Community, the Third 'C'
Creating a community that students want to participate in attracts new students, motivates them to return after a co-op, and encourages them to stay until graduation.
Liberal arts colleges today face a difficult environment. Challenges include: a declining student population, a proliferation of cheaper non-college learning approaches such as certificate programs and on-line classes, skepticism about the cost/benefit of a college degree, and the rapid obsolescence of knowledge due to accelerating technological and scientific progress. Those of us who value the institution of Antioch, must ask ourselves how the college can not only survive, but thrive in this environment?
One answer to this question can be found in the area of community. One of the strengths of a residential liberal arts college like Antioch is the opportunity to build and shape a community and culture that students want to join. Antioch acknowledges the importance of this mission by including it in the three “C”s of Classroom, Coop, and Community. An essential element of this last item is the role of Community Governance. As explained in the college’s website, “Community Governance (CG) has played a vital social and educational role at Antioch College since the early 1930’s. As a “laboratory for democracy,” Community Governance acts as a pedagogical tool by giving those who partake in it the skills necessary to effect change in the world. This pedagogy is a core part of Antioch’s historical curriculum. Community Council, College Council, and Community Meeting are three keys to CG at Antioch.”
Active participation in community governance can provide students training in the areas of effective communication, team collaboration, conflict resolution, leadership, and managing diverse viewpoints to arrive at problem solutions. Few schools offer practical training in these areas, but they are skills employers are increasingly looking for when screening new job applicants. Consequently, a vibrant Community Governance program is an essential learning opportunity for today’s students.
Besides the governance program, the college has undertaken other initiatives to foster community such as the first-year program of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when incoming students were separated into preceptorial groups of 15 students with upper class advisors tied to a faculty member and housed together for their first year. For students, this shared experience of closely living and studying together resulted in deeper friendships, and greater individual growth and maturity. This kind of learning doesn’t occur in non-residential educational settings such as community colleges, online classes, and short-term certificate programs.
For a college like Antioch, the reach of community extends beyond the physical campus. Recent surveys have shown that students want more connections with alumni and mentors for networking, career advice, and job leads, but that institutions are falling short on facilitating these connections. Antioch has a diverse and talented alumni network. Providing the resources to connect students with this network, such as with an online alumni directory, is an important means for leveraging a vibrant and supportive community that extends beyond the college campus.
Building and nurturing a community provides student training and life experience as valuable for future success as education in the classroom and on co-op. Successfully creating a community that students want to join, and are eager to participate in, benefits Antioch by: attracting new students, motivating students to return to campus after a co-op, and encouraging them to pursue their study program to completion. It is part of the solution for reducing the student drop-out rates that have historically challenged the school.
For all these reasons, Antioch’s focus on community building and the resulting learning opportunities involved can help the college achieve a recruiting and retention advantage in today’s competitive environment.
— David Southern, class of 1976 davidl.southern@gmail.com, is an Antioch College Trustee and a finance executive with over 40 years of experience supporting biopharmaceutical and technology companies. He has worked for both private venture-funded and public companies and is currently consulting for two early-stage companies founded by UC Berkeley scientists. He is the author of the book Business Apocalypse and the Evolution of Today’s Organizations and is currently working on a memoir about life in San Francisco during the turbulent 1970s and 80s.
In years past, he served as Treasurer and Board Member for Community Educational Services, an organization providing services to immigrant youth in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Current interests include observing the rapidly evolving business environment and exploring how academic institutions can prepare students for success in a world that is characterized as increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. He hopes to apply his insights to helping Antioch create a model for the future of education. During the COVID pandemic, he walked all the streets of San Francisco.
“[In Business Apocalypse,] David Southern has beautifully described the world we must be preparing our students to engage with. A new era requiring different skills and attitudes than those supporting successful careers in the past.”
Dr. Jane Fernandes, President, Antioch College
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