Antioch College Closing?

Antioch alums step up efforts

By Diane Chiddister

In the two months since Antioch College alumni vowed to save their college, their goals have not changed and their passion has not dimmed, according to several alumni in recent interviews.

“I am extraordinarily proud to be an Antiochian, to be surrounded by these people,” said Alumni Board Executive Committee member Catherine Jordan of Minneapolis. “We have done extraordinary work, working around the clock. We care deeply. We will not be stopped.”

Alumni efforts around the country are now focused on the upcoming emergency meeting of the Antioch University Board of Trustees, to take place Aug. 25–26 in Cincinnati. The meeting consists of a morning event open to all interested persons and a four-hour afternoon closed session with the board and about 25 invited “stakeholders.” The alumni group, which will be represented by 10 stakeholders, will make a presentation to the trustees, according to Jordan.

While university officials have stated that keeping the college open will not be on the emergency meeting agenda, the alums have declared that they have their own agenda, and keeping the college open is their top priority.

In a “proposal for governance and fundraising” to the trustees made public on Aug. 8, the alumni association describes its mission as “to rebuild Antioch College as a financially stable and vibrant liberal arts college providing a model education based on its traditional values of academic rigor, celebration of diversity, community governance, cooperative education, free and open inquiry, intellectual freedom and mutual respect.”

The proposal defines two priority goals; first, to “re-establish Antioch College as the autonomous institution it was for more than 130 years,” and second, to continue current fundraising efforts “while planning for the launch of a comprehensive and sophisticated five-year fundraising program emphasizing capital, annual and planned giving.”

Steps toward those goals include transferring governance of the college from the board of trustees to the alumni association board on July 1, 2008; securing college assets and separating them from those of the university; and establishing a temporary governance and administrative transfer council to negotiate the process with the university trustees over the next 10 months.

The objectives toward the fundraising goal include securing an endowment of $100 million by 2013 for the college.

The Antioch alumni mobilized during their Yellow Springs alumni reunion in June, several weeks after Antioch University Board of Trustees announced that the college, due to a situation of financial exigency, will shut down in June 2008 with the intention of reopening four years later.

But the alumni would have none of that plan. Instead, they vowed to raise enough money to keep the college open and raised about $420,000 in pledges that weekend to do so. So far, the total amount raised is $625,000, according to alumni board treasurer Rick Daily recently, although the alums have also secured a far larger amount from donors in intentions of interest — about $2 million — to support Antioch if it is separated from the university.

Alumni are also gearing up across the country this weekend with “National Support Antioch College” events to draw attention to the college and alumni efforts to save it. Events include a community meeting in Los Angeles, an “Afternoon of Antioch” in Chicago, a potluck in Portland, a house party in Austin, two outdoor events in San Francisco, a fundraiser in Boulder, Colo., and a meeting in Charlottesville, Va. For more information, log on to www.antiochians.org.

In Yellow Springs, alumni are not hosting an event, as organizers are working to prepare for the upcoming Cincinnati board meeting, according to local alumnus Judith Wolert Maldonado.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com