Ring the bells -- survival.

by Sara,

I know it may take a little reading between the lines to understand this parsed news release, (which I copy) of Antioch College alumni having just succeed in buying back their college.   Quality versus whatever market forces, -- Horace Mann lives.  This release is for me a profound cry, and now more effort to make it what it needs to be. Getting this far required 18 million, but we need at least 100 million to make all right.   

Back in the mid 50's, Holiday Magazine did a big spread on Antioch and called it a "Quaker Workcamp in the Woods" -- and I loved that description, even though it was not exactly why I applied and became an Antiochian. But it is why I am An Antiochian.  In those days, we were in the top five colleges in the US in Science PHD's, and I think one of the last of us, till we can revive things, just got a Nobel.

The Steve Schwerner noted as part of the Antioch salvation clan -- Brother of Mickey Schwerner, of Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner, of Philadelphia Mississippi died and got buried in a burned out Ford and a earthen damn for the cause of race matters.  That was in part about Voter Rights, and I hope no one ever forgets Mickey and the others.  And beyond that why we want to save our unique and 155 year old college from Wal-mart-ification of Higher Education.  Oh yea, much more than one who died for Civil Rights -- the point is what kind of education moves folk to the crux of the cultural battles?  to participate and ultimately win victories?

The shame is that Progressive America should have to buy back its institutions from whoever acquired them, or put them into deep debt.  But the clock has been turned, and now is the time to celebrate but demand that change be real, yet never again should the real state of affairs be cloaked in whatever PR.

Newsnight tonight had a thing about the huge Harvard endowment. (Apparently larger than the budget of Belgium).   Yes nice, while Antioch hangs on by tooth and nail.  But the real issue is if Antioch can get tooth and nail together, can we compete with Harvard for the kind of students that should go to Antioch?  Different styles, can we accomodate all of them?  Stephen Gould and Coretta Scott King?  (and Sistersara?)   Please variations on the theme to the future. 

 

ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY

                                                        Immediate Release

                                                              December 11, 2007

YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO – The Antioch University Board of Trustees announced today that it has approved a resolution instructing Chancellor Toni Murdock to begin exploring the possibility of transferring the ownership of Antioch College to a separate, free-standing liberal arts institution with its own board of trustees.

Under the resolution, the Chancellor will immediately convene “a work group of administrators and others with the expertise and experience necessary to examine the feasibility of such a transfer of the College and to identify the major issues affecting the University's interest in such a transaction.” If feasible, it would be transferred to the Antioch College Continuation Corporation, an independent, Ohio non-profit corporation that has been formed by a group of College alumni, major donors, former trustees and emeritus faculty.

After exploring the feasibility of such a transfer and negotiating with authorized representatives of the new corporation, the Chancellorwill present a draft letter of intent laying out the proposed terms of any such transfer to the University trustees for consideration “as soon as possible but not later than its regularly scheduled meeting set for February 21-23, 2008.” If an agreement is reached that satisfies both parties, the transfer would take effect on July 1, 2008.

“This action taken by the University trustees replaces the Agreements in Principle recently negotiated with the Antioch College Alumni Board of Directors,” said Art Zucker, chair of the University Board of Trustees. “The goal, if feasible, is to reach an agreement that provides the College with a fully independent board exclusively devoted to continuing its financial stability, sustainability and academic excellence.”

Nancy Crow, who helped negotiate the earlier agreement with the trustees as president of the Antioch College Alumni Association, hailed the new development. “We are thrilled to be able to join forces with the leaders of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation,” Crow said. “Their efforts represent what the Alumni Association has been working so diligently to achieve over the past six months. We will coordinate our efforts under the guidance of the new corporation to build on our detailed plan for continuing and enhancing College operations.”

Both parties to the discussion acknowledged that there are a host of issues to be sorted out before any transfer can be considered or approved.  “But this is an exciting and potentially historic moment for the entire University.” said Frances Degen Horowitz, co-chair of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation and president emerita of the City University of New York Graduate Center, who graduated from Antioch College in 1954.  “Working closely with the entire Antioch College community, we are confident that we can raise the necessary resources to stabilize the College and secure its standing as one of the nation’s foremost liberal-arts institutions.”

Horowitz noted that directors of the new corporation have already pledged to contribute more than $7 million by the end of December, 2007, to be held in trust until a transfer is approved. “As we proceed with our negotiations,” she added, “we will need immediate and substantial financial support from alumni and all friends of Antioch College. Working together, we have an unprecedented opportunity to restore the College to its roots and establish a substantial endowment for the College to ensure its long-term sustainability.”

In addition to Horowitz, the Antioch College Continuation Corporation is co-chaired by Eric Bates, deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone magazine, who graduated from Antioch College in 1983. Both Bates and Horowitz are former presidents of the Antioch College Alumni Association and former members of the Antioch University Board of Trustees.

Joining them as directors of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation are seven other graduates of Antioch College:

• Laura Markham (secretary), PhD, clinical psychologist and editor of Your Parenting Solutions; former member of the University Board of Trustees; Antioch ’80    
• David Goodman (treasurer), businessman and principal of North Arrows LLC and e-Solar  Properties LLC; Antioch ’69, Stanford MBA, ‘71
• Catherine Jordan,  president of Achieve Minneapolis and chair of the accreditation task force of the Antioch College Alumni Board of Directors; Antioch ’72
• Steve Schwerner, emeritus Antioch College professor and former Dean of Students; current member of the Antioch College Alumni Board of Directors, Antioch ’60
• Lee Morgan, president of The Antioch Company, Antioch ’66
• Barbara Winslow, associate professor of adolescence social studies and women’s studies at Brooklyn College; former member of the Antioch University Board of Trustees; current member of the Antioch College Alumni Board of Directors; Antioch ’68
• Terry O. Herndon, entrepreneur and businessman; Antioch ’57

The prior Agreements in Principle reached with the Alumni Association in November called for the lifting of the suspension of operations of the College provided that certain financial benchmarks were met. Under the new approach, however, the University will no longer operate the College beyond June 30, 2008.  Any College operations beyond that date would be the sole responsibility of the new corporation. In the event that an agreement is not reached between the parties, the Board has further directed the Chancellor to study and report back to the Board on the feasibility of the University’s own plans to reopen the College after the June 30 suspension of operations.

“The Chancellor is currently studying whether a transfer of operations can be accomplished in a way that protects the interests of the University while also ensuring the viability of the College,” said Zucker. “No final decision has been made by the Board, but we are taking a serious look at the issue and are working closely with directors of the new corporation to afford this endeavor every chance of success.”

Directors of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation expressed enthusiasm for the current state of negotiations. “I joined this endeavor because I believe it represents a significant step forward for Antioch College,” said Steve Schwerner, who worked at Antioch from 1976 to 2003. “If we can reach agreement on a transfer, the College will finally have the autonomy and resources it needs to be able to move forward.”

Comments

[bmaz]

Congratulations Sara. So far, so good... I have asked my betters (I am effectively a computer dunce; know a little about Macs) about your issues in dealing with FDL/Emptywheel. Not enough info for anybody to help. If you will leave me your computer specifics, i.e. platform, browser, internet connection type, etc. and a complete description of your problems, I will make another run at it. Also, Mad Dogs is very good at this and I think would be glad to help.

[Sara]

Bmaz, I run XP on AOL with resident Explorer. Nothing special. Not into techie stuff, and not into fashions.

My post is really about the joy of finding a very potential Progressive victory. Well maybe. Why should we have to buy back our college which is what this really amounts to? Does being founded in the 1850's count? Now we have to build it back to old quality. A college is really Faculty -- hard to restore in multi-generational mode...which is now required. Harvard ought to offer a Marshall plan to Antioch. (we made more Ph'Ds per BA/BS actually per student). But that is not how things should be measured. Does not figure the artists or the film makers or playwrights and all the painters and those who wrote, or will write the novels and all the rest. But why should the Harvard Board of Governors', (which is about what the Antioch University Board of Trustees considers itself,) Have all the marbles?

Antioch had an endowment (maybe 4 million) that it put at risk in the late 60's, early 70's, against a promise that students, ultimately defunded as a result of Great Society program changes, would not be left to flounder. Antioch graduated most of these students, but someone ought to count the cost against the foundation and Government support that was promised and anticipated, but did not arrive. Likewise, research ought to look at the the economic history of those who were assisted.

[freepatriot]

so will there be some sort of donation drive here ???

get a snail mail address, and we can get your fundraising started

you were planning on letting us help a little, ain't ya ???

[Ken Muldrew]

"A college is really Faculty"

You dream big, Sara (thank goodness some people still do!).

[chun yang]

I lived in Yellow Springs in the 70s and have a great love for the spirit of Antioch. I have followed this news and am so glad to hear how the alums saved the college.

[Charlie '77]

Sara, what's your year?

[Knut Wicksell]

I was always going to go back there and teach for room and board when I retired (which is coming up). So glad the campus is back on track. I have other friends in the business who are ready to do the same. It would be an immediate world-class faculty.

[jdm]

Great article Sara... thanks for taking time to put it up.

My post is really about the joy of finding a very potential Progressive victory.

Yes. I love & am inspired by this kind of thing... it really makes a difference AFAIC.

[Jodi]

Sara,

I'm so happy for you and your friends.

: )

[Sara]

Charlie 77 -- I am class of 1962. Entered the week of Central Hi in Little Rock, and Sputnik. It dates me.

Freepatriot, no, I am not precisely contemplating fundraising, though if it is to survive, the deep pockets alumni who have moved it thus far, have to have mucho support. No -- I am more interested in documenting for a larger audience a Progressive Institution that is in real deep trouble, but is making an effort to survive against huge odds.

What troubled Antioch is at least thirty five years in the making -- each year down down down just a little bit, till it crashed last June with the announcement of essential bankruptcy, and intent to close June of 2008. Along with that came word that they wanted to turn our 1853 Campus into a fancy retirement community, and hire a developer -- perhaps someone associated with Disney to make the max out of it. Alas, some folk finally said, Hell No.

There have been two agreements in recent months -- the first promised some sort of semi-independence, but with some of the same folk in control, but the donors balked without a totally independent board, and now we have a better agreement, one that is about a college with a board of trustees, that will be independent. No more talk about converting the campus into a retirement community through a developer -- much to still be negotiated, but apparently the college will apparently get its own endowment, it's campus, the right to hire it's own President, and build the place back to its former glory.

Progressives need to understand what happened in this instance. Just as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson need their Liberty and Regents Universities, well we need this little powerhouse college that dates back to when the New England Trancendentalists (Emerson, Thoreau, and the Brook Farm types, including Lousia May Alcott's Father) decided that they needed a beach-head on the then Frontier (SW Ohio), and hired Horace Mann, Father of Public Education in the US, To create a college that would not discriminate by race or gender. Of course it changed over the years -- and it will change in the future -- (The Frontier moves after all). (Remember the founding was pre-Civil War.)

So my concern is about Progressive institutions with deep American Roots, and the need for Progressive's generation by generation to tend to the places that educate our core workers and leaders...our youth and heirs. We have been profoundly deliquent here.

I served for six years on the Alumni Board between 1988 and 1994, driving down from Mpls to Yellow Springs three times a year. Each time I would anticipate something from a meeting, and each time I would leave with tears, because I understood that the institution was dying, while sorta trying to pretend it was still alive. At the end, I said I would never return -- never care again, but of course I care -- profoundly.

Knut is Another Antiochian who posts here -- there are others too -- who want to contribute to the survival of this very special place. Yes a whole lot of money and effort is going to be necessary -- but finally big decisions have been made that point toward no more con-games, and movement toward the objective. It will be a rocky road -- and that too needs documenting. (According to the College Paper, The Record, the Alumni Board and the Deep Pocket donors finally out lawyered the U Board of Trustees which held the college in Thral -- but I still have to research something about the law firms which were teeing off.) Someone should make a movie about all this. But of course it should never have happened.

But why it happened is important to me. I have been demanding a couple of things from the beginning of this controversy -- a forensic audit, and a comprehensive history of the past 40 years or so -- I have suggested our Alumni, Peter Irons, (U of Cal at San Diego), as the leader of the History team. I think we need to know what went wrong. I think it needs clear documentation and analysis.

[bmaz]

Sara - Thanks for leaving your computer info above. Would you also leave your type of internet provider, i.e. cable, DSS or dial up; as well as a complete description of your exact problems and symptoms? Mad Dogs has graciously agreed to assist and will need that information. He will check in here tomorrow. Thanks, and we will get you hooked up.

[bmaz]

And by the way, my thoughts and hopes are with you on the worthy restoration project. It is worth the fight; that is all that matters.

[inkadu]

Gee, maybe people who care about social causes don't see why they should spend $100 grand to get an education about how important it is to care about social causes, especially when $100 grand is more money than most socially-conscious people are are likely to donate over their entire life times.

I knew many Antioch students. Some really did live out the mission -- working with Zaptistas, for instance -- and volunteering with immigrants in immigrant communities. Others got over their attack of good will and just went into business. Either way, their education seemed like a waste of money.

I love the idea of Antioch. The ugly financial reality of running a modern college, however, is grossly incompatible with it.

And I'm not really high on college at any rate, so don't be unduly offended.

[Sara]

Inkadu -- the place is and never was just about social action missions. Just this week Mario Capecci, class of 61, was awarded a Nobel for his work in Genetic Research.

Yes, Higher Education is far too expensive, no question about it. Today all too many leave college with huge loans that really prohibit many from selecting less well paid professions, such as Public School Teacher or work in the Public Mental Health fields, and other common good work that requires quality education. It is a huge issue, one ripe for advocacy once we have a Congress that could pass proper legislation.

In the meantime, Pat Robertson has his Regents U, and Falwell had his Liberty University -- so why should not Progressives have and properly support their institutions?

[bmaz]

Sara - I was going to advise you of this article as a sad comment on what I see as an inevitable, but regrettable, trend in corporate vis a vis university research. Then, as I was typing, I thought that if you can't fight the trend, join it. With your past accomplishments at Antioch, and the good people left there and that you might be able to recruit, one of these funding deals could take you a lot of the way towards stability.