Antioch University

Antioch University was incorporated in Ohio in 1852 and was originally known as Antioch College. Antioch University has been in continuous existence since 1852 and has been continuously accredited by the Higher Learning Commission since 1927.[7] In 1977, Antioch changed its name to "Antioch University," having extended its operations beyond the college and beyond Ohio, mostly in graduate level programs.[8]

Antioch's first President was American educator Horace Mann, regarded by most education historians as the father of public education in the United States.[9] He had recently been successful in opening the first Common Schools in the state of Massachusetts to provide free, universal, non-sectarian education to the citizens without regard to gender, race or creed. It was his belief that a strong democracy depended on a well educated electorate. He was recruited by the Board of Trustees of the newly formed Antioch College for this reason and he came to Antioch from Boston to continue his work as an educator. Horace Mann's dream was to establish a college comparable to Harvard but with some significant differences. Antioch College was to be completely nonsectarian and co-educational, and with a curriculum that would include the traditional treatment of the classics, but would emphasize science and the scientific method, history, and modern literature. Students would not compete for grades but would be encouraged to pursue issues of interest to them, read what they considered worthwhile and present papers on topics of their own choosing. But beyond seeking to provide a high quality education, it was Mann's dream that an Antioch education would inspire students to seek a more socially just world. For that reason, he insisted that Antioch be open to all students regardless of gender, race, or religion. Antioch was one of the first institutions of higher education to admit black students to learn alongside white students. In his graduation remarks in 1859, he admonished the graduates to "be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." He died several weeks later, on August 2, 1859. His parting words have been the mission of an Antioch University ever since -- "to empower students with the knowledge and skills to lead meaningful lives and to advance social, economic and environmental justice." [10]

Antioch began a period of rapid expansion in 1964 with the acquisition of the Putney School of Education in Vermont. That campus has evolved and moved several times to become Antioch University New England now situated in Keene, NH. By 1972, another 23 campuses and centers had been opened, and the college by-laws were revised to define Antioch as a "network", not a college. Even as centers began to close, new centers continued to open; 38 centers would be opened by the end of 1979, including the ABA-accredited Antioch University School of Law located in Washington, D.C. In 1977, the Antioch College board of trustees voted to change its corporate name to Antioch University and filed an amendment to its articles of incorporation on December 23, 1977.[8] It continued to operate Antioch College as a division of the university along with the other campuses and centers. From 1978 to 1994 the president of the Antioch College campus also served as the Chancellor of Antioch University.[11] Thereafter, the university transitioned to a separate University Chancellor, with a President or Provost leading each campus or division.

Over the next decade, the university had decided to close all but six of its Antioch network of operating units around the country. The last closures included Antioch University Philadelphia, Antioch University West, in San Francisco, and the Antioch School of Law. The remaining campuses included its original campus, Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio; Antioch University New England in Keene New Hampshire; Antioch University Los Angeles; Antioch University Santa Barbara; Antioch University Seattle; and Antioch University McGregor, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, now known as Antioch University Midwest. In 2002, Antioch University's launched its Ph.D. in Leadership and Change program. The program is designed to educate professionals from a wide range of fields to understand and lead organizational change. The program's low-residency model offers students interdisciplinary study with a practitioner focus that teaches and encourages applied research. In 2013, Antioch launched Antioch Online, its distance learning division, with a BA degree completion program and a Masters of Human Services Administration.

In 2008, due to financial exigency, Antioch University closed the Antioch College campus in Yellow Springs.[12] In 2009, a number of Antioch College alumni formed a new Ohio corporation, Antioch College Continuation Corporation,[13] which purchased from the University the college campus along with an exclusive license to use the University's registered trade name "Antioch College".[14] The new independent Antioch College opened in 2011. Since then, Antioch University and Antioch College have operated as wholly separate, non-affiliated institutions, although with a shared history.[15] Antioch College is a residential, liberal arts, undergraduate institution for traditional age students, while Antioch University is focused on adult learners and offers primarily graduate level degrees, along with a bachelor's degree completion program.

From its inception, racial and gender equality, independent study, and independent thinking were integral parts of Antioch College. Six students were accepted for the first quarter: four men and two women who came to share the same college classrooms for the first time in the U.S. The notion of gender equality extended also to the faculty. Antioch College was the first U.S. college to designate a woman as full professor,[16] and the original faculty included seven men and two women. Then, in 1863, the college instituted the policy that no applicant was to be rejected on the basis of race.

In the early 1850s, Rebecca Pennell offered a course on teaching methods which was the first of its kind, while John Burns Weston, class of 1857, established a long-standing precedent by being both student and faculty simultaneously. He taught Greek language and literature for 20 years and remained a lifelong student.

While Antioch never diverged from the philosophy of Horace Mann, the final form of an Antioch education traced its roots from the election of Arthur Morgan as president of the college in 1920. Morgan, like Mann, believed in the development of the individual as a whole. Having seen the difficulty encountered by ivory-tower academicians attempting to participate in the business world, he resolved to change the cloistered educational experience by providing students with work experience in their field. He wrote “The Plan for the New Antioch” which was his vision for the future of the school. This was the beginning of Antioch's unique program of work and study, what Morgan termed, “industrial education.”

Morgan initiated the practice of student government. He also changed the nature of the admissions procedure. Rather than relying on entrance examinations, Morgan opted for more personal information on prospective students. In addition, senior exams were graded "honors" or "pass", and students who failed could retake the exam. Morgan remained at Antioch until 1933, when President Roosevelt requested that he assume directorship of the Tennessee Valley Authority Project.

In June 2007, the Antioch University board of trustees announced that they would suspend operations of Antioch College the following year and that they intended to re-open the college in four years.[12] It was their belief that four years would give the university the necessary time to develop and execute a plan for re-building Antioch College in a manner that would both honor its legacy and secure its future.

There was considerable controversy among members of the Antioch College alumni group about the decision to suspend operations at the college. Subsequently, a group of Antioch College alumni, headed by the Antioch College Alumni Board, expressed interest in purchasing the college from the university and re-opening the college as an independent institution. The alumni group formed the Antioch College Continuation Corporation as the vehicle for negotiating and owning the college. After two years of negotiations, the parties agreed to terms of an asset purchase agreement which was signed at a closing ceremony on September 4, 2009.[24] In the transaction, Antioch College Continuation Corporation purchased from the University the college campus in Yellow Springs, Ohio along with an exclusive license to use the University's registered trade name "Antioch College". However, Antioch University continues to own the trade name and any other use of the word "Antioch" within higher education.[14][25]

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