Arthur Morgan and Antioch College

Arthur Morgan

Morgan was appointed a trustee of Antioch College in 1919 . Though not trained as an educator (he was a flood control engineer and later the first head of the TVA), he had long maintained an interest in education. By 1920 he had formulated a plan for "industrial education," which stressed on-campus study alternated with off-campus work, a focus on [vocation and entrepreneurship mixed with] a broad general education, and an emphasis on the student's personal development. His fellow trustees declared him the obvious choice for president, and asked him to take the job. He became a tireless college promoter, launching the "New Antioch" into prominence in the national press. He fostered a climate of creativity for Antioch, inviting research activities, such as the Fels Institute for the Study of Human Development, to do their work on the campus. Morgan's entrepreneurial spirit attracted industrialists such as Vernay Laboratories to Yellow Springs and inspired many an Antioch graduate to found businesses that directly served their own communities.

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“Both to help provide suitable jobs for students and to find support for the College outside of endowment and the gifts of friends and also perhaps to weld the College… into the vocational liberal whole which he desired Mr. Morgan planned to establish a group of
small industries on the Antioch campus…in a building to be erected by the College and with accounting and other services furnished…

The relation of this whole scheme to Mr. Morgan’s larger goal, the speeding up of social evolution is clear. Small proprietors …could create [their] own small world of better business practices and finer living. Each man and woman could…become a center of regeneration in community living…Higher education had often condemned…the world’s practices but had been unable to change them. The point of the Antioch experiment was to produce men and women who could be practical agents of change.”

Antioch College: Its Design for Liberal Education-Algo D. Henderson (1946)

(see presentation about Morgan and his impact on Antioch as a social entrepreneur)

http://www.socialprofits.com/documents/SocialProfitsSlideShow.pdf

/Documents/Bizplan Revision6 Marketing Section2 (3).doc

(see a short leadership history of Antioch)

/Documents/Leadership at Antioch Part I-IV v4.doc

(see proposed liberal arts course on social entrepreneurship)

/Documents/Course in Social Entrepreneurship2.doc

(see rational for liberal arts social entrepreneurship course)

/Documents/Course Rationale Worldshapers Social Entrepreneurs Rebalancing Society.doc

Social Entrepreneurship Teaching Resources Handbook

The Social Entrepreneurship Teaching Resources handbook was created as a resource for faculty interested in understanding and teaching in the field of social entrepreneurship and includes initiatives, courses and research in this context. The primary objective is to find "best practices" in social entrepreneurship for faculty to share with one another.

(see the handbook here)

/Documents/Social Entrepreneurship Handbook 010508.pdf

(Updates will be posted on the University Network website at www.universitynetwork.org/handbook)

(see the new Ashoka University Network for Social Entrepreneurship at http://universitynetwork.org/ for papers, research and other teaching and learning aids on social entrepreurship.)

(Also see the USASBE website www.usasbe.org)

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What is Social Entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurs are the revolutionaries that make large scale social impact in their communities and around the world. While there are a number of definitions for social entrepreneur, the most noted definition is Greg Dees' from Duke University's Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship. To find out what social entrepreneurship is, and what it is not, download The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship paper by Professor Greg Dees. below.

http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/case/documents/dees_sedef.pdf

In his book, Changing the World through Social Entrepreneurship, David Bornstein defines a social entrepreneur as: "A path breaker with a powerful new idea, who combines visionary and real-world problem solving creativity, who has a strong ethical fiber, and who is 'totally possessed' by his or her vision for change." The book provides a wonderful selection of stories of social entrepreneurs from around the world.

Resources

While the Social Entrepreneurship handbook provides detail on a number of resources, a few need special mention. The PBS New Heroes Series provides a low cost (under $30) video series for classroom use including materials for discussions on social entrepreneurs who are solving social problems around the world. The Ashoka Foundation launched a similar project with Ashoka Fellows. Profiles of the Ashoka Fellows who have achieved large scale social impact are available on the Ashoka website. Greg Dees from Harvard and Stanford's Social Entrepreneurship programs and now at Duke University has a comprehensive website on social entrepreneurship resources including free cases. The Skoll Foundation sponsors the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University each spring. An interesting paper that was published in the Journal of World Business, Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Source of Explanation, Prediction and Delight by Johanna Mair and Ignasi Marti looks at the term social entrepreneur and how it should be studied including an investigation of social entrepreneurship as a part of the field of entrepreneurship or its own separate field of study.

ASHOKA: www.ashoka.org/home/index.cfm  
Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE): www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/case/  
PBS New Heroes Series: www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/  
Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship: www.skollfoundation.org/skollcentre/skoll_forum.asp  
Mair, J., Martí, I. 2006.
Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Source of Explanation, Prediction, and Delight. Journal of World Business. 41/1, 36-44.

Syllabus Exchange 
Syllabi of social entrepreneurship courses are posted on the University Network website. If you would like to have your syllabus added to the exchange, email Debbi Brock or join the network at http://universitynetwork.org/  to self post. 

Social Entrepreneurship Network
If you would like to receive communications on social entrepreneurship initiatives, to share your knowledge in the field, or provide resources for the Social Entrepreneurship Knowledge Resources, contact:

Debbi D. Brock
William and Kay Moore Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management
Berea College
Berea, KY 40404
859.985.3634
debbi_brock@berea.edu