Author: ACAN

Antioch College Announces the Appointment of Ron Napal as Interim Director of Advancement

photo of Ron NapalYELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – January 5, 2010 – Antioch College President Mark Roosevelt today announced the appointment of development professional Ron Napal as interim director of advancement. Napal assumes his duties on Monday, January 10.

“Ron Napal is an Antioch College alumnus with more than 20 years of professional fund-raising experience,” Roosevelt said. “He will provide guidance to our Office of Advancement while we search for permanent leadership.”

The executive search firm Isaacson, Miller has been engaged to lead the search for a permanent senior executive for advancement.

Napal is a special advisor to the CEO and Board of Directors of the United Cerebral Palsy of New York City. He previously served as the organization’s chief development officer (2004-2010), associate director for corporate development (1990-1994) and associate executive director for development and public relations (1994-1999). From 2000-2004, he was vice president and chief development officer for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), where he oversaw growth in revenues from $17.5 million to more than $34 million annually. He also served as interim president & CEO from April 1991 to March 1992.

He was the founder and chairman of The Napal Group, an award-winning cause-related marketing and public relations consulting firm, including niche marketing, product placement, and special events production, working with Chemical Bank, Digital Equipment Corporation, The Hearst Corporation, and Reebok, among others. He was also co-founder and president of Matthews/Napal Ltd., an artist management company representing fine arts performing artists.

During his career he created and produced several television programs, particularly for PBS, and has been recognized for several prize-winning campaigns. The Boys and Girls Clubs of America Diamond Jubilee won a Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America. The Opera’s New Clothes, produced for New York City Opera, received a Mercury Award. The Rowe Quartet Plays on Your Imagination, a program for Jefferson-Pilot Communications, won four distinguished awards, most notably a George Foster Peabody Award.

Napal is a board member of Community Health Charities of New York, a member of the Advisory Board and former board member of Children’s Museum of the Arts in SoHo, a former board member of Concordia: A Chamber Orchestra, and founder and first president of NAPAMA (National Association of Performing Arts Administrators).

Born in New York City, Napal earned a Bachelor of Arts at Antioch College in 1966, and attended the London School of Economics, the University of Southern California and Yale University. He is a Fellow of the Leopold Schepp Foundation and the Danforth Foundation.

MEDIA CONTACT: ?
Gariot P. Louima ?
Director of Communications ?
glouima@antiochcollege.org
937-581-8201

Open Letter to Mark Roosevelt

We are current, former, and candidate members of the alumni board. We represent a broad range of graduation years, from the 1940’s to 2008. We have been and still are strong outspoken advocates of Antioch College. We write to express our concern about the college’s handling of the former faculty.

Many of us attended the reunion in 2007 that kicked off the revival. At that reunion the attendees passed a resolution that, in part, called for the Antioch College Alumni Association to negotiate for “The protection of the assets of Antioch College for use by Antioch College including its faculty.” Many of us also attended the reunion in 2008, which occurred shortly after the Board of Trustees of Antioch University asked the alumni board to develop a process to create an independent Antioch College.  At the 2008 reunion the assembled alumni body overwhelmingly voted for a resolution that stated, “the Antioch College faculty, CG and staff and the College Revival Fund have initiated, developed and committed $1 million to support the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute as a way to sustain a core faculty and continue the “DNA” and spirit of Antioch College until the College is independent and under the authority of its own Board of Trustees and President.”

Antioch College holds a unique place in higher education. This point is made again and again by alumni and higher education professionals across the nation. The value of an Antioch College education is widely recognized by its alumni who have collectively engaged in revival efforts over an extended period to save their alma matter. Because the faculty delivered the education that made Antioch what it was, retaining our core faculty is integral to renewing Antioch’s place in higher education. .

In his biography on the Antioch College website, Lee Morgan describes his wish to “build on Antioch College’s legacy of work, community and scholarship.”  His sentiment that the college should continue to deliver an Antiochian education is overwhelmingly shared by alumni, as demonstrated by the questions on the first chapters committee call with Mark Roosevelt. Although other colleges may have integrated work into study, none have succeeded in delivering the full educational program that is responsible for the Antioch College alumni successes we laud today.  New faculty coming into Antioch will not bring a full understanding of the Antioch College education with them. Therefore, we believe that hiring former faculty for faculty roles in which they are qualified gives Antioch College the best chance for survival with an academic program that will be recognized as an Antioch College education.

Thus far, the college has engaged some former faculty minimally — in limited consultancy-type roles subject to the direction of the interim president. Yet the new college catalog lists many of the former faculty as consultants.  The college now insists it must conduct national searches for faculty who will deliver this curriculum.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has advised a hiring process for faculty that would recognize and respect the contributions of former faculty who continued to produce successful Antioch College alumni despite the challenges imposed on them by the university. Ordinarily in higher education extant faculty take the lead in the search for and hiring of new faculty. However, the college has rejected suggestions by the AAUP and by the ad hoc faculty committee that would bring the college’s hiring processes in line with practices in higher education and would afford former tenured faculty the recognition and respect they deserve. We express deep concern about the reputation of the college as a result of its hiring process.

Disdain for former faculty who have served as custodians of the Antioch College education for decades disparages the education of alumni over the past 30 years. Ironically, the college now seeks to raise money from these same alumni.  Therefore, we believe the course of action that the college is pursuing will have immediate and long term financial impact.

Over the last few decades, the college has had a disconnected alumni body. This was remedied by the unprecedented coming together of generations triggered by the university’s decision to close the college. We have experienced a community unified in its support of the college and have seen how effective it can be. It would therefore be unfortunate if the college’s course of action were to once more alienate alumni, losing this unique opportunity for healing and alumni involvement. In the college’s decision to bypass former tenured faculty as a core faculty, we see a unified alumni community already starting unravel. Given the fragility of the college, we believe this is not a time to risk further divisions and deeper wounds.

We understand that the college does not see itself as a successor institution and therefore has no legal obligation to the faculty. This narrow interpretation leaves out a moral, ethical, and practical reasons for hiring the former faculty. The narrow interpretation jeopardizes the viability of the future college. We believe the college’s choice to pursue national searches does not recognize the unique experience and role of the former faculty. It should be reversed immediately, before irreparable harm is done to our alumni community.

We are alumni who have been “opinion leaders” for our peers and have assisted the college financially and with our work on behalf of the college as volunteers for years, and we plan to continue to advocate for the best interests of the college. We write this letter to add our voices in support of the hiring the faculty as we believe this is the best course of action for the alumni and for the success of Antioch College.

Laura Fathauer ‘95
Matthew Baya ‘92
Michael Casselli  ‘87
Terry Blackhawk ‘68
Arthur A. Dole ‘46
Marjorie Welsh Dole ‘46
Tim Eubanks ‘00
Barrie Grenell ‘65
Robin Rice Lichtig, ’64
Kim-Jenna Jurriaans ‘08
Chad Johnston ‘01
Andrew Oswald ‘92
Susan Opotow ‘65
Shiela Richmond ‘57
Travis Sanford ‘94
Daniel Solis y Martinez ‘06
Paula Treichler ‘65
Don Wallace ‘60
J. Greg Williams ‘95

Filmmaker, Activist Robert Greenwald ’66 to Receive Horace Mann Award

photo of Robert Greenwald class of 19 66YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – January 3, 2011 – Antioch College announced today that producer, director and political activist Robert Greenwald ’66 will receive the Horace Mann Award at Reunion 2011. The award recognizes alumni who are "winning a victory or victories for humanity.”

The theme of Reunion 2011, from June 16-19, will be "Science and Invention." Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi '61 is set to deliver keynote address.

Greenwald is the founder and president of Brave New Films, a new media company that uses moving images to educate, influence, and empower viewers to take action around issues that matter. Under Greenwald's direction, Brave New Films has produced a series of short political videos, including the Fox Attacks and Real McCain campaigns. One of the more notable Real McCain videos focused on McCain's Mansions; after Brave New Films produced this video, McCain notoriously said he was not sure how many houses he owned and a media firestorm ensued. In total, Brave New Film's short videos have been viewed over 45 million times in the past two years, inspired hundreds of thousands of people to take action and forced pressing issues into the mainstream media.

Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation is currently producing Rethink Afghanistan, a groundbreaking documentary being released online in real-time; the film features experts from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. discussing the United States' flawed strategy in Afghanistan. In August of 2009, Brave New Films launched Sick for Profit, a campaign that focuses on the exorbitant amounts of money made by health insurance companies' CEOs. Within one week, the campaign's first video was viewed over 100,000 times. Recently, Brave New Films also launched Senator Sanders Unfiltered, a two-minute weekly show in which Senator Sanders shares his views on an array of critical issues for our country.

In addition, Greenwald is the director/producer of several documentaries: "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" (2006), an expose of what happens when corporations go to war; as well as "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" (2005), detailing the retail giant's assault on families and American values; and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" (2004), about the right-wing opinion factory known as Fox "News". Millions of viewers have seen these films via grassroots "house parties" and independent online DVD sales, a groundbreaking method of alternative distribution. Greenwald also executive produced a trilogy of political documentaries: "Unprecedented: The 2000 Election" (2002); "Uncovered: The War on Iraq" (2003), which he also directed; and "Unconstitutional" (2004).

Prior to his documentary work, Greenwald produced and/or directed more than 55 television movies, miniseries and feature films. Greenwald's films have garnered 25 Emmy nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, the Peabody Award and the Robert Wood Johnson Award. He was awarded the 2002 Producer of the Year Award by the American Film Institute. He has been honored for his activism by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; the Liberty Hill Foundation; the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Consumer Attorney's Association of Los Angeles; Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the Office of the Americas.

MEDIA CONTACT
Gariot P. Louima
Director of Communications
937-581-8201
glouima@antiochcollege.org

Call for Submissions to The Antiochian!

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – January 3, 2010 – We invite ideas and submissions for the winter 2011 edition of The Antiochian. To appear in the issue, please send query or manuscript before January 19, 2011. Here are some of the ways you can contribute.

Letters: Letters should be no longer than 150 words, must refer to an article that has appeared in The Antiochian or The Independent, and must include the writer’s full name, class year (if applicable), and city/state of residence. No attachments, please. We do not publish anonymous letters.

Class Notes: Tell us about new jobs, awards or major life changes that other Antiochians may find interesting. Limit to 75 words.

Essays: Send shorter first- or third-person essays on topics with an Antioch College connection (650 words). For longer essays, send us a one-paragraph query describing the piece and why you’re the best person to write it.

News Features: Feature articles should have broad, general appeal. We’re interested in stories that are timely, well-written and engaging. Query first.

Alumni Profiles: If your story is much bigger than a Class Note or you know of an Antiochian with an amazing personal history, query with your pitch.

Photographs and Illustrations: Any image from anywhere in the world. Photos and illustrations must be at least 300 dpi for print publication. Please note that The Antiochian will not publish images that depict graphic violence or graphic nudity.

How to Submit:
Send “Class Notes” to Steve Duffy at sduffy@antiochcollege.org. All others, send to communications@antiochcollege.org or query the editor, Gariot Louima, at glouima@antiochcollege.org.

The Antiochian is published by the Office of Communications at Antioch College. All submissions will be edited for length, spelling, grammar and editorial style (the College uses the Chicago Manual of Style). The Office of Communications will notify you if your submission is accepted for publication. Due to staffing limitations, we will not be able to personally respond to every submission.

Antioch receives anonymous donation

Antioch College has announced the receipt of a $50,000 gift from an anonymous donor.

When making the gift, the donor offered best wishes for the new year and the start of the presidency of Mark Roosevelt, who assumed office Saturday, Jan. 1.

The money will go toward a $1.5 million challenge that the college received from another donor earlier in the year.

Originally founded in 1850, Antioch College gained its independence in the fall of 2009. The college, currently recruiting the inaugural class to enter in the fall of 2011, is recruiting a faculty and undergoing a multi-year accreditation process.

Roosevelt, the former superintendent of the Pittsburgh Schools, was appointed president of Antioch College following a unanimous vote of the Board Pro Tempore, the college’s governing body. He succeeds Interim President Matthew Derr as the college’s chief executive.