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
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