By Diane Chiddister for Yellow Springs News, January 17, 2008
Efforts toward exploring the feasibility of separating Antioch College from Antioch University are moving ahead this month, with directors of the recently-formed Antioch College Continuation Corporation, or AC3, expressing cautious optimism that they will achieve their goal.
“I haven’t yet seen any obstacle that we don’t think can be overcome,” said AC3 co-chair Eric Bates of New York City in an interview last week. “We have the will, the resources, and the expertise to make this happen.”
However, Bates emphasized that the effort to gain independence for the college is a huge one, and that many challenges remain.
“This is in no sense a done deal,” he said. “But we have established a good relationship with the board of trustees and all parties are working hard to give this a chance of success.”
The AC3’s effort has three main components, according to Bates, including an analysis of the college’s situation by turnaround experts, continued fundraising, and working to ensure that the college retains its accreditation and degree-granting capability.
The AC3 directors — a group of former university trustees, major donors and alumni leaders, all of whom are Antioch College alumni — will discuss their efforts at a public meeting in Yellow Springs on Saturday, Jan. 26, with a time and date to be announced, Bates said.
The road to independence
The AC3 is an Ohio non-profit corporation whose directors seek to receive the ownership of Antioch College as a free-standing liberal arts college with its own board of trustees. The corporation was created after major donors to the alumni board’s effort to keep Antioch College open balked at what they perceived as the lack of college autonomy set forth in the November agreement between the university board of trustees and the alumni board leaders, an agreement that reversed the trustees’ June decision to suspend college operations.
The effort to explore the feasibility of separating Antioch College from Antioch University was sparked by a series of discussions between major donors and university trustees several weeks after the Nov. 2 agreement, according to AC3 directors in a meeting last month, and those talks led to donors and former trustees forming the Antioch College Continuation Corporation.
In a Dec. 11 statement, the trustees charged Antioch University Chancellor Toni Murdock with developing a feasibility report on the transferring of college ownership from the university to the AC3. If the transfer is deemed feasible, the chancellor will draft a letter of intent with proposed terms no later than the Feb. 21-23 regularly scheduled trustees meeting, according to the agreement.
University efforts
The feasibility analysis has two main components, according to Murdock in an interview this week. The first component, an overall report of issues regarding the transfer of ownership from the university to the AC3, was presented to the board this Tuesday, Jan. 15, via a conference call.
“We have enough together now that the board can review the data,” she said.
She could not comment on the report’s findings at this time, Murdock said on Monday.
The working group which created the report was composed of University Chief Financial Officer Tom Faecke, Antioch University Trustee Bruce Bedford, Columbus attorney and financial consultant Jack Pigman, Antioch University attorneys David Weaver and Bill Groves and herself, according to Murdock.
A second, more detailed assessment of the condition and value of Antioch College buildings is currently being assembled by the Stanley Group, an Iowa-based international engineering and consulting firm, according to Murdock, who said that report will be finished in several more weeks.
The university is doing its best to provide appropriate information, she said.
“On our side, we’re trying to work with them the best we can to make it happen,” she said.
While Murdock is giving her best effort toward providing the trustees with adequate information, she said, she does so with some sadness.
“All of us want the college to be successful, but I feel the college could be successful under the university,” she said, stating that the efforts to achieve independence for the college have caused her some emotional distress.
AC3 moves ahead
The AC3 effort to achieve independence includes three components. First, the group has hired turnaround specialists to assess the college’s financial situation and the state of its physical plant, in order to determine the needs of a successful turnaround, according to Rick Daily, former alumni board leader who is helping to staff the AC3 efforts. The AC3 has hired Alvarez and Marsal, a New York City-based international firm that has worked on such projects as helping to turn around the New York City public school system.
“We have brought in top-notch people to take a look at the college,” Bates said.
Several Alvarez and Marsal employees have been on campus recently, and they are producing regular reports for the AC3, according to Daily. The AC3 has also hired Ellen Falduto, the chief financial officer of Hartwick College, to look at the college’s budgeting needs, Daily said.
In a second component of the independence effort, AC3 representatives are in communication with representatives of the Ohio Board of Regents about the “nature of the transaction,” according to Bates. At issue is whether the OBR, which is the accrediting agency for Ohio colleges, will consider an independent Antioch College a continuation of the current college or a new institution, according to Bates.
Third and critical to the independence effort is boosting the college’s ongoing fund raising effort, according to AC3 Secretary Laura Markham in an interview last week.
While the alumni board raised $18 million in pledges and the AC3 directors pledged $7 million if the transfer of ownership goes through (some of those pledges overlap) the AC3 needs much more revenue to ensure success.
“Those folks who have been holding back for years because of the governance structure need to realize that this is a new day,” Markham said. “This all depends on our ability to fund raise.”
AC3 directors are optimistic that they will be able to raise the amount necessary — which some put at $100 million in several years.
“I think this is an exciting opportunity,” Markham said. “I’m very optimistic.”
Bates, of New York City, is deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone magazine. His AC3 co-chair is Francis Degen Horowitz, president emerita of the City University of New York Graduate Center. Other AC3 directors are Markham, a clinical psychologist and former university trustee; David Goodman, principal of e-Solar Properties, LLC; Catherine Jordan, president of Achieve Minneapolis; Steve Schwerner, emeritus Antioch College professor; Lee Morgan, president of The Antioch Company; Barbara Winslow, former trustee and associate professor at Brooklyn College; and Terry Herndon, entrepreneur and businessman.
Contact: dchiddister
