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July 1, 2004
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July 1, 2004 |
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Dean now interim Antioch president
When he accepted the job as vice president and dean of faculty at Antioch College last year, Rick Jurasek said, he was drawn by the idea that at Antioch he could be creative and “contribute in fresh ways.” Ten months later, Jurasek said, his reason for coming to Antioch has “certainly been true.” After all, he says, he has had “ample opportunity to respond to challenges in creative ways.” Now Jurasek has another significant challenge ahead of him. Today (Thursday), Jurasek takes on a new position at Antioch as the college’s interim president. He replaces Joan Straumanis, the first woman to serve as president of the college, who was hired in February 2002 under a two-and-a-half-year contract. Ann Filemyr, professor of communications, journalism and environmental studies, will serve as the interim dean of faculty. As interim president, Jurasek, 57, is charged with implementing a plan devised by the Antioch Renewal Commission to overhaul the college’s curriculum to experiential learning communities; change the co-op program; increase student enrollment to 900 in 10 years; and invest millions of dollars in improvements to campus facilities. “The most important position I have in my interim year is to launch the new Antioch,” Jurasek said last month in one of two interviews with the News. The Antioch University Board of Trustees adopted the commission’s plan at a meeting last month in Seattle. The college must now develop plans to carry out the commission’s ideas. Jurasek plans to create 12 teams of administrators, faculty and students to devise strategies to implement the plan. Jurasek, who joined the Renewal Commission in January, said that the college is heading in a new direction not based on incremental change, but on “deep and thorough transformation.” Leading such a transformation, Jurasek said, is perfect for him. “Change is what I have developed as an area of interest and expertise,” he said. When asked what he would like to stress about the contents of the renewal plan, Jurasek pointed to its goals for integrated learning, which he described as “individual teachers, individual curricula, magnifying, echoing, reinforcing each other.” It’s also, he said, “hard to pull off. But it’s desirable.” He said the renewal plan is “ambitious and doable.” Last year, the Board of Trustees launched its search for a new president, who was originally supposed to join the campus in the fall of 2004. The search, however, is continuing. Dan Kaplan, chairman of the Board of Trustees, said in an interview that though more than 60 people applied for the position, the committee charged with searching for a president “did not feel there was a deep enough pool” of candidates. The board has hired a recruiting firm to assist with the search, he said. In a separate e-mail, Kaplan said the search “could take as long as 9 to 12 months, although we hope to complete it sooner, perhaps by next spring.” The next president of Antioch College, Kaplan said, needs to be somebody who is “a dynamic leader, a change agent.” The president will be charged with finishing implementation of the renewal plan, he said. In an interview Monday, Jurasek said that he “may be” a candidate for president “as the search continues.” He would not elaborate. Before coming to Antioch last August, Jurasek served for five years as college dean at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. He also taught film studies there. Jurasek spent 22 years at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., teaching German language and literature and German cinema and film narrative and serving as an associate dean for program development and as associate academic dean. He has also published numerous textbooks, articles and presentations on German studies, film studies and educational innovation. He noted that his background includes stints at what he called strong and familiar liberal arts colleges (Augustana) and “teaching and learning laboratories” (Antioch and Earlham). Jurasek and his wife, Barbara, who teaches German at Earlham, live in Yellow Springs. They have a college-age daughter, Christina. Jurasek, who is originally from Cleveland, received a BA in German from Ohio University and an MA and a doctorate in German from Ohio State. His graduate work was interrupted from 1969 to 1970 when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was stationed in Germany and worked with a unit that did internal undercover investigative work. Though he was hesitant to discuss this assignment, he did say that the work “required close and constant preparation with German counterparts.” It also helped him improve his German. Later, Jurasek worked in an Army headquarters, where, he said, he was able to “discover and improve my personnel and management skills.” He received the Army Commendation Medal for streamlining office practices. He said that his military career provided “very distinct and very useful lessons,” including how to develop a “clear understanding of responsibility, accountability, authority inside complex organizations.” The “deepest satisfaction” he gets from his job, Jurasek said, “comes from strengthening an institution, improving its system, changing things, all in order to better serve the students.” |
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