A Troubling Undercurrent in George Will’s Deathbed Obit for Antioch College
The Pulitzer Prize winner’s latest syndicated column is an offbeat gem about the “suspension of operations” that appears to presage the death of Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio:
There is, however, a minuscule market for what Antioch sells for a tuition, room and board of $35,221 — repressive liberalism unleavened by learning.
Founded in 1852 — its first president was Horace Mann — Antioch was, for a while, admirable. One of the first colleges to enroll women and blacks, it was a destination for escaped slaves. Its alumni include Stephen Jay Gould, Coretta Scott King and Rod Serling, whose “Twilight Zone” never imagined anything weirder than what Antioch became when its liberalism curdled.
In 1972-73, Antioch had 2,470 students. In 1973, a protracted and embittering student and employee strike left the campus physically decrepit and intellectually toxic. By 1985, enrollment was down 80 percent. This fall there may be 300 students served by a faculty of 40.
There is a troubling undercurrent of seemingly routine violence and harassment that appears to have been the order of the day at the school:
Former public radio correspondent Michael Goldfarb matriculated at what he calls the “sociological petri dish” in 1968. In his first week, he twice had guns drawn on him, once “in fun” and once by a couple of drunken ex-cons “whom one of my classmates, in the interest of breaking down class barriers, had invited to live with her.” (Goldfarb’s full column, which originally appeared in the New York Times and is behind the TimeSelect firewall, can also be found here. — Ed.)
….. Steven Lawry — Antioch’s fifth president in 13 years — came to the college 18 months ago. He told Scott Carlson of The Chronicle of Higher Education about a student who left after being assaulted because he wore Nike shoes, symbols of globalization.
….. Lawry stopped the student newspaper’s practice of printing “announcements containing anonymous, menacing threats against other students for their political views.”
Yellow Springs is a community about 20 miles east of downtown Dayton, and about 70 miles north-northeast of downtown Cincinnati. Yet I recall no reports about the violence described in either the Dayton Daily News or the Cincinnati Enquirer over many years.
It’s possible that Antioch’s environment is (soon to be was) an off-the-chart extreme; after all, it IS the institution that earned international ridicule for its “ask at every stage of intimacy” sexual conduct code in the early 1990s. But the examples of assault and harassment cited do make one wonder if the concern over on-campus crime that at most schools has focused on perpetrators from the surrounding community has been at least partially misplaced — with the help of Old Media outlets reluctant to expose Far Left-inspired violence.
Out in the off-campus world, one has to ask how many supposedly peace-loving, wouldn’t-harm-a-fly graduates of colleges or departments with “curricula” similar to those found at Antioch are ready to react in violence at the least little perceived provocation.
Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.
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Trackback by Ed Driscoll.com — July 16, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
To The Editor
Regarding the July 15 Commentary by George Will, one must wonder before setting the record straight why it is that he feels the need to be so thoroughly mean spirited in kicking an institution when it is on the ropes. If Antioch is still alive, he is at least unsportsmanlike; if it is dead (as he would wish) then his behavior amounts to abuse of a corpse. The only possible reason for such action is that he must do anything possible to distract attention from the general disaster being visited on civilization at home and abroad by our current president.
Readers of this paper curious about the actual dimensions of the Antioch story should read the admirable probings or Stephanie Irwin Gottschluh in the Dayton Daily News. They will then see the extent to which Mr. Will has resorted to using selected snippets of the whole story to craft his crude and flawed argument. He neglects to say that Antioch’s liberal curriculum has similar counterparts at other small liberal arts schools which are doing quite well these days. He also fails to note that over the past 35 years which saw upheaval and financial duress at the college, its inspired and dedicated faculty continued to deliver a dynamic program. Large numbers of graduates from this period went on to do graduate work, earn PhD’s, win prestigious awards, and in general work for the greater social good.
Finally, Mr Will fails to mention that Antioch’s problems have been with its management, not its vision or the caliber of its education. But it was management that failed to establish the lasting relations with alumni that lead to broad-based giving. It was management that failed to identify the unique strengths of Antioch’s educational approach and to market this accordingly. And finally, it was management which failed to keep an accurate set of books. It was only in the past year that top management initiated a deep audit which finally revealed the extent of the college’s difficulty. In the end what has brought about the projected closure of the college is the same thing that closed ENRON and MCI: inept accounting which prevented informed incisive decision making at every level. If anything, this failed management history, if echoed anywhere, it is by the current administration in the White House. There was never anything seriously wrong at Antioch with the educational philosophy or its implementation in the classroom. Further, the difficulties of Antioch College in no way lead to a valid condemnation of its liberal philosophical underpinnings. Finally, at this time of large problems…political, social, and environmental … looming across the globe, the world is perhaps in greatest need of diversity of thought. Our most lasting solutions to problems have most often come from the minds of robust thinkers and activists from across the political spectrum bringing their diverse interpretations to bear collaboratively to realize deeply considered outcomes. With this in mind, one would say we need Antioch College now, perhaps more than ever.
Comment by Michael Jones — July 17, 2007 @ 2:53 pm
#2, The “vision” and the “caliber of education” contributed to the atmosphere of lax oversight. The alumni relationship is a two-way street. Will’s point that Antiochians think they’re above dealing with messy things like money is in essence vindicated by the financial history you describe.
I guess BDS and its predecessors (Reagan Derangement Syndrome, etc.) must be elements of the core curriculum — Otherwise, how in the world does “our current president,” Enron, and MCI get dragged into an article about a small lib arts college in Ohio that failed financially as it was run by arch-libs?
Nothing “seriously wrong” at Antioch with an 80%-90% enrollment drop? Puh-leeze.
Comment by TBlumer — July 18, 2007 @ 6:44 am