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.
“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.
Other campuses include Antioch University New England in Keene, N.H., and those in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Seattle.
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.”
Fishbein recalled the beginnings of Antioch University and the administration that fostered it. “James Payson Dixon, who served as Antioch College president from 1959 until 1975, whose vision for Antioch forever altered its path, created for Antioch its first adult campus in Putney, Vermont,” he said. “We have been changing ever since, advancing and rethinking,” Fishbein said.
In 1959, Time Magazine quoted Dixon’s ambition that Antioch would “invade the frontiers of the status quo.” Fishbein said he intends to carry that legacy forward.