Antioch College to close (Edmundson)

Antioch College is to close in July 2008 due to money woes and dwindling enrollments.  Antioch, founded in 1852 by Horace Mann, graduated Stephen Jay Gould, Clifford Geertz, Coretta Scott King, and Rod Serling. The Trustees hope to reopen in 2012.

Comments

[Benjamin Rolfe]

I cannot help but suggest that despite Antioch’s distinguished alumni (and presumably other points of distinction), what the school may most be remembered for is its Sexual Offense Prevention Policy, which can be found online at http://www.antioch-college.edu/Campus/sopp/

This document thrust Antioch College into the national limelight by suggesting that the right way to fight sexual violence and go about “changing our rape culture” is to require explicit verbal consent for every sexual touch or gesture that goes on within the Antioch College, and indeed by making this the formal and binding policy of the school. The SOPP also takes itself to prohibit “Sexually based forms of non-consensual communication, whether verbal, written, electronic, or telecommunication based,” although perhaps we should assume that the idea of consent at work in this particular prohibition is to be understood differently than the formal definition of consent set out in the policy itself (“the act of willingly and verbally agreeing to engage in specific sexual conduct”), on pain of potential regress. The SOPP also requires that “All parties must use safer sex practices.”

Whatever one’s own judgment about the justification for such a policy, my own interactions with prospective students deciding upon prospective colleges always suggested that its adoption did nothing to boost application rates.

[Bill Edmundson]

Anastasia Goodstein, over at The Huffington Post, is taking comments on her "Adieu Antioch" posting. I am closing comments here. Go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anastasia-goodstein/adieu-antioch_b_51989.html
Also, Inside Higher Ed is posting comments: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/13/antioch
And the Daily Kos has a thread at:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/14/1104/80557
Also active is the official alumni chatroom:
http://w3.antioch.edu/pipermail/alumni-chat/2007-June/date.html
Now also active at Next Hurrah is Sara's thread:
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/06/what_happens_wh.html#comment-72825724