Viability of this approach?

[no1capybara]

I'm just wondering if this is a successful way for small liberal arts schools to survive:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/07/14/otterbein-antioch-university-announce-partnership

[Ruralguy]

In general, probably not. i dont think there would be enough revenue to matter.  Also, you would rhen be creating a bunch of weak graduate programs producing meaningless Masters degrees.  That being said, it can probably work for some SLACs, but most likely they arent the schools who would need this.

[Hibush]

They are trying to do something (adult ed) that they don't do now and others are already very good at. National aspirations seem overambitious. However, with local college-age student population declining in their home region, going after enrolees in the south who have historic connections with these schools makes sense. So a small program may work out. It doesn't sound as if the have done a good competitive analysis where they have a better value proposition or operating efficiency that current and near-future competitors.

[mamselle]

Might have been good for the old Antioch, not so sure about Otterbein or Antioch's breakaway outrigger in NH.

Having grown up in Columbus, midway between the two, and knowing someone who did a decent degree at the NH one, there's a mismatch there, somewhere, it seems to me.

The former (original) Antioch, a school founded by Horace Mann to apply his new ideas about education in the 19th c., had, by the 20th c., become an "easy-A" safety school. A high-school friend went there and got all A's in her B.Ed. degree, then wondered why no M.Ed program would take her...I ended up being the one explaining the situation to her, gently...

The NH outrigger actually pulled away and did a decent job, when I knew of it, in the 1980s: a different friend did an Outdoor Ed. program there and is still working in the field based on the good background they got there.

Otterbein used to be an OK SLAC, I've visited more recently just for local medieval conferences, to give papers, still a nice campus, friendly folks, etc....so, an interesting marriage to my mind.

So, dunno, it seems to me if they marry their strengths, it might work, but if they marry their weaknesses, it won't.

Anything in between, well...qui sait?

M.

[apl68]

Though I don't know much about any of the schools involved, it at least looks like something they've sat down and thought through, and not a last-ditch desperation measure.  Maybe they've got something there?  It's going to be awfully tricky to pull off, given that these schools all seem to have modest resources to contribute.  They can't afford to make a lot of mistakes in trying to figure out how to make things work.

[no1capybara]

I attended a small liberal arts school and it is also currently struggling, trying to figure out a unique niche, even before the pandemic.

But I do not think this sounds like a well-thought out option, they seem to have completely different missions.  When I read the headline I assumed this was the Ohio Antioch partnering with Otterbein, which makes much more sense to me.

[mamselle]

But that Antioch is the least viable and offers the same location, pretty much, with less rigor.

The NH school (which for awhile has some of its own in-town classes in the Boston/Cambridge area, offered a lovely rural NH setting and appropriate-to-the-landscape applied courses, which would complement North-of-Columbus-on-High-St., urban Otterbein, better.

Still might not work but Antioch of Ohio would have been unlikely to impossible.

M.

[downer]

The website says

Antioch University is a national university that includes campuses in Yellow Springs, OH; Keene, NH; Los Angeles; Santa Barbara; and Seattle as well as low residency or remote programs such as the Graduate School of Leadership and Change and Antioch University Online.

So it is not just the Yellow Springs campus involved.

Antioch online is pretty successful. I know a couple of people who have taught for it and have found it somewhat rewarding.

It's not so clear to me why Antioch would be interested in Otterbein since they already have an Ohio campus. I wonder if it is their Nursing doctorate.

[mamselle]

Yellow Springs and NH aren't really connected, last I heard.

The NH folks still have the "Antioch" name, but I think they petitioned to be legally separate from the Ohio folks once they started pulling ahead in quality and viability themselves. (That was awhile ago, though--1990s, I think?)

Can't look it up right this minute, but I'm pretty sure that's correct.

M.

[Wahoo Redux]

As with most of our educational initiatives, including student loan forgiveness, this seems like it is late for the bus.  This is a bad time for bold new initiatives.  This seems like desperation.

Apparently their plans are only "a sketch," so we really can't tell if this will work or not based on the info we have.