Saturday, July 14

To the Editor of THE EAGLE:

As an Antioch College alumni (1968), an Antioch University Trustee
(1995-2007), and now a member of the Antioch College Alumni Board, I would
like to make a few comments about Meghan Daum’s op-ed essay of July 8.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the decline of Antioch College,
but don’t point the finger at “insufficient alumni support,” and the “Womyn
of Antioch.” Since the board announced the 2008 closure, thousands of alumni
have come forward to organize chapters, raise money (more than half a
million was raised in two weeks) in the hopes of convincing the University
Board that it made the wrong decision, with wrong and incomplete information
and through a process that was (as we would call it) un-Antiochian.

The alumni of the college are passionate about their alma mater. They were,
however, suspicious of the university and concerned that the university was
not committed to the college. As we all now know, those suspicions proved
correct. It is also wrong to claim that the Sexual Offense Prevention Policy
(SOPP) “did the college in.” Sexual codes of conduct always existed at our
college, as well as every other college or university.

It was an unwritten code, and it existed largely for the benefit of the male
students. Since the SOPP was instituted, the college has one of the lowest
rape statistics of any equivalent institution. I have two daughters who did
not go to Antioch and the stories they told me about drunken sexual violence
and sexual assaults against women at their colleges were horrifying.

Far from being a national “laughing stock,” many colleges quietly adopted
Antioch’s innovative policies regarding sexual conduct. Why? Because these
policies had a beneficial effect. There were so many problems facing our
college, the historic small endowment, demographic as well as political and
social changes, the legacy of the 1973 strike. But the ultimate cause of the
college’s closure rests with 30 years of poor stewardship and governance —
and that lies with the university Board of Trustees and the university
leadership.

BARBARA WINSLOW

Williamstown July 8, 2007

Last Modified : September 29th, 2007 Filed under : Alumni_Board, News articles Navigate : Previous post / Next post