The alumni newsletter of Antioch College Fall 2004
The alumni newsletter of Antioch College Fall 2004
Antioch University McGregor, founded in 1988, boasts a handful of distance learning programs that prove the traditional classroom is not the only answer to a graduate education. McGregor students attend their programs from states as far away as Alaska and as close as Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. In addition, students living in South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe are also full participants in McGregor’s distance graduate programs. More significantly, perhaps, McGregor is proof that the values of Antioch College are present in every branch of Antioch University.
Visit any online classroom or attend a McGregor commencement ceremony and you will see an impressive group of diverse learners. Antioch University McGregor uses distance learning to make an Antioch education accessible to all. Students log in from around the world for programs in conflict resolution, management, and individualized studies (see programs listed below). Each program encourages critical thinking, provides opportunities for collaborative learning, emphasizes cultural diversity and an international perspective, and promotes the integration of life and work experience with academic knowledge.
Iris M. Weisman, Chair of the Community College Management Department (CCM) and Associate Professor of Higher Education, is among the best examples of how Antioch University McGregor imbues its students with an entrepreneurial spirit. Iris first came to McGregor in 1990 as a student in the IMA Self-Designed program (now the Individualized and Professional Studies program). Through this program, Iris was able to live and work at home (Tucson, Arizona), come to campus for two brief residencies, and complete MA through intense, relevant study with experts in her field. One thing that makes Iris unique, however, is that her success story at McGregor did not end with the completion of her MA.
Not long after earning her doctorate from North Carolina State in higher education administration, Iris heard of a vacancy at McGregor and applied for it. Although she did not get this initial position, fate gave her another opportunity. Only nine months later, she saw there was a faculty position open in the very department in which she had gotten her degree. “I thought, this is meant to be. I applied and got the position.”
Iris only had one real regret about coming back to McGregor in 1998. She felt she was leaving her field of community college leadership behind. However, just six months after she began teaching at McGregor, the University hired a new president, Barbara Gellman-Danley. It just so happened that the new president came from Monroe Community College, and so, like Iris, she had a strong background in community college leadership. “Suddenly there was somebody who had similar experiences to me,” Iris said. Iris and Barbara did not make much of this connection at first, but as McGregor looked at ways to expand its management curriculum, an idea bubbled to the surface. Barbara Gellman-Danley approached the director of the graduate management program with an innovative idea: “Since you’re thinking about a new, applied focus for management, how about focusing on the management of community colleges?” The management faculty agreed, and looked to Iris to take on this challenge. It was kismet.
Iris pulled together a grant proposal and received Antioch University Innovation Funds to pursue the idea. “I was very lucky to have the support of everyone on campus,” Iris says. “Faculty, administration, support services. This was a real collaboration.” Although the program was modified significantly, the core values and the integrity of the design remained. In many ways, Iris’s education at McGregor came full circle. “My having been a student gave me exposure to the power of coming together for short periods of time. It is a shared belief here that you can’t have a totally online program and do it well. You really need face-to-face contact and grounding. Online learning can be very powerful but to truly be Antiochian, distance learning programs have to provide a place where students and faculty can break bread together.”
McGregor’s distance programs offer small class sizes and educational experiences that are relevant to the student’s personal and professional needs. “You don’t just learn what other people say about your field. There is a very strong emphasis on theory and practice,” Iris commented, a familiar educational model for any Antioch College graduate. Students are able to take the materials that they learn online directly into their work environment. It is an intense experience that is not limited to or by the classroom. “Think about what happens with co-op,” Iris offered. “Students are not always on campus or meeting face-to-face with other students. They are integrating what they learned in the classroom into life experience. When they return to campus, they are reflecting back on what happened out in the world and bringing that into the classroom. It’s no different from what we do here at McGregor.”
Unlike the traditional experience, where class discussions tend to be limited to the scheduled classroom time, the online classroom is active at all hours, with students reading, reflecting upon, and responding to comments throughout the week, day and night. This provides an opportunity for the reflective or shy person to participate as fully as the gregarious student does. However, this access makes every discussion longer, and more drawn-out. “Because of the potential for lots of chit-chat, as faculty, we work with the students to help them learn how to fill the online classroom with substantive comments, adding new ideas and moving the conversation forward.”
Iris Weisman’s experience should sound familiar to an Antioch College graduate. In spite of the non-traditional online community, or more likely because of it, McGregor offers intensive interactions with faculty and students while helping students apply their learning directly to their own professional environments. College graduates find these programs invigorating and challenging. We invite you to check out the online opportunities that would help you earn an MA while staying close to your Antioch College roots and the great opportunities for a lifetime of learning that those roots encourage.
The Community College Management track of the master of arts in management provides a community college employees with a team-based, multi-dimensional approach to the science and art of community college management. Students develop skills as effective managers capable of adapting to and influencing societal change by studying relevant management theories and cutting edge community college practices.
The Conflict Resolution program is a unique and exciting opportunity to earn a master of arts degree in this emerging field through an academic experience that integrates alternative modes of learning such as short residential sessions, on-line learning, practicum, and at-home study. By using Internet technologies to facilitate continuous discussion and communication among students and faculty, the student experiences state-of-the-art learning that is firmly sustained by the student’s own evolving learning community.
The Individualized Liberal and Professional Studies (ILPS) Department offers qualified students a unique opportunity to pursue graduate education through an individualized, limited-residency program. Our master of arts program is designed for the reflective, committed, and self-directed learner who seeks to effect social, organizational, or personal change.
Visit www.mcgregor.edu today and check out the variety of Antioch opportunities still available to Antioch College graduates.