May 8, 2008

Editorial

Legal threat is way out of line

Antioch University’s recent legal threat to the Village of Yellow Springs is deeply disturbing and, on many levels, flat-out wrong.

The threat came in response to the Village’s request that the university dismantle an air conditioning unit that was recently discovered to have been installed several years ago without the required permits. The university has been a poor neighbor to villagers who live nearby, who have complained repeatedly about the unit’s excessive noise. The Village solicitor, in response to the neighbors’ continuing pleas for help, recently found that the necessary permits had not been obtained, and Council took action.

In response, the university brought out its big guns. Its attorney claimed that Council is using the noise issue as a way to influence university trustees to keep the college open. (Never mind that shutting down the air conditioning would seem to have the opposite effect.) The attorney implied that attempts by Council to put pressure on the trustees regarding the college’s future are inappropriate and possibly subject to legal actions.

This view is simply wrong. First off, those who follow Village business know that Council, in making the request to dismantle the unit, had no other agenda than to bring relief to villagers whose quality of life suffered from excessive noise. In other words, Council was doing its job.

Frankly, Village Council has been cautious in response to the college’s impending closure. Only in recent months, with two newly elected members and a new president, has Council begun finding its voice on this critical issue. This week Council passed a resolution urging the trustees to keep the college open and in doing so it followed a proud tradition of federal, state and local governments that take creative, activist steps to protect the economic health of their constituencies. The university’s legal threat seems a thinly-disguised attempt to silence a Village Council that is newly vocal in seeking the continuation of the college.

The university’s action is especially disturbing because the Village has been not only a good neighbor to Antioch University, but also a generous supporter. The land beneath the new Antioch McGregor building was purchased by Community Resources with a no-interest loan of $300,000 from the Village’s revolving economic development fund, provided by a previous Council. That loan has not been repaid, and the revolving fund, which seeks to help start-up businesses, remains almost depleted. You could say that the Village’s generous support of Antioch University has, in fact, impeded its ability to help other local businesses.

Unfortunately, the threat against the Village of Yellow Springs is only the latest in a series of bullying maneuvers the university has visited against those it perceives as threatening. Perhaps these intimidating actions play well in the corporate world. But in a town that treasures the legacy of Horace Mann and his call for victories for humanity, they seem simply shameful.

—Diane Chiddister