Submitted by B. Tower, Jun 18, 2007 17:29

All the celebratory critics of Antioch College, and all of its reluctant crepe hangers are missing one salient point about the college--namely that Antioch has always been "a work in progress". People of both camps have predicted the imminent demise of Antioch a number of times over the past 155 years of its existence. The current crisis, admittedly, is perhaps more serious than past crises; but let's not write Antioch's obituary just yet.

Antioch has often been referred to as an "Experiment" in education. Like most experiments, occasional failures are to be expected; but the measure of any experiment is what we learn from its failures, what lessons that can guide us back to the drawing board.

James P. Dixon, Antioch's President during my own matriculation in the early 1970s, encouraged something he called "creative conflict". Conflict, of course, can be dangerous; but it can also be transformative. President Dixon has been much criticised for his vision of a dynamic institution that demanded involvement (some might say "total immersion") from all members of its diverse community.

Some of the criticisms of Dixon might be warranted; after all, it was his term in office that marked what many are now calling the beginning of Antioch's latest "decline" . I would suggest, however, that Antioch continues to be a "work in progress", and that it will continue in the future to be such. Those of us who love the college have pulled together in past crises....and, in spite of dire predictions, I see no reason that we cannot pull together again.

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