July 21, 2005

Art Zucher

By Diane Chiddister

With the launch of its new curriculum this fall and a new president coming to campus in January, Antioch College is at a risky and exhilarating crossroads. Overseeing the transition in his new role as chairman of the Antioch University Board of Trustees, Art Zucker is thrilled to help lead the college and university during challenging times.

“It’s a big test in front of us and we all know it,” he said in a phone interview last week. “It’s an exciting time. I’m really revved up.”

Zucker, who is from Raleigh, N.C., succeeded Dan Kaplan of Westmoreland, N.H, as the board’s chairman on July 1. Zucker joined the board in 2001 and has taken on many committee responsibilities. A 1955 graduate of Antioch College, Zucker retired in 1998 from his work as president of Zucker Associates, a business that handled the marketing and sales of electronic components in the Southeast.

Zucker said he sees a certain symmetry in the greatest challenges facing the board, the university and the college right now, because those challenges are all the same: getting Antioch College back on its feet.

“The primary goal is the successful implementation of the Antioch Plan,” Zucker said. “It’s critical that the college be on a positive track. It needs to grow and thrive, and that’s what will make it happen.”

The Antioch Plan was developed last year by the Renewal Commission, headed by Antioch University Chancellor Jim Craiglow. Originally scheduled to go into effect in fall of 2006, the plan was jump-started by Antioch College administrators and faculty this year and will begin this fall with the incoming class of freshmen. Central to the plan is the experiential learning community, comprised of groups of students who each semester study a single interdisciplinary course under the guidance of several professors from diverse fields.

For instance, this fall a group of incoming students will study “A Sense of Place,” taught by professors of economics, math and environmental studies. Next spring, first-year students may choose from “Revolutions: Theory and Practice,” which brings together the fields of philosophy, African studies and communications, and “American Identities: Exploring Visual and Cultural Narratives,” which combines photography, literature and anthropology.

The Antioch Renewal Plan has garnered praise from several educational experts who evaluated the program, Zucker said. The new curriculum also includes clear links between students’ academic pursuits and their off-campus co-op experiences, an aspect that Zucker applauds.

“This is a sound principle that has not existed” for some time, he said.

The new curriculum has also ignited excitement among Antioch College graduates, according to Zucker, who said that alumni who returned to Yellow Springs for last month’s Antioch Reunion expressed to him their enthusiasm for the plan and their optimism for the college.

Along with the successful implementation of the Antioch Plan, Zucker also counts among the university’s challenges a successful transition for the new Antioch College president, Steve Lawry, who will begin his job in January, succeeding interim President Rick Jurasek, who replaced Joan Straumanis.

And the board will also oversee a search for a new university chancellor to succeed Craiglow, who plans to retire in June 2006. According to Zucker, the search committee for the new chancellor has been formed and will soon begin its work. He said he hopes the university’s new chancellor will be selected by next spring.

Antioch College will continue its effort to raise $80 million for its capital campaign, Zucker said. So far, fundraising efforts have netted about $43 million, he said.

With a new curriculum for the college, a new college president and a search for a new chancellor, Antioch University is in a period of great transition. Zucker said he feels confident taking on his new role in a challenging period because he believes the board is a strong one, comprised of competent individuals who, he said, have “developed into a sound collaborative group that can accomplish anything it sets out to do.”

Zucker said he believes he can be an effective board chair because he’s a good listener, is objective and has no personal agenda. He considers himself to be demanding, and believes his 40 years’ experience in a “fast-moving industry” has provided him skills to adapt to changing needs and forward thinking, he said.

Zucker also described himself as “very process focused. I’m interested in establishing processes that are repeatable over time,” he said.

Zucker said that he and his wife, Betty, love to travel and to spend time with their grandchildren. The couple has five children and four grandchildren. In Raleigh, they are active in their support of the North Carolina Symphony and Raleigh’s Gallery of Contemporary Art, and Zucker has served as president of Temple Beth Or.

Zucker said that his experience at Antioch College 50 years ago shaped his life in many critical ways and helped him become the person he is today.

“I care deeply about the college,” he said. “It was significant to my life.”

For instance, he said, the challenge of the co-op experience, which sometimes involved landing in a new city on Friday and finding a place to live, then reporting to work on Monday, gave him the skill to adapt to change, which he has found useful over and over.

“It was a wonderful experience,” he said. “That skill impacted my life.”

Most of all, he said, Antioch College challenged him to take responsibility for his life and his learning, a challenge he eagerly accepted.

“I thrived on it,” he said.

While the college will always hold a special place in his heart, Zucker said his experience as a trustee has led him to also appreciate the university’s other campuses. Aside from Antioch College, Antioch University includes Antioch University McGregor in Yellow Springs, Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene, N.H., Antioch University Seattle and Antioch University Southern California, with campuses in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Currently, he said, all of the campuses other than the college are financially sound and self-supporting.

Students at all of the Antioch University campuses seem to share the college’s historic values of caring about social justice and respecting the environment, Zucker said, noting that his contact with recent graduates has convinced him that Antioch students today aren’t that much different from what they were when he was in school five decades ago. In today’s world, he said, it’s especially important for Antioch to help shape freethinkers and socially conscious graduates.

“They have a real sound comfort and commitment to the core values of Antioch,” he said. “These values are important. These are the citizens of the future.”