July 8, 2004

Straumanis reflects on time as Antioch College president

Joan Straumanis’s last day as the president of Antioch College was June 30. Rick Jurasek, the dean of faculty and vice president, is serving as interim president while Antioch conducts a national search for a new president.

Straumanis, who was hired as president in 2002, was the first woman to lead the college. She earned a BA in both government and mathematics in 1957 from Antioch and holds a master’s in mathematics from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Maryland.

On Monday, Straumanis talked with the News about her presidency.

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Yellow Springs News: How do you feel now, just a few days after leaving Antioch?

Straumanis: A week before I left the presidency I felt like I was in the middle of it. I still get copied on e-mails saying “do something” about this issue or that problem.

I knew you were going to ask me that so I was trying to think. I feel like an adolescent, a new graduate, what do you do next? There’s an open future. This is not a retirement. I’m job hunting, and there’s no choice that I’m going to be moving. I’d like to be involved as an executive in a foundation or some nonprofit. A position in higher education teaching or as a department chair could be attractive as well. I’ve received nominations for college presidencies that I’ve turned down. They’ve mostly been from small liberal arts colleges in rural settings, which is not what I’m picturing myself doing next.

News: How do you feel about your tenure as president?

Straumanis: It was short, but it felt long. When I came I pictured myself working on the exterior doing fundraising, connecting with alumni and enhancing Antioch’s reputation. But I was able to spend very little time with that. There was a high level of turnover of senior staff, including deans and vice presidents. There won’t be anyone in the college’s senior staff that was present when I came.

News: Why do you think that is?

Straumanis: People who work for Antioch are courageous, selfless people who do a very good job without much appreciation. Nevertheless, there is a lot of work to do and not enough people to do it all. And there are perpetual financial problems. Two management decisions occurred before I came that were ill-advised: the increase in financial aid and consolidation of services between [Antioch University] McGregor and Antioch [College]. Consolidation didn’t work well for financial services and it felt as if every one were just too stretched.

We’ve since suspended the experiment with financial aid for the [incoming] class, and consolidation is being evaluated by the chancellor [Jim Craiglow].

Other financial decisions affected my presidency, such as taking the depreciation funds out of the operating budget, which was essentially a budget cut…On the other hand, we had a fabulous sesquicentennial, and we’ve had fabulous communication with the alumni and great support from alumni.

News: What attracted you to Antioch?

Straumanis: I was heavily recruited. I was not ambitious to be a college president, and no sane person would want to take on the challenges of that without huge love and loyalty. But it’s a privilege to be the president of Antioch because the students and faculty are worth it…The faculty at Antioch stay when they do because the students are so interesting and so bright. They’re sometimes irritating, but they’re never boring. They’re passionate and full of desire to change things and they practice on us. It makes it difficult, but it’s worth it.

I think I have an appetite for that kind of governance and shared openness. It’s educational and important. It’s less efficient, but it’s the right thing to do.

News: Does the shared governance system make it difficult for the faculty and administration to deal with students?

Straumanis: We’ve turned a serious corner on student misbehavior. We’ve had quite a number of dismissals involving drugs and weapons in the last few years. We’re not tolerating it anymore. I credit [Deans of Students] Jimmy Williams and Cheryl Keen with that. There’s been less vandalism and destruction of property this year than in my early presidency.

News: I’ve sometimes heard area Antioch alumni say there is too much student participation in decision making at the college.

I hear a lot of bad things about the college that are old news. Things that happened a long time ago, like the college mishandling the endowment, being permissive with students, putting students in charge. Students aren’t in charge, they wouldn’t be protesting decisions so much if they were.

The village doesn’t realize what a large number of students are involved in the village doing co-op and volunteering. Over 85 percent of our students do volunteer work in the area when they’re on campus.

News: Could you talk about the incidents on campus that led up to the visit from the Ku Klux Klan?

Straumanis: The tradition of a takeover [such as People of Color Takeover Week, which drew media attention and subsequently attracted members of the Klan to town] doesn’t necessarily mean anything hostile. It means students lead a takeover on an issue by using the media, classrooms, open forums to explore a difficult issue, whether it’s about greening of the campus, gays and lesbians…I don’t think it got out of hand, and the media was just trying to drum up a bigger story.

News: Do the college and the village need to communicate better?

Straumanis: It isn’t clear where the town/gown breech is. It would be great if we had more town/gown relations. We held a picnic at reunion and no one came. Between takeover week and the Klan’s visit we offered to hold a public forum downtown about the issues, and the Village turned us down. I still think we should have done it…

News: What is your take on Antioch’s renewal plan?

Straumanis: I’m very supportive of the renewal plan. My experience with interdisciplinary learning communities is that they are very successful. Antioch faculty are flexible and smart, and they’ll do well with it.

News: Some faculty members have expressed dissatisfaction with the new curriculum. Do you feel there was enough input from students and faculty?

Straumanis: I worry about the fact that so much of it was done behind closed doors. It was a political mistake, but the curriculum is good and workable. I don’t think the outcome will be a problem. The faculty range from skeptical to supportive. Anyway, the faculty are designing it at this point.

It’s a disappointment to me that the Renewal Commission concentrated so much on curriculum. I feel other issues such as student culture, student life and the college’s financial problems were dismissed.

News: What do you see as Antioch College’s place in the university system?

Straumanis: The village must keep in mind that the village will prosper when Antioch prospers. The village needs to be creative about how McGregor and the college can prosper together because if there’s an imbalance between them it’s not good for the village. I would resist the forces driving the college and McGregor apart and bring them to a shared enterprise.

News: What are some of the bigger issues facing the college?

Straumanis: The college has not been successful in public relations, and it’s become a financial issue. I regret whenever the college has a financial crisis that it lets go of its PR in order to keep the faculty intact. I think it’s shortsighted. The college also needs a great longterm president, and I hope things improve so it will be an attractive option for someone who is looking.

News: What personal accomplishments did you initiate and implement?

Straumanis: I did a lot to bring back disaffected and disgruntled alumni who had been critical of the college for years. The current administrative body I hired. I’ve got confidence in the people running the show, and it’s been a pleasure working with all of them.

News: Looking back on your presidency, are there things you might have done differently?

Straumanis: I would have made the painful budget cuts sooner. It took me a while to understand the budget cuts that were necessary. We were all learning at the time that I came. When people lost their jobs it was sad, but we couldn’t afford the staff we had. We were also under pressure from the board, but they weren’t wrong in that.

News: I know you’re still thinking about your future, but do you have any inclinations toward one particular place or one particular thing?

Straumanis: My two goals are that when I wake up every morning I want to be doing something valuable to help humanity, and I want to have some fun. That’s my requirement.

—Lauren Heaton