Gift Roster 2003 - 2004
What is at the essence of Antioch? What makes us Antiochians? Many things have changed since the College’s founding—the curriculums, calendars, certainly the campus itself—but what has sustained Antioch through a century and a half is deeper. Antioch means more than its manifestation at any given point in time. Some of what makes Antioch so important remains elusive, but other defining values come easily to mind.
Photo by Axel Bahnsen, courtesy of Antiochiana
Of course, there is Antioch’s commitment to providing a challenging liberal arts education and the importance of experiential learning as part of the curriculum. But another of these easily identifiable traits brings us closer to what makes the Antioch experience so powerful: Antioch’s deep emphasis on education for the betterment of the human condition. This value drew many of us to Antioch, and remains with us after we leave.
Horace Mann proclaimed to the class of 1859, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” For over 150 years Antioch has been educating students with a deep concern for truth and social justice. Through our experiences in the classroom, on campus, and in the world, our ability to create change is honed. We leave Antioch not only with the concern for equality, justice, and freedom, but also with the tools to work for change.
For generations, Antioch alumni have challenged the status quo and pushed for the improvement of the human condition through the arts, through their election to public office, by operating ethical businesses, by developing creative solutions to environmental problems, by reporting the truth of the voiceless and making space for community.
Photo courtesy of Antiochiana
Today Antioch students continue that tradition of informed, responsible involvement. They organize, they march, they discuss, and they work for change. Eighty-five percent of the student body spends at least five hours a week participating in community service on campus or in the surrounding area. They spend their final semester engrossed in senior projects like Staci Willet’s ’03Nonviolent Actions and Peace Initiatives in the Middle East, and Alicia Musicant’s ’04 Socially Engaged Buddhism. They run for Administrative Council and Community Council; they write and revise campus policy. In their free time they attend meetings of the Human Rights group or lectures on the conflict in Sudan. Students learn to be responsible citizens by actively engaging in and building community every day.
One Antioch value that remains constant is change, change that continues to position the College at the cutting-edge of higher education in the United States. In fall 2005, the entering class will become engaged in the Plan for Antioch College, which features new approaches to teaching and co-op. Although the Antioch experience will change, the values of equality and social justice will continue to inspire our students. For example, one of the classes to be offered in the fall is entitled Paradoxes of Plenty and will be team-taught by an economist, a sociologist and an environmental philosopher. This interdisciplinary approach explores the relationship of the haves and the have-nots from all three disciplinary perspectives. The teaching method is new, but the outcome remains the same: students prepared to win victories for humanity.
Photo courtesy of Antiochiana
Tomorrow’s Antioch students will also find increased institutional support for understanding and challenging oppression. The new Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom will lead the community in developing strategies that serve diversity, freedom, responsibility, equality and justice. The center will fund speakers, forums and other events, as well as scholarships, endowed faculty chairs and support staff, placing diversity and multiculturalism at Antioch’s core.
Over the decades our experiences of Antioch have been different, but Antioch’s mission and Horace Mann’s words reverberate meaningfully to us all and will continue to do so. In the following pages you will find the stories of Antiochians from different eras on different paths in life, all of whom are seeking to improve the condition of humanity. Their work is inspiring and makes all of us proud to carry the title Antiochian.
Dan Kaplan ’76
Chair, Antioch University Board of Trustees
Photo courtesy of Antiochiana
