Displaced Antioch College Alumni Camp Out on Historic Campus

Displaced Antioch College Alumni Camp Out on Historic Campus

Locked Campus Housing Forces Visiting Alumni to Sleep Outside During their Critical Annual Alumni Reunion Week

Yellow Springs, Ohio (June 21, 2008) – Over 450 Antioch College alumni traveled from across the United States to arrive at the pre-Civil War college campus, despite this year’s lack of reunion housing. Although a most recent announcement made by Antioch University officials, that stated that they were again willing to negotiate with alumni to keep Antioch College open, faculty members were locked out of their offices last week and all campus dormitories, which traditionally have housed alumni during the annual reunions, have remained locked and made unavailable to alumni, many traveling from as far as Portland, Oregon, New York, New York, Canada and Florida. In a response to the lack of housing and the continued conflicting actions of the university officials, Antioch College alumni created a “Tent City” on the most highly-used and visible lawn of the Yellow Springs campus, the “Horseshoe”, the lawn connecting Livermore Street to the historic Main Hall.

“We are claiming the most visible space on the campus as a sign that Antioch College is here to stay,” said Rowan Kaiser, Community Co-Manager for the 2008-2009 academic year of Antioch College, representing the voice of Antioch College alumni. “The college community will never stop working to reclaim the campus, the name, the assets, the heritage and the reputation of our Antioch College.”

Visiting Antioch College alumni have been sleeping in tents during the reunion with no access to hot or cold showers. At night, the Antioch campers have the use of portable toilets. “Not having access to basic facilities, like showers, beds and drinkable tap-water will not deter an Antiochian from participating in the movement to keep the college open,” said Chad Johnston, an alum from 2001 who traveled from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The Antioch College alumni and entire Antioch College community of faculty, staff and Yellow Springs villagers invite the press to a brief press conference at 5:00 PM EST, on Saturday, June 21, 2008, on the grounds of the, “Tent City”.

All-Star Record – Reunion 2008 – PDF

All-Star Record Statement
The All-Star Record is a joint venture of a collective of former editors and staff of The Record and The Blaze. The project was initiated by the Community Managers of Summer ‘08, in order to inform those outside of Yellow Springs about the planning going on for Nonstop Antioch.

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Save Antioch College as a progressive residential liberal-arts college with a tenured faculty.

This petition was created in June 2008 and was open until September 2009. Over 1600 academic professionals signed and confirmed their signatures, for a full list click here for a pdf of the full text of the petition and all confirmed signatures

We, the undersigned higher-education professionals, urge that Antioch College be reopened as a four-year residential liberal-arts institution at the earliest possible time, so that it can continue its historic mission of educating students to–in the words of its first President Horace Mann–“win victories for humanity.”

Antioch University’s administration and Board of Trustees announced last year that the University would close Antioch College due to alleged financial exigency, without consulting the faculty or alerting alumni to the gravity of the situation. When alumni demonstrated significant financial support for an independent Antioch College, the Board rejected three viable plans to keep the College open. We believe that it is time for Antioch University to step aside and cede control of Antioch College to alumni and faculty holding the needed skills, resources, and determination to restore and maintain this institution.

In line with the recent Antioch University Board of Trustees resolution inviting a new proposal from the Antioch College Alumni Association, we call on the board to facilitate transfer of the College and its assets in a manner that will allow it to reopen as soon as possible under the able stewardship of faculty and alumni who have worked tirelessly to support this institution.

We applaud the work of Nonstop Antioch, a coalition of alumni, community members and friends dedicated to saving the College, and the ongoing parallel efforts of the dismissed College faculty to continue the Antioch College tradition of progressive academic and civic education in Yellow Springs next year. The Nonstop educational enterprise is built on Antioch’s core values, distinguished by high academic standards, a co-op structure of work and study, dedication to social justice, and community governance.

We urge that this tradition be preserved, along with the tradition of tenure and unionized labor, in the form of an autonomous Antioch College.