page_title: Antioch College
section_title: The 21st century
hierarchical_section_title: Antioch College / History / The 21st century
caption_attribution_description: English: The Coretta Scott King Center on the campus of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio
context_page_description: Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann became its first president. It was the founding, constituent college of Antioch University System, which Antioch College remained a part of from 1978 until 2008 when it closed. Thereafter, a group of alumni formed a new Ohio corporation, Antioch College Continuation Corporation, and bought from the university both the physical campus and a license to use the name "Antioch College". The college remained closed for three years before reopening in 2011 as an independent institution.
  Antioch is one of only a few liberal arts institutions in the United States featuring a cooperative education work program mandatory for all students. Democracy and shared governance, especially as a means to activism and social justice, are at the heart of the college. Since 1921 Antioch's educational approach has blended practical work experience with classroom learning, and participatory community governance.
context_section_description: In 2000, Antioch College was again subject to media attention after inviting political activist and former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal and transgender rights advocate and Abu-Jamal supporter Leslie Feinberg to be commencement speakers. Graduating students had chosen Abu-Jamal and Feinberg to highlight their concerns with capital punishment and the American criminal justice system.  Many conservative commentators criticized the Antioch administration for allowing students to choose such controversial commencement speakers and the college administration received death threats. Antioch President Bob Devine chose not to overturn the students' choice of speakers, citing the ideals of free speech and free exchange of ideas, and likened the media reaction to the coverage of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1965 commencement address.
caption: The Coretta Scott King Center on the campus in Yellow Springs, Ohio
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