Tag: CRF

Community Meeting 8/8/08 at 5:00 PM

UPDATE: Live streaming is a go! This meeting can be heard here live. Please note that the connection over which this meeting will be broadcast cannot be fully guaranteed but staff on the ground are doing their best to provide this service to the Community. A recording of this event will also be available immediately following the meeting at listen.antiochians.org

Community Meeting! This Friday, August 8, at 5 p.m., there will be a Community Meeting at the new Nonstop Institute house, 113 N. Davis St. Lee Morgan and Matthew Derr, the Antioch alumni representatives on the Task Force, will be there. Agenda items include:

  • updates on the Task Force
  • Nonstop/CRF structure and trusteeship
  • the transition from Nonstop to the revived Antioch College.

Refreshments will be served. We will attempt to stream this meeting live; please check antiochians.org for more information as it becomes available. If we are unable, due to technical issues, to stream this meeting as it happens, we will record it and podcast it as soon as possible.


NONSTOP ANTIOCH MOVING FORWARD IN THE WAKE OF FAILED NEGOTIATIONS TO SAVE ANTIOCH COLLEGE

**Faculty and College Revival Fund Taking Immediate Steps to Keep the Spirit of Antioch College Alive and Fight Runaway University Board of Trustees**

Yellow Springs, Ohio, May 9, 2008 –Alumni,faculty and staff renewed their commitment to fight to save Antioch College, the 154 year old liberal arts institution known for its groundbreaking educational innovations, in the wake of the announcement today that final talks between the Antioch University Board of Trustees and the Antioch College Continuation Corporation had failed. “We are outraged at the Board’s decision to suspend College operations rather than accept an extremely generous offer that would have kept the College open and put the entire University on a sound financial footing,” said Ellen Borgersen, Acting President of the College Revival Fund, Inc. “Nonstop Antioch will keep up the fight by supporting the dedicated faculty and staff who have committed to keeping the spirit of Antioch College alive here in Yellow Springs, and pursuing legal action against a runaway Board of Trustees that has abandoned its institutional mission and breached its fiduciary duties in many ways.”

Nonstop Antioch is supported by the Antioch College Alumni Association and the College Revival Fund (CRF), a 501(c)(3) established in 2007 that has raised over $19 million in cash and pledges to save the College. The CRF has committed $1 million of its current cash holdings to Nonstop Antioch, and resolved to raise the additional funding necessary to keep it going through the 2008-09 academic year and beyond.

A number of Antioch College faculty and staff, whose contracts with Antioch University end on June 30, have been hard at work planning curriculum, preparing a budget, and establishing governance structures based upon Antioch’s core values of shared governance, community activism, and experiential learning. They have named an Executive Collective – Susan Eklund-Leen (administrative coordinator), Hassan Rahmanian (educational offerings coordinator), and Chris Hill (external relations coordinator).

In addition, the CRF is pursuing legal efforts to keep Antioch College open and to prevent the University Trustees from doing further damage to the historic institution. These efforts include supporting the pending lawsuit brought by members of the tenured faculty, which seeks to enforce their contractual right to require the University to consider less drastic alternatives than closing the College, and to enjoin the University from liquidating or misappropriating any College assets; potential claims by students, donors and other stakeholders; and a variety of claims based on the Trustees’ breaches of their fiduciary duties of care, proper accounting, and loyalty.

“This Board must be held accountable for its actions,” Borgersen said. “They cannot be permitted to walk away from the catastrophe they created without a public accounting. We have every confidence that the courts will provide a remedy for the Board of Trustees’ egregious misconduct.”

Since the Board of Trustees announced the suspension of Antioch College operations in June of 2007, alumni across the country have rallied to their alma mater’s defense. Alumni chapters have grown worldwide.

The Alumni Board and College Revival Fund are continuing with their fundraising and planning efforts. For additional information, visit antiochians.org.

NonStop Antioch has New Home and Staff

 

COLLEGE REVIVAL FUND, INC.

NONSTOP ANTIOCH HAS NEW HOME AND STAFF

CRF Opens New Offices Across from Antioch College Campus

and Announces Plans for Fund-Raising

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: 443-864-0514 • press

April 10, 2008– Antioch alumni working through the College Revival Fund, Inc. (CRF) announced today that they have opened new offices in Yellow Springs, Ohio for “Nonstop Antioch.” These offices are at 716 Xenia Avenue, right across the street from the Antioch College campus. The CRF is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt non-profit corporation founded by members of the Antioch College Alumni Association. Since last June, the CRF has raised over $19.5 million dollars for a continuing, independent Antioch College.

CRF Acting President Ellen Borgersen said today in a statement, “The Antioch University Board of Trustees has shown that they are unworthy to and unwilling to carry on the Antioch College educational mission. The attack on Antioch College is an attack on experiential liberal arts education, shared governance, tenured faculty, and unionized staff. It is up to the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and townspeople of Yellow Springs to carry on the historic mission of Antioch College, and Nonstop Antioch is the vehicle that will organize alumni support for that effort.”

Nonstop Antioch is a movement to organize alumni, students, staff and faculty to keep the spirit of Antioch College alive and operating in Yellow Springs, no matter how long the negotiations between the University Trustees and the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (ACCC) drag on, or how they turn out. In late February, the CRF committed at least $1 million to support this movement and assure faculty that they would be financially supported if they committed to stay in Yellow Springs for the 2008-2009 academic year to teach and plan for an independent Antioch College. The faculty who have made this commitment are excited at the opportunity to reclaim the Antioch mission for themselves, after years of mismanagement and abuse at the hands of a hostile Chancellor and a distant, disinterested Board of Trustees.

The CRF has hired Risa Grimes, former Director of Institutional Advancement at Antioch College, as its Executive Director. Ms. Grimes’ first order of business is hiring the entire College Institutional Advancement staff, all of whom were laid off on April 2. Joining Risa Grimes are Aimee Maruyama, Director of Development and Alumni Relations; Fred Kraus, Director of Research; Cheri Robbins, Database Manager; and Wendy Ernst, Major Gifts Officer.

“These amazingly capable people have become a powerful fundraising machine under Risa Grimes’s superb leadership,” Borgersen said. “Their phones have been ringing off the hook. Everyone in higher education fundraising is talking about the people who raised over $18 million for an independent Antioch College in less than six weeks, even though it was scheduled to close.”

Borgersen continued, “We are very glad that the University laid them off, which allowed us to hire them, liberate them, and set them loose on fundraising for Nonstop Antioch. Just watch what they can do, now that the University administration is out of their way.”

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

-###-

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.

ANTIOCH COLLEGE ALUMNI OUTRAGED AT UNIVERSITY’S REJECTION OF BID; Vow to Continue to Fight and to Support “NonStop Antioch”

 

COLLEGE REVIVAL FUND, INC.

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: press

March 28, 2008– Antioch College alumni working through the College Revival Fund, Inc. (CRF), restated their unwavering support for Nonstop Antioch today, in response to news that the University Board of Trustees had rejected a significant and viable offer by a group of major donors and educational leaders that would have enabled Antioch College to continue operating past the University’s June 30, 2008 date of closure.

Ellen Borgersen, Acting President of the CRF, said today in a statement: “The suspicion that the University Board of Trustees was negotiating in bad faith and not interested in saving the College has, unfortunately, been confirmed. Over the past four months, the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (AC3) labored mightily to put together an offer that would be a win-win solution for the University and the College, as well as for the community and for everyone who believes in what Antioch stands for.”

She continued, “We thank the AC3 for their tremendous efforts on the College’s behalf. However, in the wake of the University’s rejection of their offer, Antioch alumni, students, faculty and staff are prepared to go forward with our plans for Nonstop Antioch.” In late February, the CRF committed at least $1 million unconditionally to support this movement.

Nonstop Antioch is what alumni, students, staff and faculty dubbed the movement to keep Antioch College alive and operating in Yellow Springs in the event the AC3’s efforts were unsuccessful. It includes support for students, faculty and staff who have committed to staying in Yellow Springs to teach, learn, and keep the Antioch spirit alive. Nonstop Antioch also includes plans for fundraising, direct action, and litigation.

At its last meeting in late February, the Antioch College Alumni Board directed its Legal Committee to “explore all legal avenues to protect the name, assets and reputation of Antioch College.” In direct response to the AC3’s announcement today, an anonymous donor gave $10,000 to the CRF for legal expenses, and pledged more to come. The CRF is supporting litigation on behalf of students and donors, as well as the faculty’s lawsuit to enjoin the University and the Board of Trustees from closing the College or misappropriating its assets. That case is on a fast track, with depositions underway and a hearing on a motion for preliminary injunction set for April 1.

“The University and its Board of Trustees should be ashamed at what they have done to Antioch College,” said Borgersen, “but we will not let it die. The community, while saddened, is undaunted, committed, and most of all, passionate about Antioch and its future. Nonstop Antioch is just that—Antioch College for our time, and Antioch College for all time.”

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