Tag: Alumni_Board

Saturday, July 14

To the Editor of THE EAGLE:

As an Antioch College alumni (1968), an Antioch University Trustee
(1995-2007), and now a member of the Antioch College Alumni Board, I would
like to make a few comments about Meghan Daum’s op-ed essay of July 8.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the decline of Antioch College,
but don’t point the finger at “insufficient alumni support,” and the “Womyn
of Antioch.” Since the board announced the 2008 closure, thousands of alumni
have come forward to organize chapters, raise money (more than half a
million was raised in two weeks) in the hopes of convincing the University
Board that it made the wrong decision, with wrong and incomplete information
and through a process that was (as we would call it) un-Antiochian.

The alumni of the college are passionate about their alma mater. They were,
however, suspicious of the university and concerned that the university was
not committed to the college. As we all now know, those suspicions proved
correct. It is also wrong to claim that the Sexual Offense Prevention Policy
(SOPP) “did the college in.” Sexual codes of conduct always existed at our
college, as well as every other college or university.

It was an unwritten code, and it existed largely for the benefit of the male
students. Since the SOPP was instituted, the college has one of the lowest
rape statistics of any equivalent institution. I have two daughters who did
not go to Antioch and the stories they told me about drunken sexual violence
and sexual assaults against women at their colleges were horrifying.

Far from being a national “laughing stock,” many colleges quietly adopted
Antioch’s innovative policies regarding sexual conduct. Why? Because these
policies had a beneficial effect. There were so many problems facing our
college, the historic small endowment, demographic as well as political and
social changes, the legacy of the 1973 strike. But the ultimate cause of the
college’s closure rests with 30 years of poor stewardship and governance —
and that lies with the university Board of Trustees and the university
leadership.

BARBARA WINSLOW

Williamstown July 8, 2007

Taos Pueblo Poem 

to the community in honor of the Antioch Northern New Mexico Co-op Learning Community and read by Nancy Crow to the community:

Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe in, even if it is a tree, which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.
Hold On!!!

Antioch College Revival Resolution
June 24, 2007

Whereas, Over 500 Antioch College Alumni attended the 2007 Antioch College Reunion representing the classes of 1938 through 2007, and

Whereas, the Antioch College Alumni met in community sessions with College faculty, staff, current students, administrators, McGregor students, members of the Board of Trustees and representatives of Yellow Springs to discuss alternatives to the closing of Antioch College in June 2008, and

Whereas, the Antioch College Alumni organized working groups to monitor and manage communications with the full Alumni and external stakeholders, fund raising, governance and negotiations with the Board of Trustees, and

Whereas, The Antioch College Alumni Association has established an independent College Revival Fund and we, the Antioch College Alumni, donated over $400,000 in less than 12 hours and raised over $15,000 from a live and silent auction as a signal of our commitment and resolve to keep Antioch College open, and

Whereas, the Antioch College Alumni call upon the legacy of Horace Mann, Arthur Morgan and the thousands of Antiochians who have passed through this institution of higher education, known today as one of the colleges that produces leaders and innovators who change the world, and

Whereas, the Antioch College Alumni believe that Antioch College is worth fighting for and deserves every effort of its alumni and friends to rebuild the institution, making it whole and vibrant and able to provide a liberal arts education based in the values of community governance, cooperative education, challenging academic course work, mutual respect, intellectual freedom, free and open inquiry and celebration of diversity, and

Whereas, the Antioch College Alumni will be ashamed to let Antioch College die;

Therefore, be it Resolved that:

1.    The Antioch College Alumni are committed to the uninterrupted continuation of Antioch College as an institution of higher education with a tenured faculty.
2.    The Antioch College Alumni instructs our elected Antioch College Alumni Association Board of Directors to negotiate with the Antioch University Board of Trustees and the President of Antioch College the following:

a.    The establishment of an autonomous Board of Trustees for Antioch College.
b.    The protection of the assets of Antioch College for use by Antioch College including its faculty, staff, Glen Helen, endowment, Antioch Education Abroad Program, Library and its holdings, physical plant and land.
c.    The exploration of a merger of Antioch College and Antioch University McGregor into one entity to provide a stream of earned revenue to support an undergraduate program.

3.    The Antioch College Alumni in attendance call upon all Antioch College alumni, faculty, staff, students, parents, members of the Yellow Springs Community, colleagues in higher education including members of the faculty and student bodies of McGregor School and other units of Antioch University and other interested parties to stand with us to raise the necessary funds and call to action all necessary support to continue the full operations of Antioch College.

Approved by a majority vote of the Antioch College Alumni at the Reunion Brunch on June 24, 2007

Approved by a unanimous vote of the Antioch College Alumni Association Board of Directors at its special meeting at noon on June 24, 2007

Respectfully submitted by:
Catherine Jordan, ’72
Member
Antioch College Alumni Association Board of Directors