Prominent academics call for the reopening of college
By Diane Chiddister
More than 1,480 academics from liberal arts faculties and state and
private universities around the country have signed a petition expressing
their support for the efforts of the Antioch College alumni and faculty
to save the college.
“Alumni, faculty and staff have made great efforts, intellectual
and financial, for Antioch College to continue,” said James Engell,
chair of the English Department at Harvard University. “Where
such passion and commitment exist, everyone in higher education should
support the undertaking.”
The petition has been circulating for the past month, according to Iveta
Jusova, who directs the Women and Gender Studies program in Europe for
Antioch Education Abroad, or AEA, and is one of the organizers of the
effort. According to Jusova, the petition is being circulated by former
college faculty and college alumni.
Many who signed cited the Antioch College closure as symptomatic of
what they perceive as a disturbing trend toward a corporate, top/down
model of higher education and away from the model of academic freedom
and critical thought ensured by a tenured faculty.
“Tenure protects what is the lifeblood of education: freedom of
thought and speech. That is why corporate managers like those running
Antioch University have tried to eradicate it and why the restoration
of tenure throughout Antioch is a key part of reestablishing a free
and healthy college,” said Paul Lauter, the Allan K. and Gwendolyn
Miles Smith professor of literature at Trinity College.
Some signatories cited Antioch College as a “national treasure
that is not just another liberal arts college,” according to Jusova.
According to Marilyn Johnston-Parsons, professor at the University of
Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, “More than ever, education in the
United States needs the example of Antioch College’s tradition
of progressive education and social justice orientation.”
Those who signed included well-known scholars such as Michael Apple,
Alex Callinicos, Judith Butler, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Judith Halberstam,
Michael Hardt, Peter McLaren and Andrew Ross. Signers are calling on
the Antioch University Board of Trustees to “live up to their
recently stated intention of transferring the college to the alumni
association, who would then work to re-open it as an autonomous progressive
residential liberal arts college, with its tradition of tenure and unionized
labor intact,” according to a press statement released last week.
The petition also applauds the effort of former Antioch College faculty,
staff and students in creating the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute, which
seeks to continue the traditions and values of Antioch in the village,
now that the campus has closed.
Contact: dchidddister@ysnews.com
