Did Someone Say Autocracy?
Antioch Confidential is a video and text on the gross mismanagement of Antioch College by an Ad Hoc Committee, whose secret decisions have imperiled the College’s existence. What the film expresses in a shocking anecdote — a SWAT team in the stacks for a Homeland Security exercise conducted against the will of the librarians — the text corroborates with a point-by-point analysis: the sobering story of what can happen to an institution when democratic checks and balances are ignored. As the introduction remarks: “Two modes of higher education management have been and continue to be in conflict at Antioch College, an institution historically based on shared governance and currently micromanaged by Antioch University. One presumes a private space of command, control and communications and the other supports a public realm of courage, responsibility, and shame (“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity”).
Watch the film, read the documents, form your own opinion.
http://theantiochpapers.org
examine the closed control and destabilization of
Antioch College by Antioch University. “Antioch
Confidential” documents the damage to educational
processes when “control” is mistaken for “leadership,”
and “command” is confused with “vision.” The events
taking place at Antioch College are a case study of
recent trends in higher education today. The article
and video are available for free use by librarians,
teachers, educational workers and citizens concerned
with the seizure of shared resources for private
interests.
Webmaster: Timothy Noble – 443-653-2262
Project for a New American University 
watched the video. That made me very angry. I was already angry. what now?
==> I guess now, all those of us who are angry have to find ways to inscribe our energies in concrete practices. This blog is the beginning of a concrete practice, it exists because it’s connected to other ones, and hopefully it’s something that itself will evolve into or join with a collective that works on changing existing universities or starting new ones – or saving threatened ones, in the case of Antioch College. But it’s not all perfectly clear right now to me either. I put up the video and article on the College because I collaborate with someone who is directly involved in that struggle. If you are specifically angry about what’s happening there, they could use help, I am sure. Constructing alliances is probably the thing to do. best, BH.