Professor to Teach Course on Creativity and Social Innovation

Kate Davies, D.Phil., director of the AUS Center for Creative Change, will be teaching a four day course on creativity and social innovation in Sept. 2010, at Schumacher College in Devon England. For more information go to:

http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/creativity-and-social-innovation

Antioch University McGregor Now Called Antioch University Midwest

The announcement came Saturday, June 12, the day Michael Fishbein, Ph.D., was inaugurated as the second president of the Yellow Springs campus. Fishbein had suggested the name change, which he said will align it with its four sister campuses, all of which are known by their geographic location. Other campuses include Antioch University New England in Keene, N.H., and those in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Seattle.

“More significant though is the opportunity to accurately claim our service to the needs of students in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and even across the nation thanks to our low-residency programs,” Fishbein said in a news release. University Chancellor Tullisse “Toni” Murdock said the name change comes as Antioch University has sought to develop and launch a new brand structure for the university as a result of its recent strategic planning.

Fishbein announced also that the campus library is being renamed in honor of Douglas McGregor, the former Antioch College president and management guru for which the school had been named.
Fishbein focused his inaugural speech on living a life that matters through socially engaged citizenship.

“It is my purpose to say that the commitment to socially engaged citizenship is inextricably bound to the requirements of critical thought,” he said. “You cannot be a socially engaged citizen unless you know how to think. This is what Antioch understands in its bones. It is what draws me, sustains me and ultimately affirms me: The feeling that I am in the company of quiet heroes.”

2010 AUS Distinguished Alumnus Announced

Dale Willman, M.A. Environment & Community ’01, is the recipient of the Antioch University Seattle Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2010 and will be honored both at AUS Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, June 19, at the Westin Hotel in Seattle and at a hosted gathering of alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends Friday, June 18, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Amore Restaurant, 2301 5th Avenue, just a block from AUS.

A national award-winning correspondent and editor for more than 35 years, Willman is a leading voice in environmental journalism who held various positions with National Public Radio, including being a news anchor and reporter during the first Gulf War. His work was included in NPR being awarded the DuPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. He also shared a Peabody Award for his work on the Lost and Found Series that was heard on the NPR program All Things Considered.

As a reporter for CBS, Willman covered the Clinton White House, the Pentagon and the State Department. While working for CNN, he won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting for his work documenting environmental hazards faced by musicians in the Broadway production of Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Willman, who lives in New York, is a frequent instructor in environmental journalism in the United States and other countries including Belize, Zambia, Thailand, Malawi, Croatia, Macedonia, Bolivia and Indonesia. He was recently awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellow scholarship to teach environmental journalism and new media courses at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia beginning in August 2010.

You may congratulate Willman at dale@fieldnotes.tv. If you would like to attend the hosted Amore event and talk with Willman, please RSVP to Eric Warn at ewarn@antioch.edu.

AUS Awarded King County Contract to Provide Mental Health Services

The King County Drug Diversion Court (KCDDC) has awarded Antioch University Seattle a $198K contract to provide mental health services to individuals struggling with mental health issues in addition to addictions and legal difficulties.

Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, services will be provided by qualified students enrolled in clinical Master’s and Doctoral degree programs at AUS under the supervision of faculty members who are licensed psychologists or mental health professionals and offered at the AUS Community Counseling and Psychology Clinic (Clinic).

The psychology students and faculty members from AUS will assist referred individuals in acquiring skills to help them resolve or reduce the impact of mental health issues on their day to day lives; increase their ability to cope and function as productive citizens; and increase their chances of successfully completing the KCDDC program.

“Many individuals enrolled in the KCDDC still suffer from the long-term effects of childhood abuse, domestic violence and other trauma. This is an incredible opportunity for these individuals to address lingering issues with state-of-the-art therapy and counseling,” says Mary Taylor, MSW, Program Manager, KCDDC.

“The program is a win-win-win for the clients, the Clinic, and King County,” according to Doug Wear, PhD, Clinic Director. “KCDDC participants that would otherwise lack access to timely and affordable care are getting the help they need.”

Carol Stanley, PhD, Dean of the School of Applied Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy explains, “The Clinic gets a significant contract and a diverse training opportunity for its students. KCDDC fills a gap in treatment for its participants through a federally funded program.”

The Clinic has been in operation since 2006 and offers AUS students the ability to gain real-world experience that is integrated with classroom learning to develop highly qualified psychology professionals. Students work with a wide range of clients in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, psychological issues and diagnoses.

The partnership with KCDDC began in March 2010 and will continue through August 2011.

For information on Antioch University Seattle’s Clinic go to www.antiochseattle.edu/clinic
For information on Antioch University Seattle’s School of Applied Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy go to www.antiochseattle.edu/psych
For information about KCDDC go to www.kingcounty.gov/courts/DrugCourt.aspx

Antioch University Refocuses on Adult Education

From YSNEWS.com, the online edition of the Yellow Springs (OH) News
By Lauren Heaton
Published: May 7, 2010

Eight months after severing ties to the college that bred it, Antioch University is looking deeply at itself and clarifying its mission as a single system that serves adult students at multiple campuses around the country. No longer limited to just the physical campuses, the university is exploring how to increase capacity by making the strengths of each campus available to the university as a whole. Along with investigating opportunities in the virtual world of education, Antioch’s leaders are also considering whether Yellow Springs is necessarily the best place for its headquarters to remain.

In an interview last week, University Chancellor Toni Murdock said that since officially separating from the college last September, the university has begun to increase its financial surplus and reinvest in both its programs and its facilities.

“This past year we’ve been able to concentrate on the university, and begin asking ourselves, what is it we really want to be?” she said. “We have the full attention of the board as we look at strategic planning.”

Structural change
Last year the university fundamentally changed its internal operations structure by dissolving the university’s board of trustees and creating instead a board of governors. The university further directed each of its five campuses to establish its own board of trustees. The shift was crucial in leveraging the local support that each campus needs to engage with its surrounding community and engender a philanthropic base of people who value the school’s presence, Board of Governors Chairperson Art Zucker said last week. While the university’s Board of Governors maintains fiduciary responsibility for the system as a whole, the local boards have the authority to oversee the programmatic and budgetary needs of their individual campuses, Murdock said. The new boards will also serve to strengthen local connections by “knowing the educational needs of the community and helping our program stay serviceable to the community and its students,” she said.

Since January the university’s leaders have also embarked on a strategic plan that has led them to ask fundamental questions such as, Who are the students we serve? What is our mission? How do we leverage our resources to strengthen both the university and its campuses? According to Zucker, leaders have even talked about opening another campus.

Antioch University students, it turns out, are what Murdock called “the new majority student,” or adults between the ages of 25 and 37 who are looking to complete their undergraduate studies or attain higher degrees and whose numbers have begun to exceed traditional-aged students typically headed for residency programs. According to Murdock, traditional 18-year-old students represent a declining segment of the national student body, and statistics show that for the first time in history, the level of education of people over 30 is higher than the education level of young adults. Yet those same older students are still underrepresented in the current field of education, she said.

“We’re seeing more and more of a need for degree completion programs for those looking for jobs that require higher degrees, and we feel positioned for that,” she said. “We need to make an exceptionally high commitment to those types of students.”

The foundations of the university’s mission remain the same as those that Antioch built itself around, including concepts of social justice, diversity, sustainability, and community and civic engagement, Murdock said. But the Board of Governors and the University Leadership Council are currently discussing how to implement those concepts within a fiscally manageable educational system. They aim to complete the strategic plan by the end of 2010, Zucker said.

While the university is still committed to student-centered learning, many of its leaders feel that student-faculty connections can occur successfully through online programs, he said. And having programs online means that students anywhere in the country, and conceivably the world, could access them.

“My dream is that an adult learner at any point and place in the U.S. could get an Antioch University education using our campuses and online program,” he said.

Zucker, an Antioch College alumnus, plans to step down as the chair in June 2011, when he will be replaced by the board’s Vice Chair Larry Stone. Zucker will still be eligible to complete his term as a board member.

New and shared programs
Antioch University McGregor’s President Michael Fishbein, who will be officially inaugurated in June, sees the university-wide goal on his campus this way:
“What we do, we do well, but we don’t offer as many programs as we could or should to sustain our resources over the long term,” he said.

This year the university committed $7 million to fund academic innovation and initiatives to share resources between its five campuses, Antioch University McGregor, AU New England, AU Los Angeles, AU Santa Barbara and AU Seattle. The funds will be used, for example, to help faculty members who are leaders in their field to design shared courses and employ a combination of distance learning technology and travel to share instruction across the campuses. The courses go hand-in-hand with a new virtual learning center, which will provide to students and faculty at all the campuses support software, such as writing instruction, help with ESL, disability services and teaching tools.

“With this focus we are learning to be a university of one, and develop the cross-campus sharing we need to be doing,” Murdock said. “We want to utilize our resources so that the sum is bigger than its parts.”

The McGregor campus has been chosen to host a university-wide virtual library to replace the Antioch College library that formerly served the entire university. The online collection will include electronic periodicals and professional journals within a system that catalogues the collection of each campus and provides interlibrary loan services with the public library system.

Each of the campuses has also been challenged to create new academic programs, such as New England’s new Green MBA, an accelerated 12-month masters program in sustainable business, and McGregor’s new doctorate program in educational leadership and new undergraduate program in sustainability. The programs are being developed in conjunction with market research on their demand and sustainability, Zucker said.

The discretionary funds will also support a commitment to establish environmentally sustainable practices on all of the campuses, and to share the resource that the university’s radio station, WYSO, offers as a model for studios on the other campuses as well.

Enrollment and finances
While many other small, private institutions have struggled to survive over the past decade, Antioch University has remained relatively stable, Murdock said. The university’s total enrollment of 3,500 has not changed significantly over that same period (excluding the college numbers), and all of the campuses have exceeded their enrollment this year over last.

At McGregor, for instance, enrollment rose slightly from 700 two years ago to about 800 students this year, though in 2007, the school boasted an enrollment of over 900. While New England exceeded its enrollment goals by a small margin this year to just over 1,000 students, according to a news release in 2006 the school has experienced a decade of static enrollment of 1,000 students and “tight” budgets and is currently implementing a strategic plan for growth from 2007 to 2012.

Still university leaders credit their united governance system, revenue-based budgets and focus on adult students for what they see as the school’s buoyancy, and want to maintain an upward enrollment trend on all of its campuses.

“At a time when other institutions are cutting faculty and closing programs, we feel fortunate,” Murdock said.

While the university has also maintained a fairly flat $75 million budget for its campuses, losing the college last year offered the university the first time opportunity to reinvest some of its revenue into its other campuses. The Los Angeles campus, for instance, had a $700,000 carryover last year due to a bump in enrollment and good fiscal management, and the school invested the funds on land for a new facility.

“Because of the college’s financial situation, the board was so busy dealing with it that the rest of the university got very little attention,” Murdock said. “Now we’re able to say we’re an institution, and there’s no American university like us with our governance structure and value system.”

Headquarters for national system
As the university refines its goals and prepares to bulk up its capacity, the question of where the central hub of a nation-wide educational system should be, lingers. While the issue of location is not pressing, it is currently under discussion, Murdock said.

As an administration that regularly convenes meetings of its boards and leaders, the central office requires easy access to all of the constituent campuses. Antioch’s leaders need airports, hotels, highways and meeting facilities, as well as a community whose cost of living is proportionate to the services and amenities if offers, Murdock said. The administrative offices are currently located in Yellow Springs because of the school’s legacy with Antioch College, but the university is now looking at the advantages of staying in the village from a business perspective.

And as a school that aims to serve a working adult population, the priority is no longer to create an immersive experience with all the amenities and services in one physical campus, according to Fishbein. That affords the university greater flexibility in designing some virtual programs with residency requirements that make education more convenient for its adult students.

“We still have a desire for the faculty to be hands on, but we need to acknowledge that the students we get can’t afford to spend all day at school,” Murdock said. “It’s about using high-tech to be high-touch, and we need to figure out how to deliver an education like this.”

Important School of Education News

1. The AUS School of Education and the Master of Arts in Education for Experienced Educators is pleased to offer coursework leading to endorsement in Environmental and Sustainability Education.

The course of study broadly covers ecological science and all the social dimensions of sustainability. Sustainability refers to the study and enhancement of human relationships to the natural world for their effect on (1) the quality of life enjoyed by all human communities and all living species on earth presently and (2) the ongoing possibility for humans and the entire natural world to enjoy equal or greater quality of life into the infinite future through the creative evolutionary process of renewal and regeneration. Sustainability thus calls upon all realms of ecological science to help examine how cultural, political, and economic activity over time have reflected human regard for the natural world and shaped our past and present treatment of the environment as well as point to what we can do in the future.

All endorsement study is aimed toward a guiding set of objectives rather than rigidly fixed content or means of reaching outcomes. Students can therefore create personally interesting and relevant paths of learning toward the endorsement. In acknowledgement, too, of the importance of “personal meaning” and “local solutions” in sustainability, our endorsement program puts a distinctive emphasis on re-creation and expansion of “local, living economies,” recognition of the value and wisdom of traditional and indigenous knowledge, and concern for the ethics of eco-justice.

The endorsement program will begin in the summer or fall quarter of 2010. Please contact Ed Mikel, emikel@antioch.edu, or Sara Hagenah, shagenah@antioch.edu, for more information.

2. Antioch University’s Program in Support of National Board Candidates
As part of its commitment to provide continuing professional development for Washington’s teachers, Antioch University supports National Board Certificate candidates through all aspects of the certification process.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certificate attests that a teacher is accomplished, makes sound professional judgments about student learning and acts effectively on those judgments. Antioch University’s NBPTS Support Program provides a support system for NBPTS certification.
About Antioch’s Program

To demonstrate that teachers can meet the certificate’s high standards for teaching skills and knowledge, candidates complete a two-part assessment: a portfolio of videotaped classroom teaching, lesson plans, student work samples and reflections on teaching that show their impact on student learning; and a series of written prompts that measure knowledge of their subject area. Teachers report spending 200-400 hours on the certification process over the course of a school year. During this time, candidates will meet regularly with a collegial support group and be provided with mentoring from National Board Certified Teachers and other facilitators trained by the Initiative.

Program components:
Summer orientation meeting followed by approximately 40 hours of facilitation by Nationally Certified facilitator September through April. Group meetings (ratio of 1 Nationally Certified Teacher for 4-5 candidates) will provide individual support with the National Board process, feedback on written entries, organization, assessment center help, and retake support. Program schedule will be determined by cohort and facilitators.

Fee: $650

Coordinator: Sara Hagenah

Contact Information:
shagenah@antioch.edu

Who Should Participate?
NBPTS candidates must . . .
- Possess a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
- Hold a valid Washington state teaching/counseling certificate.
- Have completed a minimum of three years of successful full-time teaching (or the equivalent part-time as defined by candidate’s employer) in a U.S. P–12 school prior to the first day of work of the 2009-10 school year.
- Be employed in a Washington state K–12 public or state-approved private school during the 2010-2011 school year.
- Regularly teach at least one class during the 2010-2011 school year that meets the age range and content specifications for the desired certificate area. At least six students must be in the class, with at least 51 percent of the students at the appropriate age level.
- Read the complete text of the NBPTS standards for the intended certificate (available online at www.nbpts.org or for $15 from NBPTS at (800) 22-TEACH).
- Must agree to attend and fully participate in all support meetings and complete the portfolio and assessment center exercises according to published timelines.
- Be prepared to pay Antioch University the $650 NBPTS Support Program fee by May 28, 2010.

Scholarship Application Process
The 2010-11 OSPI National Board Certification Scholarship cycle will open on January 15, 2010. Please check the OSPI website for more information.

Credit/Clock Hour Option
Participants who wish to earn clocks for their work in the program may select the clock hour option for an additional fee.

Questions?
For additional information about Antioch University’s National Board Candidate Support program, send your questions to shagenah@antioch.edu. For information about the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), visit their website at www.nbpts.org. For information about the Washington Initiative scholarships, visit the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) website.

Portland (OR) Alumni Chapter Being Formed

WHEN: Tuesday, June 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (or whenever the event winds down)

WHERE: Kells Irish Pub/Restaurant, 112 SW 2nd Avenue in Portland (food and beverages provided by AUS)

WHO: Besides alumni, attending from the university will be Eric Warn, Alumni Director, Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet, AUS President, Paula Kinney, Portland Psychology alumna and member of the AUS Board of Trustees, Sherill Lambruschini, Organizational Psychology alumna and chair of the Antioch Alumni Council and David Fagerlie, Vice President of Institutional Advancement. “Remarks will be brief on our part with plenty of time for one-on-one networking on the alum’s part,” noted Warn.

WHAT: Sherill Lambruschini will start the evening off with an ice-breaker, followed by an introduction of alums in attendance who will be asked to state what degree they received and what they’re up to now. “This is going to be a FUN event with no hidden agendas on our part other than creating an entertaining evening where alums can have small casual conversations and reconnect with old friends, discover new friends and get a campus update from the AUS President,” Warn noted.

Alums are asked to RSVP as soon as possible to ewarn@antioch.edu so food/drink/facility can be planned. Approximately 300 AUS alums reside in the greater Portland/Vancouver area.

AUS Students Launch Food Action Network

Join AUS Local FAN (Food Action Network) and get 20 weeks of delicious, fresh, local produce! In conjunction with Dog Mountain Farm http://www.dogmtnfarm.com/we are proud to offer a 2010 CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program.

The wonderful farmers Cindy and David have a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and herbs to keep you in good food next year. You can find a complete list of possibilities at http://www.dogmtnfarm.com/grow.html.

How does it work?
Produce will be available starting in June and will come in every week after for 20 weeks. The pick-up point will be close to the AUS campus and will be “buffet style”. Boxes of produce will be set up with signs telling members the allotted quantity. This greatly reduces damage during transportation, and means that you get better quality food and a chance to socialize with other members at the pick up point. The best part about this style is that it allows us to set up a swap table. If you get anything you don’t want, just put it on the swap table and take anything there instead! And don’t worry if you don’t know how to cook kohlrabi, we will have great recipes available each week to help you out.

How much does it cost?
Join our CSA by buying one sharefor $36 a week. Each share feeds three people, which makes each individual’s payment only $12 a week. We also have work assignments including various activities on the farm, like setting up a chicken house, and setting up and cleaning at the drop off point. There is a possibility of getting a reduced rate through these work assignments.

How do I join?
You can join by emailing one of the organizers, filling out a registration form, and sending your non-refundable deposit of $100 per share ($33.34 per person) to any one of the club’s organizers by January 15th. We will be able to accept credit cards and hope to accept food stamps as well (be sure to indicate any interest in this when you email/register). Register here: http://knowyourfarms.com/j/index.php?option=com_ckforms&view=ckforms&id=3&Itemid=40

Submit your deposit to PayPal here using the auslocalfan@gmail.com address: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/send_money

How this CSA is different:
AUS Local FAN strives to create solid community around food. We want you to know and enjoy the place that your food comes from. Because of this, we will have plenty of events during the year including farm dinners, recipe shares, and activities. In January we are already planning a trip to the farm in order to help Cindy and David plant their seeds. This will be a great chance to chat with the farmers and group members while learning organic agricultural methods, doing something new, and even listening to some great music while you’re at it!

Feel free to contact the organizers with any questions and email to join today!
Ivy Fox: ivywildfox@hotmail.com 801-550-7203
Melissa Nase: mjn@inbox.com 267-374-6493
Terri Gardner: teegar.terri@gmail.com 919-259-0664

Become a member of our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=190395756708

AUS Professor’s Annual Trip To Egypt Coming Up

Mark Twain was correct when he said “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” To me, travel is all that and much more. Take my trip to Egypt some 30 years ago. It was like traveling back in time and visiting the cradle of civilization. I still remember that trip vividly to this day (however, never wear polyester shorts when riding a camel). Which brings me to AUS Professor Emeritus Farouk Seif’s upcoming trip to Egypt March 16 through April 5, 2010.

Some of his goals are to prepare you to be more effective, respectful of other cultures and to better understand your own culture and values. Only from the outside can you look back in. Many alumni who have gone on this trip, now in its 14th year, claim it has had a lasting impact on their world view, self-confidence and maturity. Life-transforming you might say, much like their Antioch education experience.

Farouk, by the way, was born and raised in Egypt with a Coptic background and is a descendent of ancient Egyptians. He is the founder and director of the Isis Institute and is a professor emeritus at Antioch University Seattle, Center for Creative Change, where he teaches design for purposeful change. His recent publications and international presentations focus on cross-cultural communication and social/cultural change.

Egypt is the perfect setting to learn from and with others and experience the timeless wisdom of integrating nature and culture. The Egyptian odyssey is essential for the development of cultural identity and personal growth, navigating through unfamiliar cultural and historical boundaries. Farouk invites you to a lifetime-experience to engage in inspiring activities that evoke your imaginative interpretation of ancient Egypt, and reinvigorate meaning and purpose in your personal life and professional practice. Reflect on your place in the world and gain insights into cross-cultural understanding, unconditional love and holistic living.

The itinerary is packed with extraordinary adventures: sailing down the Nile; visiting traditional homes and sharing meals with villagers; participating in an ancestry Nubian dance; observing the pastoral life little-changed since the time of Christ; and experiencing the serenity of the Egyptian desert.
This trip is usually a sell out so move quickly. For more information and to reserve a place go to:
http://www.isisinstitute.net/picture-library/Egypt.8.5×11.March09.F.pdf or you can visit Farouk’s website at www.isisinstitute.net.

Warmly,

Eric

Eric Warn
Alumni Director
Antioch University Seattle
ewarn@antioch.edu

AUS To Host Two Important University Leadership Group Meetings

Dear Alumni,

On Wednesday, October 28, we will host the Antioch University Leadership Council’s October meeting. The ULC is comprised of the Chancellor, five campus Presidents, three Vice Chancellors, the Director of Communications and the Executive Assistant to the Chancellor.   

From Thursday, October 29, to Saturday, October 31, we are hosting the Antioch University Board of Governors for their Fall meeting.  During this time you are welcome to observe the following open meetings in Room 100. However, agendas can change, and if this happens, a note will be posted outside the room indicating any change to the status of that session.

Thursday, Oct 29, Room 100

9:45-10:00 am   Plenary Session
11:15am-12:15pm University Financial Picture:  Investing in Our Future - Chancellor Toni Murdock
1:15-5:00 pm    University Strategic Directions - Chancellor Toni Murdock
(The Board will split into closed breakout groups at 1:30pm, but reconvene at 2:30pm for reporting.  At 3:15pm, there will be a session on Branding, followed by a presentation from WYSO-FM.)

Friday, Oct 30, Room 100

12:15-1:00 pm   Seattle Campus Presentation - Art and Drama Therapy Students
1:15-2:15 pm    Presidents’ Goals Presentations
2:15-5:15 pm    University Strategic Directions (cont.)

Saturday, Oct 31, Room 100

All sessions on Saturday will be closed.

Please be mindful that you are a silent observer during the meetings. Chairs will line the periphery of Room 100 for your use. Cell phones or other electronic devices must be turned off before entering the room.

Thank you,
Wendy

Wendy Dahl, MA
Executive Assistant to the President
Assistant Secretary, Board of Trustees
Antioch University Seattle
2326 6th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121
206.268.4107
206.728.4427/fax
wdahl@antioch.edu

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