative-related tasks as consultants,
prior to any decisions that might be made about hiring permanent or core faculty
. Working directly
with the former College staff who have similarly demonstrated their commitment to the revival of the
College through their work with Nonstop and who have experience with critical administrative
functions would bind these invaluable human resources close to the revival project. Nonstop
alumni/future Antioch College students are integrated into all of the proposed projects in various
capacities, and represent an energetic, committed and youthful workforce that has undeniable value in
many areas including the green rebuilding activities and support in recruiting a strong entering class.
For more information on Nonstop faculty, staff and students see Appendix 7.
All of the projects proposed herein assume an initial phase of BPT-supported research and
intensive grant writing with the expectation that some of those grants will be successful and bring in
additional salary support for the transitional personnel positions and projects. As the projects are
developed collaboratively with the BPT and their administrator(s), benchmarks would be set for
reviewing the phased projects over the18-month period. Because CRF funding for Nonstop will cease
on June 30, Nonstop is in the process of establishing not-for-profit status (a 501(c)3) that could provide
a fiscal sponsorship umbrella for these projects as soon as possible. Ideally some or all of these
incubator projects with their important curricular components could be incorporated early into the
necessary transitional work of the new College.
Conversations between the BPT transitional team and Nonstop personnel should begin soon to
explore the details and implications of these proposed projects, which point in specific directions but
are consciously open-ended and often complimentary. Two of the projects with specific
entrepreneurial components seek to draw on federal Stimulus funding that will only be available for
the next year. The research phase of those Stimulus-seeking proposals must start immediately.
2. Cost-Effectiveness and Return on Investment
No matter when accreditation is established, the presence of a living educational project and/or
events in Yellow Springs will directly support the recruitment cycle for new students for an
Appendix 6: Nonstop as a Cost Effective Investment Planning Overview — 3
independent Antioch College. Clearly, accreditation enables students to receive loans that in turn
support student housing and tuition income. A respected former budget manager at Antioch College
pointed out that under normal circumstances, where Antioch College students paid on average
$18,000/year, a rule of thumb was that 50 students delivered about $1 million. Surely ongoing and
visible public programming, conferences, research and collaborative educational initiatives in Yellow
Springs—with transitional personnel working closely with staff, alumni chapters, and former/future
students over the available lead time (18 months minimally)—could expect to deliver close to 50
students for the first incoming class. Of course other students will find their way to a renewed Antioch
College through different channels. But if funds are invested in a sustained educational community of
transitional personnel over the next 18 months that could specifically be responsible for attracting 50
new students in fall 2011, then those students could be expected to deliver $1 million in tuition
revenues in the first year, and, with a retention rate of 70%, another $1.5 million over the following 2
years. If tuition is heavily subsidized by endowed funding in the first few years, the presence of an
active community of educators and young alumni during the transition period would still make a major
contribution in attracting strong students and building a larger pool of prospective students which will
still pay off in real dollars once tuition payment is established. Under both models, sustaining former
Antioch College/Nonstop personnel as consultants to focus curriculum development, informational
outreach, relationship-building and other transitional tasks would pay back the investment in salaries
and modest operational costs in a relatively short time.
Nonstop also built an inviting 4500 sq ft. office and meeting space in the Millworks complex
(“Campus North”) in what is one of the only large spaces off campus that is available and zoned
appropriately in Yellow Springs. It is conveniently located between the bike path and Walnut St. just
north of the John Bryan Center and the village business district. Nonstop personnel can continue to
work out of the Millworks space with modest support for rent, utilities, and internet/phone. If the
Antioch College campus was again accessible, additional working spaces for transitional period work
could be expanded to include some of the buildings on campus with separate heating (such as the
former Coretta Scott King Center and nearby Units), requiring relatively little investment. Units can
serve as offices, workshop classrooms, or dorms for visitors.
3. Overview of Institution-Building Tasks—18-month Timeline
A. Sequence of hires over an 18 month period (develop specific timelines for each position):
• Start with operational people to put personnel policies, processes and systems in place in order
to hire, and set up administrative systems, including perhaps a CFO or administrative leader,
and a facility director;
• Next hire transitional faculty (as consultants) to research and plan curriculum with phased
sequence of implementation; to agendize the accreditation work; to consult and coordinate with
phased development of facilities; to help shape the development of PR and student recruitment
efforts; and to participate in both shaping the focus of leadership recruitment and in searching
and screening work;
•
Initiate searches for permanent leadership—President and Chief Academic Officer; develop
plan for aggressive national recruitment over 6 months, screening and evaluating over next 6
months, and a 6 month turnaround to start date;
Appendix 6: Nonstop as a Cost Effective Investment Planning Overview — 4
• Finally search and screen a permanent faculty (not necessarily excluding the transitional
faculty).
B. Sequence of facility rehab, renovation, and restoration (develop specific timelines indicating what
comes before what, phases of occupancy and function, and ballpark costs). For example:
• The Science building might require less extensive rehabilitation and renovation, and could
provide a base for officing and modest coursework while other facilities are being made ready;
• The Units are probably most habitable and could serve as residences for both recruiting and
prospective students;
• The President’s house should not have suffered as much as other buildings and can be used as a
base to house recruiting efforts, visiting speakers, and including housing for prospective faculty
or administrators;
• The Nonstop space (Millworks), given its accessibility and relatively inexpensive overhead,
could be used for operational offices, planning meetings and officing administrative people
until such time as other buildings come on line;
• Reasonable timelines developed for bringing classroom, residential and office spaces on line,
based on a thorough assessment of damage (begin that assessment now) and a planning process
based on the curricular directions and enrollment projections.
C. Sequence of student recruitment efforts over an 18 month period including:
• Develop a financial aid process and prospectus based on timeline for movement toward
accreditation;
• Develop materials based on the vision, values and general directions, as well as the history and
legacy of Antioch College, in coordination with transitional faculty and student recruiters;
• Develop a plan using both traditional and non-traditional recruitment efforts, using appeals to
rising juniors and rising seniors, campus visits, college fairs, web-page development and on-
line recruiting, feeder school visits, focused lists, and “guerrilla marketing” at events and
through informal networks by student recruiters;
• Attract pre-enrollment students and transfers through possible Nonstop curricular efforts during
F09 and Sp10;
• Develop a national public relations effort to “tell the story” of the College that refused to be
closed;
• Engage alumni chapters in recruiting students regionally.
D. Sequence of advancement strategies for generating capital and operating support:
• Evaluate current Institutional Advancement (IA) plans and processes using comparative
benchmarks and outside evaluators;
• Build strategies and timelines for capital and operational fundraising;
•
Develop cash-flow plans in coordination with the College’s business plan.
Appendix 7
NONSTOP TRACK RECORD
1. Nonstop—Organizational History, Accomplishments
Discussion about what eventually became Nonstop Institute began in February, 2008 when the
College faculty, community and alumni first considered how to sustain the core educational mission of
Antioch College if negotiations between the College alumni (ACCC) and the University Board of
Trustees continued beyond the Spring, 2008 term or were not successful. At the Alumni Board/CRF
meeting in Yellow Springs in March, 2008 funding was committed by CRF to ensure that the College
faculty could continue an educational project in Yellow Springs, and CRF Acting President Ellen
Borgersen stated that “Antioch College will be open in Yellow Springs next year, no matter how the
ongoing negotiations between the University Trustees and the Antioch College Continuation
Corporation (ACCC) turn out.”
That assertion was brought to fruition through the dedicated work of faculty, students and
eventually staff throughout the summer of 2008. Nonstop Antioch, renamed the Nonstop Liberal Arts
Institute in response to a cease and desist letter from Antioch University, held classes and workshops
in multiple venues in Yellow Springs from September, 2008 through May, 2009, succeeding in
keeping the values and heritage of Antioch College alive in Yellow Springs. A partial list of Nonstop’s
accomplishments includes:
• Served over 124 (discrete head count) multigenerational students, including a critical cohort of
traditional-aged students, some of whom had previously attended the College;
• Employed14 FTE faculty and 7 staff (all of whom were former employees or alumni of
Antioch College);
• Managed a $1.4 million budget (coming in $150,000 under the revised proposed 10 month
budget of October 08;
• Maintained the decades-old Antioch College shared governance structures such as ExCil
(AdCil in Exile), ComCil, Community Mangers, and institutions such as the Recordonline;
• Designed a scalable and cost-effective open source IT system;
• Managed and constructed a decentralized educational project in a small but welcoming village
with limited rental property zoned for business use;
• Created a dynamic multimedia website that targeted multiple audiences;
• Catalogued and expanded the Alternative Library (after having saved the Women’s Center
collection from a dumpster)
• Hosted over 80 cultural and public affairs events (featuring over 20 College alumni presenters),
attracting over 1400 attendees;
•
Received extensive coverage in the Yellow Springs News and regional press;
• Collected the signatures of over 1500 academics nationwide decrying the closing of the
College;
Appendix 7: Nonstop Track Record — 2
• Was invited to present about Nonstop curriculum and communication projects at respected
academic conferences;
• Built important relationships with citizens, business people, Yellow Springs Village Council
members and alumni in the village of Yellow Springs.
Nonstop has been a responsible collaborator in sustaining and reviving the College. From our
original 12-month budget of $2.1 million (projected net expenses = $1.9 million), approved in July,
2008, we have worked through a difficult year that has been marked by uncertainty regarding both the
GLCA-coordinated Task Force timeline and CRF fundraising that had to contend with an economic
downturn. In October we revised our budget to a 10-month budget with $1,596,000 in expenses, and
currently are coming in at around $1,438,000, nearly $460,000 less than our original projections and
$150,000 less than our October projections.
Substantial cost savings have been accomplished by securing equipment donations such as
computers from Lexis Nexis and a server from an alum that enabled us to run open source programs
for scalable email and phone services (these programs could be expanded to serve an entire campus).
We were also successful in attracting in the vicinity of $300,000 of in-kind services from regional
professionals (architects, librarian, carpenters, media producers, graphic artists), alumni, faculty and
staff. Over the last 6 months we have worked closely with villagers on projects that range from the
weekly Nonstop Presents! public events to the design and development of the Millworks space
anchored by in-kind donations by talented alums and professional colleagues and the support of our
landlords, respected and engaged Yellow Springs business people.
As we proposed at the 2008 Alumni Reunion, we have kept Nonstop, a strategic educational
initiative, in the regional news. Through circulating our petitions to important academic communities
and our recent presentations at national academic conferences we have distributed widely the
important subtext of resistance to the University’s closure of the College. In so doing, we have drawn
upon not only our academic and institutional experience but also on our professional working lives
with not-for-profits, businesses, and as consultants. Furthermore, we have established a valuable track
record upon which to build new initiatives, local and national, and to secure grant support in the
coming year. These projects will serve the ongoing agenda of an independent Antioch College, led by
the BPT.
We presented a profile of Nonstop to the BPT visiting team last February, and, as stated at that
time, we look forward to working together closely with all of the other bodies working to revive the
College—the BPT, the AB/CRF, many Yellow Springs villagers, as well as alumni across generations
and Nonstop alumni—as the revival efforts continue.
2. Overview of Nonstop Faculty, Staff, and Students
A responsible transition to Nonstop Institute during the final semester at the College involved
decisions by a majority of the elected AdCil members, who became ExCil (or AdCil in exile) and the
Faculty Senate following the Alumni Board/CRF decision of March, 2008, to commit funds for a
Nonstop Antioch. The Faculty Senate and ExCil independently confirmed a plan for a 3-person faculty
Executive Collective to provide administrative and curricular leadership. ExCil committees on
Appendix 7: Nonstop Track Record — 3
Curriculum and Budget moved forward with planning for a new entity (in sustained consultation with
some Alumni Board members), and Community Government elected leadership to prepare for an
uncertain interim period.
In May, 2008, following the unsuccessful termination of negotiations, 18 Antioch College
faculty (14 FTE) committed to teach fulltime or parttime with Nonstop. Faculty volunteered extensive
time from May through August to develop a Nonstop curriculum, policies, and a budget in consultation
with ExCil. The Nonstop faculty include a former College President; a former Dean of Students and
acting Dean of Students; faculty members with either Assistant Dean of Faculty or related
administrative experience; and at least 3 faculty members with specific administrative experience
outside of academia starting up respected not-for-profit organizations in the arts, business, and
telecommunications. Short faculty bios are available on the Nonstop website at:
nonstopinstitute.org/academics/faculty. Full resumes of faculty were previously distributed to BPT
members and can also be accessed via the website.
Following CRF’s approval of a 12-month budget and expenditures through December 2008,
jobs were posted and interviews held for staff positions (with faculty members, a Community
Manager, and an Alumni Board member serving on the hiring committee). Notably some of the staff
hired for Nonstop had held key positions of responsibility at the College such as Registrar, Executive
Assistant to the President, Executive Assistant to the Dean of Faculty, and Associate Dean of Students.
Some staff members had worked for the College for over 2-3 decades in a number of departments and
capacities, bringing with them invaluable institutional memory as well as a familiarity with each
others’ strengths and interests as co-workers. The hiring committee was also alert to taking advantage
of demonstrated strengths among alumni, and created some positions with collaborative opportunities
that would allow Nonstop to build on those synergistic energies.
Nonstop staff performed a wide range of vital tasks and services, including recruitment,
registrarial duties, student services, business office management, events planning and press releases,
facilities planning, and the development and installation of cutting-edge information systems and
technology. Nonstop staff members took classes with computer science faculty and used those forums
to design administrative systems and smart building interfaces. From the first online inquiry through
the maintenance of transcripts in perpetuity, the current staff of the Nonstop Institute have been able to
serve the needs of a typical student. Our staff have repeatedly proved that they can work with serious
infrastructural and resource challenges. The incorporation of this highly experienced and well-trained
staff in the future College would allow the new College to hit the ground running. Staff resumes are
available on the Nonstop website.
Student recruitment could not occur until a budget was approved (July, 2008) which left little
time for a broad and sustained information campaign about a new unaccredited educational initiative,
but informal networking among former Antioch College students along with intensive outreach by
recent College alumni to progressive youth attracted a cohort of traditional-aged students. An
information campaign within Yellow Springs and the region to multi-generational students was also
successfully engaged. Nonstop’s classrooms took on the challenge of integrating students of different
ages and varying experience in the rigors of college work as part of its embrace of and by the local
Yellow Springs community. ComCil and Community Government worked to reconstruct and reaffirm
important policies such as the Honor Code, CSIP (regarding sexual offense prevention) and GARI
Appendix 7: Nonstop Track Record — 4
(regarding racial discrimination prevention), and to preserve structural aspects of student life, such as
Independent Groups. Experiences with multigenerational students in classrooms and through extended
public affairs and arts offerings, now an active topic of discussion in higher ed circles, could be
productively expanded through curricular, Co-op-related, and other creative relationships with the new
College.
Nonstop students/alumni remain committed to an independent Antioch College and many of
the traditional aged cohort look forward not only to graduating from Antioch College but also helping
to rebuild its physical campus and assist in the recruitment of new students. Nonstop alumni have been
excellent networkers, cultivating outreach to both local and online communities and through alumni
chapters for purposes of fundraising and eventually recruiting. Student recruiters, especially those with
ties to ongoing educational and rebuilding activities in Yellow Springs, can travel to college fairs,
youth conferences and events, help to develop outreach materials, and maintain contact with
prospective students.
Experienced Antioch faculty, reflecting on the their own orientation to the unique educational
environment that has been Antioch College, can point to the often lengthy socialization process that
most incoming faculty face. Many have said that they come to understand the deep value of an Antioch
education only after watching and engaging with students over the course of what has been typically a
4-year educational journey. Mentoring students who are taking on the responsibilities of experiential
learning, with alternating terms of Co-op and classroom in a setting with a low student/faculty ratio,
brings many unexpected developments to advising, curricular planning, community cultural life, and
senior project guidance. Shared governance, acknowledged as an invaluable and active learning
laboratory for participatory democracy, also demands commitments that may not have been
encountered in other academic settings. While the structures and policies that shape a future Antioch
education may well deviate from some of the past practices, it remains clear that experienced Antioch
College faculty, along with staff and recent alumni, bring critical insights to a reconsideration of this
unusual and justifiably celebrated foundation for progressive liberal arts education.
3. One Perspective on the Nonstop Curriculum: An Experiment in Strategic Localization
Central to our educational philosophy at Nonstop has been the assumption that education is an
inherently social mission. We chose a collective faculty leadership model for Nonstop as appropriate
for an uncertain transitional period following a contentious last year at the College, flattened faculty
pay scales to bring up the especially low salaries at the bottom (see GLCA salaries across rank posted
online), and focused the contributions of experienced College staff members, former College students,
alumni volunteers, and village supporters in building the Nonstop project. Our goal at Nonstop has
always been “transformative education,” an education in which students reflect critically upon their
own learning, becoming aware of their own tacit assumptions and those of others, and move to act
upon their new knowledge. An Antioch education is a catalyst for individual growth.
Our curricular innovations have come both from necessity (our classes met in churches, coffee
shops, the houses of village residents) and from our deliberate attempt to apply the insights of recent
movements for relocalization and bioregionalism to our educational project. This curricular and
philosophic turn to the local has been inspired by larger concerns about environmental sustainability in
Appendix 7: Nonstop Track Record — 5
the face of global climate change and resource depletion, and by the efforts of environmental and
visioning groups in the village of Yellow Springs. We consciously set out to design interdisciplinary
courses, linked courses, workshops, speaker series, arts events, and joint projects aimed at meeting the
needs and interests of members of the village of all ages, as well as of traditional-aged students.
Following the network-organization models of bioregionalist and ‘slow food’ movements, Nonstop
sought a more dialogical and sustainable relationship to land, place, and the surrounding local
community. Instead of seeing itself as an isolated entity, Nonstop grounded itself in the existing
resources of the village of Yellow Springs. Like a rhizome spreading horizontally while firmly rooted
in the earth, Nonstop has recognized that the most fruitful re-creations and adaptations are those which
draw upon existing shared values, and a commitment to bottom-up processes and dialogue.
Nonstop Antioch emerged as a quintessentially Antiochian invention and intervention, part
bridge to the future, part resistance to present conditions. As a political movement it challenged the
imposition of neoliberal economic assumptions on higher education. In recognition of the immediacy
of this struggle, over fifteen hundred scholars and academics, including Noam Chomsky, Gayatri
Spivak and Fredric Jameson have signed a petition critical of Antioch University and supportive of
Nonstop Antioch [http://nonstopinstitute.org/prominent-academics-call-for-the-reopening-of-college].
As neoliberal economic policies and their accompanying managerial logics have been thrown into
question by the recent economic crisis, the national mood has become more receptive to progressive
ideas and the new Antioch will be particularly well-situated to be a model of innovative high quality
liberal arts education, with Nonstop as a valued chapter. Deriving strength from the local and the
small in scale has been a response to the standardization and homogeneity which accompanies the
imposition of economies of scale as well as an attempt to use resources more wisely and
collaboratively.
