Tag: ACCC

ANTIOCH COLLEGE CONTINUATION CORPORATION

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Lyn Chamberlin

Yellow Springs, Ohio—May 9, 2008  —  The Antioch University Board of Trustees today rejected an offer by a group of major donors and educational leaders to contribute nearly $16 million to keep the doors of Antioch College open.

The Antioch College Continuation Corporation, which was formed by prominent alumni to save the 150-year-old campus, had offered the contributions in return for ten seats on the University board. The current trustees have collectively given less than $25,000 in the current fiscal year.

The ACCC has been engaged in talks with Antioch University over the past five months to reach an agreement over the fate of the college, which is scheduled to close on June 30. The offer by the group would have enabled the College to continue operating until the details of a separation from the University could be finalized.

“It almost defies belief that the trustees could reject this extraordinarily generous offer by a group of major donors,” said Eric Bates, co-chair of the ACCC. “We were not only prepared to make an immediate contribution of $9.5 million for Antioch College, we offered to make an additional contribution of $6 million for the direct benefit of the University’s five other campuses. This was a win-win opportunity for the entire University, and the trustees squandered it.”

In addition to its $6 million contribution to the University, the ACCC offered a host of guarantees to protect the other campuses. The key commitments of the proposal included:

* Ensuring that the eventual separation of Antioch College would be done in a manner that protects the University’s accreditation and    financial security;
* Ending the annual subsidies each campus currently pays to the College;
* Guaranteeing that funds from other campuses would not be used to offset any operating expense or deficits incurred by the College;
* Implementing an existing plan to create separate governing boards for each of the campuses;
* Creating a new board committee to directly address the needs of each campus;
* Initiating an ambitious fundraising campaign to raise an additional $100 million for the College and assist the other Antioch campuses in their fundraising efforts.

“We are deeply disappointed that the trustees did not take advantage of this historic opportunity,” said Lee Morgan, a director of the ACCC whose grandfather, Arthur Morgan, presided over Antioch’s acclaimed rebirth in the 1920s. “Under this agreement, the University would have gained a number of experienced trustees who bring tremendous resources – not just finances, but expertise and energy – on behalf of the entire University.”

To encourage the trustees to accept the ACCC’s offer, Morgan had volunteered to work half-time – for no charge – to raise money for the College beginning in June. In addition, Frances Degen Horowitz, co-chair of the ACCC and president emerita of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, had offered to volunteer full-time during the summer to serve as chief transition officer while the College got back on its feet.

“This is a sad day not only for Antioch, but for everyone who cares about progressive education in this country,” said Horowitz. “This was a remarkably generous and well-intentioned offer by an experienced and supportive group of alumni, seven of whom are former University trustees. Our proposal was not only a brilliant solution to save Antioch College – it would also have provided Antioch University with critical resources and expertise. We are all at a loss to understand why the University board rejected a plan that would have served both the College and the University so well.”

At one point toward the end of negotiations, the University suddenly offered to accept the ACCC’s earlier offer to pay $12.2 million to immediately separate the College from the University. “This was virtually the same plan the University had rejected only a month earlier, and almost identical to the offer they refused to even consider back in February,” Bates noted. “Now, all of their earlier objections had magically vanished. Out of the blue, they were prepared to accept all of our terms, without any of the conditions on securing payments or retaining ownership of WYSO that they had previously insisted were deal breakers. They were also willing to delegate full authority to a completely autonomous College board of trustees that would operate under the University’s accreditation – a position that they themselves had previously said flat-out was legally impossible when we first sat down with them back in November.”

Bates said the sudden reversal revealed that the University had not been negotiating in good faith. “It is telling that they offered to accept this plan only after it was clear to everyone that it was too late for such an arrangement to succeed,” he said. “And it would still have required us to negotiate the myriad details of final separation with no guarantee that we would reach an agreement.”

“It was truly shocking and sad to realize that our earlier offer, which could have saved the College months ago, was rejected because of the University lacked the leadership it needed to see it through this crisis,” said Horowitz, who has more than four decades of successful experience as an administrator in higher education. “Throughout months of negotiations, the leaders of the University and the Board to Trustees repeatedly stood in the way of opportunities that would have prevented the demise of the College while also safeguarding the fortunes of the rest of the University campuses.”

ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY
News Release
April 10, 2008
Upon receipt

Contacts: Lynda Sirk Director of Communication, Antioch University • 937-769-1222

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – Antioch University board Chair Art Zucker and Frances Degen Horowitz, co-chair of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation, announced today that the Trustees and the ACCC have agreed to meet in person. While details are being worked out, both Zucker and Horowitz stated that the meeting will occur as soon as possible. “We are pleased to have this opportunity to meet together,” Zucker and Horowitz said. “We look forward to a constructive discussion and appreciate everyone’s patience as we move forward.”

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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.