COLLEGE REVIVAL FUND, INC.
NONSTOP ANTIOCH HAS NEW HOME AND STAFF
CRF Opens New Offices Across from Antioch College Campus
and Announces Plans for Fund-Raising
For Immediate Release
CONTACT: 443-864-0514 • press
April 10, 2008– Antioch alumni working through the College Revival Fund, Inc. (CRF) announced today that they have opened new offices in Yellow Springs, Ohio for “Nonstop Antioch.” These offices are at 716 Xenia Avenue, right across the street from the Antioch College campus. The CRF is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt non-profit corporation founded by members of the Antioch College Alumni Association. Since last June, the CRF has raised over $19.5 million dollars for a continuing, independent Antioch College.
CRF Acting President Ellen Borgersen said today in a statement, “The Antioch University Board of Trustees has shown that they are unworthy to and unwilling to carry on the Antioch College educational mission. The attack on Antioch College is an attack on experiential liberal arts education, shared governance, tenured faculty, and unionized staff. It is up to the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and townspeople of Yellow Springs to carry on the historic mission of Antioch College, and Nonstop Antioch is the vehicle that will organize alumni support for that effort.”
Nonstop Antioch is a movement to organize alumni, students, staff and faculty to keep the spirit of Antioch College alive and operating in Yellow Springs, no matter how long the negotiations between the University Trustees and the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (ACCC) drag on, or how they turn out. In late February, the CRF committed at least $1 million to support this movement and assure faculty that they would be financially supported if they committed to stay in Yellow Springs for the 2008-2009 academic year to teach and plan for an independent Antioch College. The faculty who have made this commitment are excited at the opportunity to reclaim the Antioch mission for themselves, after years of mismanagement and abuse at the hands of a hostile Chancellor and a distant, disinterested Board of Trustees.
The CRF has hired Risa Grimes, former Director of Institutional Advancement at Antioch College, as its Executive Director. Ms. Grimes’ first order of business is hiring the entire College Institutional Advancement staff, all of whom were laid off on April 2. Joining Risa Grimes are Aimee Maruyama, Director of Development and Alumni Relations; Fred Kraus, Director of Research; Cheri Robbins, Database Manager; and Wendy Ernst, Major Gifts Officer.
“These amazingly capable people have become a powerful fundraising machine under Risa Grimes’s superb leadership,” Borgersen said. “Their phones have been ringing off the hook. Everyone in higher education fundraising is talking about the people who raised over $18 million for an independent Antioch College in less than six weeks, even though it was scheduled to close.”
Borgersen continued, “We are very glad that the University laid them off, which allowed us to hire them, liberate them, and set them loose on fundraising for Nonstop Antioch. Just watch what they can do, now that the University administration is out of their way.”
Since the University Board of Trustees announced the suspension of operations in June 2007, alumni across the country have rallied to their alma mater’s defense. Alumni chapters have grown worldwide. The Alumni Board is continuing with its fundraising and planning efforts. For additional information on the Antioch College Alumni Association and the College Revival Fund, visit the Antioch College Alumni Association web site, antiochians.org.
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