Antioch College Closing?

Alumni leader urges unity

By Diane Chiddister

The Antioch College Alumni Board now controls the college’s development and alumni office. Because the finances of Antioch College and Antioch University are deeply intertwined, the institutions need to work together to help each other succeed, and that process has begun. And the alumni board is not daunted in its effort to keep the college open, regardless of the university’s recent ousting of Antioch College President Steve Lawry.

These were the main points conveyed last Thursday by Antioch College Alumni Board Treasurer Rick Daily, of Denver, to about 70 college faculty, staff, alums and villagers at a gathering at the Senior Center. Daily had met that morning with university officials to begin the process of sharing the financial information that the alumni board requested in order to create a business plan for a sustainable college.

That day, the university also gave control over the college’s alumni and development office to the alumni board, as the board had requested.

“The university has committed its resources to aid us in this action,” Daily said in his introduction. “We have the opportunity now to create a college that will be the best Antioch College it can be.”

And in a repeated refrain, Daily emphasized the interdependence of Antioch College and Antioch University. For instance, he said, there is a lack of clarity around how the college suspending operations might affect university bonds. In short, the university and the college, to succeed, both need to be financially viable, Daily said.

“We’re in the soup together,” he said.

Moving forward
Most importantly, Daily said, the alumni board plans to forge ahead with its plans to keep the college open, regardless of recent events which threatened to undermine the shaky alliance between the university, the alumni board, and other college -supporters.

In June, the Antioch University Board of Trustees unexpectedly voted to suspend the college’s operations for several years, with the intention of reopening in 2012, due to financial exigency. However, the alumni board vowed to keep the college open and make it independent of the university, and has since raised more than $8 million toward that goal. Last month the university trustees opened the door to that possibility after a special meeting in Cincinnati, during which many alums, faculty, staff, students and townspeople urged the trustees to support the alumni plan. Following the meeting, the trustees announced that they would give the alumni board until the trustees’ October meeting to produce a business plan and sufficient influx of cash for a sustainable college.

But the cooperative spirit between the college and university took a hit two weeks ago, when university leaders suddenly and unexpectedly ousted Antioch College President Steve Lawry, an action perceived by many as an attempt to undermine the alumni board’s efforts. While Lawry had in July announced his resignation Dec. 31, he was perceived as a strong leader and fundraiser in the effort to keep the college open and to make it independent of the university.

While many who attended Thursday’s meeting expressed heightened distrust for Antioch University leaders following recent events, Daily rallied college supporters to keep moving ahead.

“I don’t want us to distract ourselves from the prize” of keeping the college open, he said.

Risa Grimes, the college’s director of institutional advancement, seconded Daily’s focus on getting beyond distrust.

“If we’re going to go forward together, we need to be positive,” she said. “We need to rah rah for this college.”

In response to questions about last week’s dismissal of Lawry, Daily described the action as “an unfortunate judgement made under stress.” Adding to the distrust, on the same day the university locked the college alumni and development staff out of their office while changing locks, an event that Daily described as a “miracle of bad timing.”

The university leaders apologized to the alumni and development staff for the lock-out, Daily said, and no one lost their job.

Several who attended Thursday’s meeting expressed discomfort with the appointment of former college director of public relations Lynda Sirk as head of the alumni and development office, citing distrust and the perception of Sirk as an advocate for the university’s plan to close the college. Sirk was one third of the new leadership team appointed by the university to lead the college, along with Chief Operating Officer Andrzej Bloch and Dean of Students Milt Thompson.

But Grimes and not Sirk will lead the fund-raising effort, according to Daily, who said that Sirk’s role will be to facilitate administrative tasks in the office. Beyond that, he said, Sirk will serve as “the eyes and ears of the university” to keep university officials informed of alumni efforts.

“I welcome her,” he said, adding that Sirk’s presence in the development office underscores the interdependence of the college and the university, and the need for transparency between the two entities.

“We will tell the truth because that’s what we do,” he said.

$100 million sought
The fund-raising goal for keeping the college open is $100 million to be raised in a year, according to Grimes, who said the alumni board needs to raise as much as possible before the October trustee meeting.

“Our goal is to win the hearts and minds of the trustees in October,” Daily said.

Grimes has stated that the $100 million goal, while huge, is doable, based on development office information about Antioch College alumni. In an interview last week, she repeated that assertion.

The $100 million figure would take Antioch College out of its current crisis and give it stability, Grimes said. It is not yet clear, Daily said, exactly how much is needed for the college to get out of debt.

To help with fund-raising efforts, more staff will be hired in the development office, and those staff will be funded out of the almost $8 million that the alumni board has raised, Daily said.

“We’re going to spend the money we have in the bank to try to get where we’re going,” he said.

Asked how the village could support the efforts, Grimes said that most importantly, villagers could give money. Besides that, villagers could volunteer in the development office or offer frequent flier miles to offset the alumni board’s travel expenses. Villagers could also offer creative suggestions of ways the college and the village could work together, according to Daily.

“Look for opportunities for the college and the community to partner together,” he said. “Find opportunities for synergy.”

Overall, Grimes said, “Find ways to say, ‘we want the college.’ That’s how the townspeople can help us.”

Those who wish to donate may do so at the College Revival Fund at the US Bank in Yellow Springs. Revival fund donations and pledges will only go to the college and not the university, Daily said, and only if the college is structured with a board of trustees independent from the university with the power to make all operational decisions.

Distrust toward university
Several who attended Thursday’s meeting expressed anger at Antioch University for the recent university actions and for what they perceived as the university requiring the college to pay an excessive amount to get out of debt, although it is not clear exactly what that amount is.

Because he is bound by a confidentiality agreement, Daily stated he could not be specific about finances, but he urged college faculty members to find ways to talk with university leaders about the college’s debt. Currently, the university says it cannot discuss finances due to a lawsuit brought by the faculty against the university which seeks an injunction to keep the college from closing. As an attorney, Daily said he believes the university is receiving bad legal advice.

In an interview this week, Antioch University Chief Financial Officer Tom Faecke said that the college owes other university campuses about $2 million “to repay the campuses for resources the college used to cover deficits.” The college also has “obligations above $2 million” in repaying bonds, according to Faecke, who said that he is unaware of any other college debts.

The lack of trust between college faculty and university leaders, exacerbated by the dismissal of Lawry, is a major problem, according to Hassan Rahmanian, a faculty member, who stated his concern that the alumni board and university discussions are taking place without the input of Adcil, the college’s governance body. Last week, the Antioch College faculty passed a no-confidence vote for Antioch University Chancellor Toni Murdock, citing Murdock’s practice of making significant decisions about college administrative matters without Adcil input.

“We have been fighting to make Adcil viable and have been reduced to nothing,” he said.

Also at the meeting was alumni board member Ellen Borgersen, who was in Yellow Springs to set up an alumni office in town. The purpose of the office, which will be located in the college development office, is to support the college and the village in efforts to keep the college alive.

“We bring our vision for the future and our determination that the future will be bright,” she said.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com