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THE PLAIN DEALER – Antioch College alumni, backers raise money to reopen the Yellow Springs, Ohio, liberal arts school

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/07/antioch_college_alumni_backers.html

THE PLAIN DEALER cleveland.com

Antioch College alumni, backers raise money to reopen the Yellow Springs, Ohio, liberal arts school

Posted by Janet Okoben/Plain Dealer Reporter July 01, 2009 06:19AM Categories: Education

Antioch College is back. Or it soon will be, after alumni and backers of the little liberal arts institution in Yellow Springs, Ohio, worked out a deal to take it over.

The college closed in June 2008 after leaders of Antioch University, which operates the college, cited financial concerns and locked the doors. Antioch University runs five other commuter-oriented campuses around the country geared toward nontraditional students. Those campuses have remained open and have made money, university leaders say.

By contrast, Antioch College — often called the place that put the “liberal” in “liberal arts” — saw its enrollment dwindle and buildings crumble in recent years. Founded by Horace Mann, it boasts graduates such as Coretta Scott King.

Initially, in 2007, university leaders said they would shut down the college for four years to come up with a plan to renew the school. Toni Murdock, chancellor of Antioch University, said Tuesday that the plans to reopen were scrapped when it became clear that Antioch College alumni would never financially support the college as long as it was affiliated with the university.

Two previous attempts by alumni to take over the school didn’t work out, but on Tuesday the university announced a deal with the Antioch College Continuation Corp. In exchange for $6 million raised by alumni, the university will turn over the assets that include the Yellow Springs campus, a nature preserve and the $19 million endowment.

Murdock said the transaction isn’t a sale so much as a way of making two separate legal entities. The deal still requires approval from the Ohio attorney general, along with settling other details, but the groups hope to have a new, independent Antioch College by late summer.

Yesterday’s AP article in Diverse Issues in Education

Yesterday’s AP article in Diverse Issues in Education

http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_12686.shtml

Current News Alumni Group To Pay $6M for Antioch College

by JAMES HANNAH, Associated Press Jul 1, 2009, 08:16 Email article Printer friendly DAYTON, Ohio

Antioch University agreed Tuesday to transfer the campus of financially strapped Antioch College to an alumni group that plans to turn it into an independent school. But any reopening of Antioch College is at least two years away and hinges on a list of conditions. The university temporarily closed the Yellow Springs college a year ago because of financial problems caused by declining enrollment, a heavy dependence on tuition and a small endowment. Antioch College is known for its pioneering academic programs that produce students with a passion for social activism. The college was the flagship of Antioch University, which also has campuses in Seattle, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Calif., and Keene, N.H. The alumni group, called the Antioch College Continuation Corp., has agreed to pay the university $6 million for the campus, located about 15 miles east of Dayton, and the college’s endowment. The transfer of assets cannot occur until a list of conditions have been met, including approval from the Ohio attorney general’s office and university bond holders. The target date to implement the agreement is Aug. 31. The alumni group said it would be about two years before the college could accept students because it will take that long to get regulatory approval, fix up the campus and put the educational program in place. “While our journey has been long and difficult and is not yet complete we are committed to continuing the hard work ahead to complete the transaction,” said Art Zucker, board chairman for the university. The college is the alma mater of Coretta Scott King, “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling and two Nobel Prize winners. The college didn’t give grades, encouraged students to develop their own study plans, and combined academic learning with experience through a co-op program in which students leave campus to work in various fields. Students and graduates have a fierce allegiance to the college, citing the co-op program, the friendships they formed and the school’s track record of producing notable graduates. After each graduation ceremony, graduates recited in unison the phrase coined by the late school President Horace Mann, an educator and a statesman who advanced the cause of universal, nonsectarian public schools: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” Over the years, activism and civil disobedience became part of the school’s fabric, with anti-war protests and weekly peace vigils in the 1960s. In 1994, students took over a campus building to protest plans to turn it into an admissions office instead of a student-activity center.

© Copyright 2008 by DiverseEducation.com

INSIDE HIGHER ED – A Deal to Revive Antioch

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/07/01/antioch

A Deal to Revive Antioch July 1, 2009

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Antioch College is poised to come back.

On Tuesday, leaders of the college’s alumni association and the Antioch University Board of Trustees — which suspended operations of the college a year ago — agreed on a plan to make the college fully independent of the university. The college will gain its campus, the endowment (about $19 million), the ability to use its name, and the literary journal The Antioch Review. Most important to many, the college will have its own board and will not answer in any way to the university. The college’s alumni supporters will pay the university about $6 million in return for the assets being turned over.

Leaders of the college alumni group anticipate admitting a new class of students — 100 at first — in two years.

Before the process can move ahead, various regulators need to sign off on the plans, but approval is expected. The deal ends two years of intense negotiations to save the college — a process that alternated between enthusiasm and recrimination as various efforts moved forward and fell apart. The negotiations were revived and advanced in recent months with help of the Great Lakes College Association, whose involvement was praised by both the university and the college for keeping the talks going.

Matthew Derr, who serves as chief transition officer for the college alumni team, said in a briefing Tuesday that the alumni board overseeing the transition is committed to reviving a college in the Antioch model — mixing liberal arts education with career experiences. Further, he said that board members believed strongly in tenure for faculty members and expected to rehire some of those who lose jobs.

“We have our work cut out for us,” he said. “There is a strong feeling on the part of the alumni that to do that swiftly, we need people with experience in the traditions of the college. That’s a critical piece for us.”

The intensity of feeling that has surrounded the question of the college’s future reflects its significant — and at times controversial — role in American higher education.

Antioch was founded in 1852, with Horace Mann serving as its first president. The college played a role in the abolitionist movement and was an early institution to admit students who were female or black. In the 20th century, Antioch was among the pioneers in “co-op education” in which students alternated positions of work all over the country with their education at the Yellow Springs, Ohio, campus. Antioch was particularly notable in that the education was focused on the liberal arts, and the college was known for turning out graduates who went on to play major roles in intellectual life and social activism, people like Clifford Geertz and Stephen Jay Gould and Coretta Scott King.

More recently, however, Antioch’s history has been more troubled. The campus — designed for 2,700 students — saw fewer and fewer students enroll. The college’s long association of liberal politics attracted more students in the ’60s than the ’90s, when a policy requiring explicit verbal consent before any sexual act made the college a favorite target of pundits seeking to mock political correctness.

Many at the college also for years resented the role of Antioch University, which came into being as the college launched branch campuses around the country. These campuses primarily offered graduate programs taught by non-tenured faculty members. A central administration and single board ran the college and the branch campuses — and college supporters said that the board didn’t pay enough attention to the college. When the board announced plans to suspend the college’s operations, many supporters of the college denounced the trustees, saying that they had sacrificed the very heart of the institution.

The university will maintain its headquarters and its distance education arm in Yellow Springs. The remaining university endowment is about $3 million.

Art Zucker, chair of the university board, said that after the initial decision to suspend college operations, the university board had the “responsibility” to rebuild the college and wanted to do so. In explaining the decision to agree to make the college independent, Zucker said that “it became clear that the funding would have to come from alumni, and rightly or wrongly, we think wrongly, many of the alumni felt an antagonism toward the university, so we felt the best best was to ask the alumni association to take over.”

Many alumni have pledged to up their donations to the college, post-independence. Derr said that one good thing that has come out of the turmoil of the last few years has been renewed activism and philanthropy by alumni on behalf of the college. As planning gets started on the revival, he said that support “is critical.”

— Scott Jaschik

DAYTON DAILY NEWS – Deal reached to open new Antioch College

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/184436.html

DAYTON DAILY NEWS Deal reached to open new Antioch College

[photo] Matthew Derr (left) and Lee Morgan, Antioch alumni and members of the board of the Antioch College Continuation Corp., visit the campus in front of Antioch’s main building Tuesday, June 30. The pair came to town to announce the outcome of negotiations with Antioch University which ultimately produced a “historic agreement” for the creation of a new independent Antioch College in Yellow Springs.

By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer Updated 12:21 AM Wednesday, July 1, 2009

YELLOW SPRINGS — Winds Cafe patrons clinked their glasses in celebration of a new, independent Antioch College.

“People were toasting to new beginnings and a hopeful new venture for this college that’s meant so much to the town for well over 150 years,” said Sam Eckenrode, a Yellow Springs real-estate agent and newly elected member of the Antioch College alumni board.

The boards of Antioch University and the Antioch College Continuation Corp. announced a “historic agreement”Tuesday, June 30, for the creation of the new college. The corporation will pay $6.08 million to obtain the Antioch College campus, its endowment and Glen Helen nature preserve. Both boards unanimously voted in favor of a set of definitive agreements for the creation of the college, including the transfer of the Antioch College campus and endowment. Both boards hope to transfer the assets by Aug. 31 if all conditions are met.

“It’s an important day for Yellow Springs,” Eckenrode said.

Jillyanna Morris of Glen Garden Gifts said the florist “delivered lots of flowers all over town congratulating various people.”

Phillip Bottelier of Yellow Springs said he hopes the college doesn’t make the same mistakes that caused it to close in June 2008.

“The only way to survive is to really get innovative,” Bottelier said. “So I ’m hoping they’re not going to try to stick to the status quo anymore, but really try to make changes.”

The agreement announced Tuesday is only the first step toward reviving the school that closed in June 2008.

The deal reached by the boards of Antioch University and the Antioch College Continuation Corp. must be approved by state officials, including Ohio’s attorney general, and the university’s bond holders. The two boards also must sign several operating agreements, said Arthur Zucker, chairman of the university board of governors.

“Our expectation is that the culture of collaboration that we’ve established through this task force will take us through all these steps as we move toward a closing,” said Matt Derr, the corporation’s chief transition officer.

“We’re going to use this next interim period to engage the alumni in support of the college fundraising and in a broad strategic plan for the future of the college,” Derr said. Plans call for a small, first-year class in fall 2011. The undergraduate, residential liberal arts college will start with an operating budget of $4.5 million, which will grow with its enrollment, Derr said.

Antioch College had an $18 million budget in 2007, when university trustees said the college faced a $10 million deficit.

Antioch University closed Antioch College on June 30, 2008, because of declining enrollment and other problems. Since August 2008, however, the university has been negotiating with the Antioch College Continuation Corp. to create a new Antioch College that would be independent of the university.

Plans also anticipate a college of about 600 students on a smaller campus. Restoring the shuttered, 157-year-old campus will be a challenge, Derr said. Buildings are in disrepair.

“We have some significant work to do, and that’s certainly the focus of what will be a major capital campaign on behalf of the college.” Derr said.

Founded in 1852, Antioch College was a private, undergraduate liberal arts college known for its unorthodox education and social activism.

The residential college in Yellow Springs was the flagship for Antioch University, which operates five other campuses: Antioch McGregor, also in Yellow Springs; Antioch Los Angeles; Antioch Santa Barbara; Antioch Seattle; and Antioch New England in Keene, N.H. These schools focus mostly on training adults already in the workforce.

The agreement also presents an economic opportunity for Yellow Springs, said Lee Morgan, chair of the corporation board.

“The government of Yellow Springs is very anxious to see that campus re-invigorated and become an economic driver in Yellow Springs, along with the university’s McGregor facility,” Morgan said. Antioch College’s enrollment dropped from about 2,000 students during its 1960s heyday to 400 in June 2007, when university trustees declared financial exigency for the college.

The Antioch College Continuation Corp., a nonprofit corporation of alumni and former trustees, made several unsuccessful attempts before June 2008 to keep the college open.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.