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Editorial
Nonstop deserves our support
The Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute is a deeply committed group of former
Antioch College faculty and students who aim, now that the campus is closed,
to carry on Antioch’s traditions and values in village churches,
coffee shops and parks. This gutsy and spirited effort is good for the
village, and good for higher education in America, with its scrappy insistence
that true education has little to do with state-of-the-art facilities,
and everything to do with people who love teaching and learning.
It seems remarkable that, after the emotional roller coaster of the past
year’s failed attempts to save the college, the vast majority of
its teachers, and some students, stayed with Antioch. They did so because
they believe the college’s educational model — its mix of
academic rigor, shared governance, and real-world jobs — is unique
in the landscape of American higher education, and that it must survive.
Villagers can help make that happen. Sign up for a class this Thursday,
Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Bryan Center, when Nonstop faculty members
roll out their programs. The classes include Al Denman teaching about
Islam, Hassan Rahmanian and Collette Palamar on community economics, and
Louise Smith and Jill Becker on performance art. Scott Warren and Bob
Devine will offer a multidisciplinary look at revolutions, and Don Wallis,
Chris Hill and Dennie Eagleson will focus on community journalism, among
many other class offerings. These folks are good at what they do. We are
lucky to have them in town.
Nonstop faculty and staff, and the alumni group that supports them, hope
most of all that the current effort to save the college succeeds, so that
students and faculty can return to campus. And university leaders have
said they want an independent college as well. In the meantime, the heart
of Antioch survives with Nonstop.
—Diane Chiddister
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