ANTIOCH COLLEGE CORPORATION

In going beyond the status quo, we orient this new kind of college to a trans-disciplinary vision, informed and aligned with the most current, science-based understandings about the multi-level, quantum nature of reality and what this might tell us about the universe and how we might best inhabit together our one and only Island Earth. This is what we mean by discovering new and better ways of living and learning.

A trans-disciplinary vision is meant to complement and expand upon, rather than to supplant the vital disciplinary, interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches we are cultivating in the academy. By exploring the interstices of the disciplines and what may lie outside of them altogether, we make possible new combinations and forms of knowledge and understanding through the humanities, social sciences, sciences and arts, and we inspire active dialog among them.

A new kind of college does not lead to a weaker commitment to what we sometimes refer to as academic rigor. Care and accuracy in argument are not to be sacrificed nor are the production and use of verifiable data nor clarity of expression and communication. On the other hand, taking an open, respectful, and humble posture towards the unknown, the unexpected, and the unpredictable are equally essential as is broad-mindedness in acknowledging the right to ideas and truths opposed to our own.

At this new kind of college multiple ways of knowing, doing, and being are welcome and experienced. The use of intellect and abstraction are key educational strategies to strengthen and refine, but these are not to be favored exclusively over intuition, sensation, imagination, body movement or other modes of knowing. To accommodate and encourage the fullest complement of these forms and methods, we will develop and model paradigms of thought, organization and action, which are hospitable to critique, dialog, and change.

In order to become the authors of the change we desire in ourselves, in our colleges, and in our world, we must embrace complexity and employ the other principles of resilience in its planning and operational life. In the new American college, therefore, we accept and agree to work openly with, conflict, adversity, mistakes, contradictions, perspectives, values, and beliefs as part of what it means to be human.

Consequently, in our learning, working and living together we will pursue and be mutually supported in the discovery of unities among opposites and bridges to fresh perspectives.

A New Kind of College…
Antioch is A College of Action.
Antioch prepares students to live lives of intention. Students have agency to design their education, to own that education, to govern their college, to collaborate with their faculty, and extend their classroom learning into the real world.

When you become an Antiochian, you don’t just attend a college that has been around since 1850. You participate in a movement rooted in a tradition of breaking boundaries to face the challenges of now.

We are grounded in experiential learning. This is a laboratory college where you learn by doing. From problem-based projects to makerspaces, cultural immersion to worked-based co-op education, you will have the freedom to experiment, try, fail and grow.

We are committed to community. This is a collaborative college, a place where we practice democracy as a part of everyday life. As an Antiochian, you will participate in the design and governance of the college. You don’t just follow the rules here. You help make them.

We are connected to the world. Your education will be presented through the lenses of both local and worldwide community problem-solving. Whatever path you choose, we will work closely with you to help you translate learning into winning victories for humanity.

Horace Mann, first president of Antioch College, was an abolitionist and educational visionary. He was father of Antioch College and of the American public school. We celebrate his role in leading the College and for providing generations of Antiochians with the ethical direction to win victories for humanity.

In the spirit of Horace Mann, Antioch College believes a healthy democratic society requires institutions that act as catalysts for change and laboratories for invention. This is a role that Antioch College has played throughout its history; the effort to restore it is among the most significant and compelling opportunities in higher education today.

Antioch College has been a pioneering and values-driven secular institution since it was founded in 1850. The College was among the first nonsectarian educational institutions in the United States. It was the first co-educational college in the nation to offer the same educational opportunities to both men and women and it was the first to appoint a woman to its faculty and to its Board of Trustees. It was also among the first to offer African-Americans equal educational opportunities. Throughout the generations, Antioch College faculty, students, staff, and alumni have committed themselves to important causes. Consistent with its curriculum of study and work, Antioch College has always given equal weight to understanding theory, to engaging in practice and to taking action.

In the 20th century, Antioch College redefined liberal arts education by initiating an entrepreneurial and experiential curriculum through the development of its hallmark cooperative work program. Many of the now-common elements of today’s liberal arts education – self-designed majors, study abroad, interdisciplinary study, and portfolio evaluation – had an early start at Antioch College. The College was also among the first to make a commitment to community governance and the authentic participation of students in institutional decision-making.

Over the past year, since achieving full, fast track accreditation last July, our full attention has been devoted to developing a framework—which we call FACT (Framework for Antioch College’s Transition)— for designing and building Antioch as that college

Now entering its second year, FACT has utilized a process of participatory envisioning, creating, experimenting and developing to produce the holistic parameters and value proposition for a college that does not currently exist but is very badly needed in the world. As I see it, our most important task together is to build that college.