No More Professors’ Dirty Looks …

Antioch College is about to close, and undoubtedly the accompanying hand-wringing will include an intense search for someone to blame. Unfortunately, there are plenty of worthy candidates:

• Antioch’s board, for failing to direct the implementation of policies that could have staved off such financial disaster.
• The college’s office of institutional advancement, for failing to adequately solicit donations to keep the school afloat.
• The school’s alumni, for failing to support the institution that gave them so much.

For the primary culprit, though, look in the mirror.

Antioch’s core values — free thinking and social activism — are actualized in individualized curricula that students develop for themselves and that eschews grading. This is antithetical to the direction the rest of society is taking. We want accountability and quantification. We want numbers and statistics and measurable improvement.

The nonprofit sector itself is seeing a similar sea change. Both institutional and individual donors, encouraged by self-appointed watchdogs, demand to know exactly how their dollars are being used and exactly how effective their participation is. Which is all well and good except when it buries a unique institution such as an Antioch under a pile of ROI queries. | 501(c)

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