Good Faith Offers Would Have Permitted College to Continue
Yellow Springs, Ohio, March 28, 2008 – Antioch University has rejected a significant and viable offer by a group of major donors and educational leaders that would have enabled Antioch College to continue operating, the group announced today.
According to leaders of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (ACCC), negotiations to establish independence for the College broke off today after the University rejected the ACCC’s best and final offer. The University has announced plans to close the historic school in June, given its failure to boost enrollment and its inability to raise sufficient financial support from alumni disillusioned with the University’s mismanagement of the College.
“We are deeply disappointed that the University did not take this incredible opportunity to preserve Antioch College, which has long been one of the nation’s most unique and important institutions of higher education,” said Frances Degen Horowitz, co-chair of the ACCC and president emerita of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “Our offer would have enabled Antioch College to thrive and grow, while simultaneously infusing the rest of the University with millions of dollars in cash.”
The ACCC, which has been negotiating for nearly four months to acquire the College’s assets, offered to reimburse the University what it called a “very substantial consideration” to take charge of the campus by June 30. Working closely with alumni leaders, the group had already raised $18 million to operate the College in the short term, and was preparing to launch a major fundraising drive to secure a total of $100 million to reinvigorate the school. In addition, the group had consulted with some of the nation’s leading experts in turnaround management to prepare a detailed five-year plan to increase enrollment and staffing.
“This is a sad day not only for Antioch, but for all those who care about progressive education in this country,” said Eric Bates, co-chair of the ACCC, who participated in the negotiations. “Presented with an opportunity to both fulfill its fiduciary responsibility and preserve the College’s historic mission, Antioch University chose instead to pursue a path that raises serious questions about its educational values and financial competence.”
The ACCC also noted that Horowitz, who has more than 40 years of experience as a leader in higher education, was prepared to take up residence at the College and make herself available full-time, without compensation, to serve as Chief Transitional Officer during the summer while the group recruited and appointed an interim administration for the coming year.
During negotiations, the ACCC worked diligently to forge an agreement that would serve the best interests of both the College and the University. In an alternative plan presented to the University Board of Trustees, the ACCC offered to contribute $10 million directly to the University in return for ten seats on the nineteen-member University board.
“This arrangement would have eliminated the immediate need for a costly and complex transfer of the College’s assets,” Bates observed. “In addition to ensuring continuous and uninterrupted operation of the College, it would have created a truly philanthropic board for the University – one that would have immediately contributed significantly more than the current trustees have reportedly given this past year.”
The new trustees nominated by the ACCC, Bates added, would have represented the interests of the entire University. “Six of the nine directors of our group are former trustees of the University,” Bates noted. “We appreciate the unique contribution that all of the Antioch University campuses make to higher education and we understand their diverse needs. We know from first-hand experience what is needed to revive the College and realize the full potential of the University’s other campuses.”
The University never formally responded to the ACCC’s proposal to reform the board of trustees. Nevertheless, the group said, it remains hopeful that the trustees will take up the proposal and adopt it while there is still time.
“The University can still recover from its disastrous and misguided decision to close the College,” said Lee Morgan, a director of the ACCC, whose family has been actively involved with Antioch for nine decades. “By adding new leadership and major donors to its own board, it can repair the serious and lasting damage it has caused to its own reputation and restore the confidence and support of alumni that is essential to any effort to revitalize the College. We hope that the trustees will act quickly to take advantage of this simple and effective solution to the crisis facing the University, before it is too late.”
For additional information on the Antioch College Alumni Association and the Antioch College Continuation Corporation: antiochians.org.