Save Antioch College

Dan Fallon, Chair of the Antioch University Board of Trustees (“UBoT”) Governance Committee and UBoT Vice Chair, hosted a group of major donors to the College Revival Fund and former trustees who are deeply committed to the sustainable future of Antioch College. Other participants included UBoT Chair Art Zucker (by telephone), Alumni Board Vice President Ina Frank, Alumni Board Legal Team and Governance Committee Member Judi Church, UBoT consultant Tom Ingram and your humble Alumni Board President.

Everyone at the meeting agreed, in keeping with the November 2, 2007 Agreements in Principle, that Antioch College must be in control of its own destiny, through its own Board of Trustees. The discussion revolved around the degree of that Board’s authority and autonomy and the timetable for its establishment. A number of the donors and former trustees who participated are on the list of proposed members for the “Advisory Body” to be appointed by Art Zucker and Nancy Crow. They made it very clear that they have no intention of serving on a body whose advice the UBoT (soon to become the Antioch University Board of Governors) would be free to accept, reject or ignore, and pressed for meaningful and increasing authority for the interim body and the future College Board of Trustees.

Our discussions were frank, open and intense. We applaud the Board of Trustees for being willing to hear governance issues that are key to saving the college expressed by people with the wherewithal to make it happen. It’s not over yet; we will continue to talk – very soon. The former trustees presented a draft memorandum of understanding proposing a rapid time frame for establishing the College Board of Trustees and setting forth a number of specific areas that must lie within its control to ensure that the College and University not sink yet again into a dysfunctional structure. It will be discussed at the already-scheduled meeting of the University Board of Trustees Governance Committee, on which I sit, this Sunday, 12/2, in Dallas. Several of the participants in Monday’s meeting will attend that meeting. With good will and good fortune, a proposal that students, faculty, alums and major donors can support will emerge from that meeting and be approved as rapidly as fiduciary duty allows by the University Board of Trustees.

Nancy Crow, President
Antioch College Alumni Association

To the fantastic and courageous students of Antioch College (and future alumni):

Before you all take your richly deserved fall break, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts with you. Many of you are going home to celebrate Thanksgiving, and we Antiochians have a few things to be thankful for ourselves.

Antioch College is OPEN. In just four short months, Antioch went from announcing its suspension of operations to staying open past June 2008. A lot of hard work went into this victory, including the hard work, support, organization and activism of the current students and Community Government. You have all shown yourselves to be true Antiochians and I am proud–and honored–to have stood shoulder to shoulder with you on campus, at chapter meetings, and online. You are all, individually and collectively, a bright shining beacon of Antioch’s future.

Please know that the entire Alumni Board shares my feelings about the current student body. We support your Antioch education; we wish you to have the same gift of the Antioch experience that we all had. The Alumni Board members range from graduates of the ’50s to the ’00s, and we are all committed to making sure you all have the opportunity to graduate from our beloved College. When you return from the Thanksgiving break, do meet with the faculty to ensure that the College will offer the curriculum you need to meet your graduation requirements and educational goals.

There have been a lot of back-and-forth conversations about new students. Please know that transfer students and first years students WILL be admitted as soon as possible. We are working very hard with the University Board of Trustees to make this happen. There will be new-to-Antioch students in the Fall of 2008, and we’re depending on you to show them the Antioch way–negotiating classroom, community and co-op; teaching them about shared governance and community responsibility; and most importantly, what the heck each “Cil” is and what all the acronyms mean. (Cheat sheet, anyone?)

But right now, some of you are going home. Lots of you are off to visit family and friends, and no doubt Antioch will be at the tip of everyone’s tongue and the centerpiece of a lot of conversations. Feel free to pat yourselves on the back. Feel free to let family and friends know that, once again, Antioch has made history–and that you were a part of it. Rest up, and we’ll see you back on campus in a week or so, ready to tackle Antioch’s new beginning.

Thank you for everything, and have a fantastic and safe fall break.

Be ashamed to let it die!

–Nancy Crow, President, Antioch College Alumni Board

The Antioch College Alumni Board is calling for the retraction of the November 9th letter from Andrzej Bloch, Interim President of Antioch College, to the Antioch College faculty. This combative approach to academics is anathema to all of us; shared governance and faculty tenure were two main points of our Resolution of June 2007, and we continue to champion those ideals. A letter that hides behind financial exigency to declare that most of the faculty “won’t be rehired past June 2008” is in no way collaborative, accurate, respectful of tenure, nor in any way a part of the shared vision for Antioch College. [DOWNLOAD]

The misstatements and miscommunications have challenged our efforts for Antioch College. Part of our agreement in principle with the Board of Trustees was that the Alumni Board will be part of the College planning process going forward. This letter from the Interim President does not convey the spirit of our agreement, and indeed, was not shared with us ahead of time. We are calling on the University Trustees and administration to live up to the letter and spirit of our agreement.

Antioch College is a vibrant institution with a world-class faculty. The Alumni Board fully supports the gifted Antioch College faculty, and has nothing but admiration for the spirited and committed student body and the dedicated staff as well. Our plan going forward calls for recruiting transfer students now, and first-year students as soon as the Ohio Board of Regents extends the College’s authority to grant credits and degrees.

We are still ashamed to let it die!

–Nancy Crow, President, Antioch College Alumni Board

The following statement has the support of the majority of the Alumni Board:

Since there have been different interpretations of what the Alumni Board intended in approving the agreement with the University Board of Trustees on November 3, 2007, and since recent actions by administrators contradict both the spirit and specifics of our understanding of how that collaboration should proceed, we hereby clarify our understanding of the terms of the agreement. We do so by indicating specific initiatives that fulfill our understanding. These understandings will guide our contributions to keeping Antioch College moving forward in the direction we all desire.

1. Immediate retraction of Andrzej Bloch’s letter of November 9, 2007, to the faculty. On November 9 the faculty withdrew its lawsuit in an attempt to encourage a more collaborative process–a gesture that should be welcomed, not dismissed. We believe that faculty employment should be assumed to be continuing, not terminated, with the understanding that a genuinely collaborative process may indeed recognize that some faculty positions need to be eliminated and that such a process will benefit the Antioch community much more fully if faculty are encouraged to suggest means for making such adjustments.

2. Lift the suspension fully so that routine activities of Antioch College will truly continue. Since the capacity to recruit and admit students at all levels is essential for the survival of Antioch College we particularly call for immediate restoration of an orderly process for recruiting and admitting applicants to Antioch College. We affirm the position of the Alumni Board’s business plan that Antioch College can and should offer a solid curriculum consistent with its traditional educational approach which will require no less than the equivalent of 25 F. T. E. classroom faculty and a total of 32.5 F. T. E.(including co-op) faculty. Since a library is a crucial feature of a residential liberal arts college it must remain open.

3. Establishment as an urgent priority of an interim governing board for Antioch College with real powers (including power over hiring and firing staff, faculty, and participation in the search for a president, and establishment and recruitment of the College Board of Trustees, as well as approval of the curriculum).

4. Immediate collaboration with AdCil to identify and address any concerns from the Ohio Board of Regents and North Central Association that limit Antioch College’s capacity to admit students and grant them degrees.

5. Pursue the initiative of meaningful collaboration between administration and AdCil in developing curriculum and budget. We believe the initiative for developing a curriculum must begin with the faculty. As a starting place for such collaboration we recommend the College Academic Plan developed in collaboration between faculty and alums.*

*Full title: “College Academic Plan by David Thelen, Antioch Faculty,
and Joel Ellingwood, October 17, 2007,” circulated to the Alumni Board
by Catherine Jordan on October 19, 2007.