April 2 Press Release

“Antioch Is My Home” Community Art Festival

Antioch College will host a Community Art Festival around the theme “Antioch Is My Home” from April 13 through April 26. “The theme is a sentiment that is echoed across the Antioch community. I wanted to develop a positive project that would create solidarity and build the momentum of the efforts to save Antioch,” says Marjorie Jensen, a recent Antioch College graduate who is coordinating the festival.

This multi-faceted festival will include an exhibition in the Reed Gallery (in the upstairs of the Visual Arts building) that opens on April 13 and runs through April 26; video screenings and musical performances in Kelly Hall on April 17 at 8pm; dance performances in Antioch’s South Gym on April 23 at 8pm; theater performances and readings of various writing styles in the Antioch Area Theater on April 24 at 8pm. There will also be a variety of installation pieces set up around campus throughout the duration of the festival.

Art contributions featured in this festival are from all stakeholders in the Save Antioch Movement: Antioch students, staff, faculty, alumni, Yellow Springs community members, and friends of the college. The “Antioch Is My Home” project has been developed through a process that has involved members from all of these constituencies.

A few examples of the multi-generational submissions include readings by a current Antioch theater student, Zoe Julich, from a play entitled “Choice of Pastry,” written by an alumna, Robin Rice Lichtig. Alumnus Michael Casselli is planning on creating “footprints,” or visual representations, of buildings that he associates with his Antioch home that have been torn down on campus. Colette Palamar, Antioch professor
of Ecology and Director of the Herndon Gallery, is lending her painting entitled “Family” to the exhibit.

The submission deadline is April 12. Festival submissions will be documented in a printed publication that includes a CD/DVD. The submissions will also be available online. For more information about
the project, visit: http://art.saveantioch.org.

The “Antioch Is My Home” Community Art Festival is supported by the Antioch College Action Network (ACAN). ACAN is an independent collective of autonomous alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends
of Antioch College and villagers of Yellow Springs. ACAN is a grassroots movement working collaboratively for a continuous and sustainable future for Antioch College.

Letter from Ellen Borgersen in Yellow Springs News

To the Yellow Springs Community:

Did you know that the Antioch University Board of Trustees has never met with the Directors of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation about their proposal to acquire Antioch College?  It is shocking that the Trustees would contemplate a transaction of such enormous consequence without talking directly to the principals.  And yet, despite the AC3’s repeated requests to meet with them over months of negotiations, the Trustees instead rejected the AC3’s best and final offer to keep the College open without ever just sitting down and talking to them.

The next step is obvious.  The Trustees must meet face-to-face with the AC3 as soon as possible.   On March 30, the Antioch College Alumni Board passed a unanimous resolution calling upon them to do just that.  It is clear that the Trustees have been ill-served by their negotiating team.  It is long past time for them to step up to their fiduciary responsibilities – which cannot be delegated to University administrators – and work with the AC3 to find a solution to the impasse.

The Trustees say that they were “heartbreakingly” close to resolution when talks broke down.  But we have been close before, and time was running out for the AC3 to get the necessary regulatory approvals to operate Antioch College independently next year.  The AC3 therefore renewed a proposal they made in February – the “10-10” plan – which calls for the AC3 to make an immediate contribution of $10 million in return for ten seats on the nineteen-member University Board of Trustees.  This is a generous offer and an ingenious plan that avoids all regulatory hurdles, keeps the College in continuous operation, and gives the reconstituted University Board time to plan carefully for an independent Antioch College and a secure Antioch University.  That is the win-win solution that College alumni and the AC3 have been working for all along.

And, while the AC3 has withdrawn its final offer to acquire the College because of time constraints, it might still be possible to resurrect that plan if the University agreed to secure the regulatory approvals necessary for Antioch College to operate independently next year.  That would require a full-throated endorsement of the AC3’s operational plans by the University.  And that might be difficult to square with the University’s repeated, public, and wholly unwarranted attacks on the College’s faculty and curriculum.

Which raises the question, why has the University persistently and publicly trashed Antioch College while claiming to be in good-faith negotiations to keep the College open?  The inescapable conclusion is that University administrators – who are also the lead negotiators with the AC3 – have never wanted or intended to reach an agreement to keep the College open.

When the Trustees directed University Chancellor Toni Murdock to work with the Alumni Board on fundraising in August 2007, her response was to dismiss the fundraising staff.  They were locked out of their offices, their email accounts were closed, and their credit cards were cancelled.  It was a humiliating experience for those dedicated and consummately professional people.

Murdock has claimed that those were just innocent, unconnected events.  But if you ever believed that story, consider this:  exactly the same thing happened to exactly the same people last Friday.  They were locked out, sent home, and placed on indefinite administrative leave.  No reasons were given.  And, to add insult to injury – quite literally – this was done in the middle of a going-away party for an IA staffer who has loyally served Antioch College for eight years.

The IA lockouts are part of a pattern of persistent harassment of the people who are essential to the survival of Antioch College.  Indeed, Chancellor Murdock has done everything she can to undermine efforts to save the College.  Given her very public disdain for Antioch College, it defies common sense that the Trustees put her in charge of negotiating with the AC3 in the first place.  If, as they claim, the Trustees really do want to resume negotiations in good faith, they must get Chancellor Murdock out of the way and meet face-to-face with the AC3.

Meanwhile, plans for Nonstop Antioch are moving forward and gaining momentum.  We are not giving up and we are not going away.  We are still ashamed to let it die.

Best regards,

Ellen Borgersen
Vice President, Antioch College Alumni Board
Acting President, College Revival Fund, Inc.

Alumni Call for Trustees to Meet with ACCC

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: press

March 31, 2008- In a meeting on March 30, 2008, the Antioch College Alumni Association Board of Directors unanimously passed a resolution calling for the University Board of Trustees to meet face-to-face with the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (ACCC) as soon as possible.

Nancy Crow, President of the Antioch College Alumni Board, said today in a statement: “We strongly urge the University Board of Trustees to sit down with the ACCC and have a meeting with all possible speed.”

She continued, “The continued operations of Antioch College are vital to the nation and to the world. We ask that the two Boards come together to consider all possible options.”

Recently, the ACCC and the University Board of Trustees broke off negotiations concerning the transfer of the College to the ACCC, an independent non-profit corporation controlled by nine distinguished College alumni.

Since the University Board of Trustees announced the suspension of operations in June 2007, Antioch College 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.

ACCC SAYS ONE FINAL OPTION TO SAVE HISTORIC COLLEGE REMAINS

ANTIOCH COLLEGE CONTINUATION CORPORATION

For Immediate Release

With Time Running Out, Major Donors and Educational Leaders Urge Reforming of University Board As Only Viable Solution

Yellow Springs, Ohio—March 30, 2008–Antioch University has forfeited an agreement to create an independent Antioch College by dragging out negotiations in an effort to profit from the College’s current difficulties, a group of major donors and educational leaders announced today.

“The issue is not about money – it’s about time,” said Eric Bates, co-chair of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation, which was formed to negotiate independence for the historic liberal arts institution. “As a result of the University’s repeated foot dragging it would now be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to receive the necessary regulatory approvals to continue operating the College next year as a separate entity. Through its needless delays, the University has squandered a historic opportunity and created a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

The ACCC’s final offer, Bates added, is no longer on the table. “The University would like everyone to believe that there are ‘remaining financial differences’ with the ACCC that can be broached with the help of outside parties,” he said. “In fact, we set realistic deadlines for the negotiations based on outside, expert counsel on what it would take to keep the College open, without disruption to students, faculty and staff. The University rejected our best and final offer after being given a clear and unequivocal deadline. For their negotiating team to pretend otherwise is simply disingenuous.”

David Goodman, a director of the ACCC who has negotiated dozens of mergers and acquisitions, said the University has misrepresented the reasons that negotiations failed. “This was never about security for the ACCC’s payment,” Goodman said. “We were fully prepared to provide the University with not one, but two forms of security: a mortgage on the campus, and a provision that the College and its assets would revert to the University if the ACCC were unable to continue operations. The ACCC’s offer was both financially reasonable and legally enforceable, but the University made clear that they would not accept the offer – even if their creditors were satisfied with the agreement.”

The issue of security, the ACCC added, is simply the latest in a series of obstacles that the University has invented to impede negotiations. In talks, the University’s negotiating team spoke of its desire to “leverage the College’s assets” and made clear that it did not want to share ownership of WYSO because it wants to explore the possibility of selling the public radio station. “At one point, nearly an entire month was lost because the University continued to demand that the ACCC pay $54 million for the College’s assets,” Bates said. “Under this absurd and outrageous demand, the College would have been required to ‘buy’ its own endowment from the University, at a cost of $22 million. Rather than seeking to find a solution that would benefit all parties involved, the University chose instead to engage in profiteering that prevented a timely and mutual resolution.”

While the University chose to forfeit the ACCC’s offer of $12.2 million for the College, the group emphasized that there is still one alternative that would enable the College to continue operating next year. More than a month ago, the ACCC offered to make an immediate contribution of $10 million in return for ten seats on the nineteen-member University Board of Trustees. The offer stands in stark contrast to the dismally low contributions by the current board, which reportedly total less than $25,000 in the current fiscal year.

The ACCC noted that it has yet to hear a response to its “10-10 plan,” which it is still prepared to discuss. “This is the only remaining arrangement that can enable the College to continue operating next year while creating a truly philanthropic board for the University,” Bates said. “This is not a hostile takeover – it is a remarkably generous and well-intentioned offer by an experienced and supportive group of alumni, six of whom are former University trustees. We remain mystified as to why the board has not acted on this win-win solution that could be enacted within a matter of hours.”

The ACCC said it would welcome the involvement of any outside parties who could persuade the University to take immediate advantage of this simple and effective solution. “It is the only offer still on the table,” said Frances Degen Horowitz, co-chair of the group and president emerita of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “The best solution at this point is for the University to accept the 10-10 plan and immediately create a philanthropic board of trustees that will provide the leadership and stability necessary for both the College and all the units of the University to prosper.”

For additional information on the Antioch College Alumni Association and the Antioch College Continuation Corporation: antiochians.org.