Pre-blog thought:
Speaking of pompous a-holes and quasi-liberals, who was that guy at the Cincinnati meeting (that was actually in some weird small place in Kentucky) who stood up, spoke, insulted the BoT, insulted Antioch College, and then (heh "as an alum") stated that what we're looking for isn't (insert something about support from alums) but that we're looking for "rich philanthropists" and marched out? (to which no one blinked an eye to and the meeting continued on like he wasn't there). Remember that guy? Anyone?
Onward:
Last term I threw myself into the battle to save Antioch College - while still being a student. My studies faltered, and I found my heart repeatedly ripped out by the scandal that some outside of the situation look at so dispassionately and comment from far away in blogs and news websites - "As an alum, and a professor at such-and-such college or university, I can't believe the failure of the flagship campus has anything to do with some scandal from the University... it has to be about money". I can't imagine how so many are able to help us - you're all super-meta-human-super-heroes, I'm convinced. And greatful.
I've taken a long break from immersing myself in it, and have learned from my struggles, and have come out a person who has been better able to navigate the (until now) mysterious realm of politics, bureaucracy, and fake people. I used to have great disdain for the previous, and it made me struggle greatly in life. If nothing else, I am becoming a more and more successful person in day-to-day interactions and struggles because I am intimately acquainted a situation full of it. I would NEVER have learned how to navigate this large and ugly part of life on my own. And I am now so very glad of it. Antioch Education in so many more ways than one teaches success. Especially, I think, when it's tough.
I dedicate this post to Scott Warren for teaching me and others in his Critical Thinking class the beauties of Informal Logic and refreshing us all on logical fallacies. It has made my brain grow and understand more about the world around me.
Onto the rest of the blog:
Pompous a**holes indulging in an over-used fallacy - argumentum ad vercundiam - also known as the appeal from authority - are doing nothing but stroking their own egos and feeling rather important because they are big professors at some college or university, and because of that and the fact that they are alums at the college in crisis, you should listen to them and their opinion matters.
Well Mr. listen-to-my-unhelpful-and-all-important-opinion who takes the side not of the college that nurtured their assent into professordom, but of the BOT and Toni Murdock (things such as the shutting down of a 155-year-old-college NEVER HAVE TO DO WITH SCANDAL OR SABATOGE). I mean, of course the BOT have our best interests at heart, right?
WORDS TO LIVE BY FOLKS.... THIS MAY CHANGE YOUR LIFE.... MAKE IT YOUR MANTRA, IN FACT.....
OPINIONS ARE LIKE ASSHOLES, EVERYONE HAS ONE (AND MOST OF THEM, OTHER THAN A RARE DELECTABLE FEW) STINK
Please, Mr. listen-to-my-unhelpful-and-all-important-opinion, please stop throwing around your crap. At least hear both sides. Don't Google Antioch College, read a few newspaper articles put out by way of that dumb bleach blond dip Mary Lou LaPierre (the University's PR person in charge of damn near everything) and throw around your professorship/alum status like so much dead weight.
And last but not least, thank you to those still carrying the torch for students who are tired, frustrated, and just trying to either graduate, and/or hang on to a cause they believe in to their core. I know it's the only reason I'm here. I NEED to hear this encouragement like I need water, and it's wonderful to see those efforts among a sea of articles-written-from-press-releases-by- LaPierre. I only wish that before throwing out their over-bloated and self-important opinions, people would actually read the Antioch Papers website, and talk to those who are fighting for it... not just hear the side of rich bureaucrats and decide they must automatically be right (since they are on the board/part of the university/part of Antioch/whatever) and therefore must care more about the college than money, right?? It's this whole "if it's in the News, it must be true" way of thinking that has kept our war going, and put Dubyah in the white house. There are other, better ways of learning facts. While I believe in the internet's power for good, lazy thinking, I must say, is one of its downfalls.
Quasi-liberals piss me off more than the right-wing-bush-supporters.
Website Articles that spawned this blog:
Can Antioch here survive woes at flagship campus?
This is LaPierre waving dollar bills in the Seattle Times paper creating a money C R I S I S (bum bum buuuuum). I wonder where exactly this figure comes from.... anyone....?
"Antioch Seattle has been propping up the faltering Ohio campus with more than $250,000 a year, according to administrators. Each year, the deficits in Ohio — and the demands on the satellite campuses — have grown."
Beautiful in its function. I will say she does her job well. Ah, to be making your dough off of people who only get their news from the paper. If the world is really run by a small handful of ridiculously powerful people, I bet they are professional press-release writers. (hmmm, or not... i bet they hire people for that.... ) Correction: ahhhhh.... to be a puppet.
An Open Letter About Antioch's Future
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for this wonderful article on the 'Inside Higher Ed' website. I, and so many others needed it.
And here's one stinky pompus a-hole opinion I take issue with:
"... One problem with this argument is that it says nothing about correcting the problems that caused Antioch College’s decline in the first place...It may be a choice between bringing the whole multi-campus university down vs. cutting the losses while there is still time. I also attended the June 2007 meeting as an Antioch alumnus and my impression was that the Board was doing the best it could with a very difficult situation, while many of the alumni were demonizing and scapegoating them as a means of denying the College’s real problems....But if they fail, I do not believe it will be because of some devious plot on the part of the University board."
Ted Goertzel, Professor at Rutgers University at Camden, at 9:30 am EDT on March 18, 2008
First of all, one would assume (at least I would assume) that anyone reading this article is on the "up and up" and has done their homework about why people are "demonizing" the University.
This article shouldn't have to list all the reasons why Antioch College declined in the first place. It isn't an analysis of that. There are plenty of places to read about this. If this guy did his homework, instead of making his analysis of the article based on the fact that he "also attended the June 2007 meeting as an Antioch alumnus" and his "impression" (what is this guy, clairvoyant?)maybe he wouldn't be spouting crap he's read from articles written straight from press releases written by LaPierre - the University's PR person (and dumb, bleach-blond dip).
If you read onto the other comments, plenty of other people addressed this comment much better than I ever could. Thank you to you folks too. Oh, and thank you for basing your analysis on facts and not just that you may work at the college/teach at the college/are a part of saving antioch/are professors and have "impressions". Though that is in no way an attempt to undermine the clairvoyant impressions you may or may not have.
All other comments were good (I especially loved the one pointing out the BoT/University Leadership Council demonizing the alumni, faculty, staff and students who are trying to save their college) , but this brought tears to my eyes:
" Unfortunately, for those of us involved in the struggle to save Antioch College, Professor Goertzel’s close alliance and support of the University Board of Trustees is well known. As is his apparent disdain for the last thirty years of graduating classes from Antioch College. Those alumni who regard the college with antipathy do so on the very basis of the thing they now defend: creation of the university exhausted the resources of the college, diverted the attention of the trustees and placed the faculty at an ever greater remove from what should be its rightful place at the center of governance and the curriculum. Dr Goertzel and others like him refuse to accept that the decline of the college occurred inversely to the rise of the university. There are many legal issues surrounding emancipation of the college, but we have literally thousands of lawyers among the alumni and we have raised over $18MM (not including the $9MM pledged by the board of the ACCC) so we can afford lawyers. The real issues standing in the way of a free college is the hostility of the university Chancellor and certain (non-alumni) members of the board to the college. This battle is a more than just about Antioch’s future. It is about the future of small independent liberal arts colleges. Those who lead Antioch University have stated repeatedly that they do not believe in the residential model and that the “market” for students is in so-called adult, nonresidential education. Yet there are hundreds of financially stable private liberal arts colleges in the United States. What do they have that Antioch College does not? A board dedicated to their survival and capable of raising large enough endowment to decouple tuition revenue and viability."
Travis Sanford, Class of 1994 at Antioch College, at 1:50 pm EDT on March 19, 2008
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