Antioch College Community
Steven Lawry,
President
June 12, 2007
It is my sad duty to inform you that the Antioch University Board of Trustees decided on June 9th, 2007, that Antioch College would be closed from July 1st, 2008. The decision was taken in light of the College’s very fragile financial circumstances, resulting from low enrollments and insufficient funding from other sources, including endowment income and gifts. In making this decision, the Board declared the College to be in a state of financial exigency, which enables the administration to bring the operations of the College to an orderly conclusion by July 1st next year.
The University will begin to plan for the eventual possible reopening of the College by 2012. The new Antioch College would, if sufficient financial support is secured, have up-to-date facilities and a curriculum strongly attractive to larger number of students and based on Antioch’s traditional educational values.
The College will operate normally over the course of the coming academic year, with a view to graduating as many members of the fourth-year class as possible, and to ensuring the academic progress of first, second and third year students. Arrangements will be made to help qualified students complete their degrees at McGregor or at other campuses in the Antioch University system. We will do all that we can to help students transfer to other schools that they might wish to attend.
Faculty contracts will end from July 1st, 2008. The College will be retaining over the course of the coming year staff members necessary to ensure the College’s effective operations, being mindful that as programs and operations wind down over the coming months, appropriate staff reductions will be made.
The Dean of Faculty will be convening urgent meetings of the Curriculum Committee to plan academic support for students in the coming year. I have already met with our Community Managers and they will have key leadership roles to play in helping sustain a rich and rewarding campus life over the coming year.
Our staff in Human Resources will be distributing information on personal counseling resources available through the College’s Employee Assistance Program. Other forms of assistance to help faculty and staff manage their professional transitions are being looked into, and I hope to report back to you very soon.
I appreciate your hard work and commitment to Antioch College over the years. This is a vitally important institution. I am deeply distressed to have to share this news with you.
Sad day for all Antioch Alumni, Staff, Faculty, and Students
After talking to a friend about the closing of the college he thought it would allow the college to get rid of its ten-year'ed professors. The college could hire new professors then. Not sure if that the real goal for closing in 2008 and then hopefully reopening in 2012.
Lawry and the law
Yup. In less than two years, three major firings, a handful of shady expulsions and a decision to consolidate power within the existing structures steve has made antioch stronger. with his 5 year deal he should pat himself on the back. he will be paid while those folks who paid his salary will be forced to go to antioch mcgregor or 'dropout'.
With the consolidation, do those students who chose NOT to attend become then liable for leaving the school? And so, while you choose not to attend the college you were accepted to, you still have to pay? How does this work?
As for steve's fascism. He has done more to divide a community, consolidate power, chose to have two choices for people (think with us or against us) than any other person I know. Except maybe the white ceo turned president. So, to that, fuck you asshole.
johnsmithpbk@yahoo.com
Don't let the University Kill the College
Hey, Alumni!
We'll ask the questions...who will answer?
I registered for next week's reunion months ago. I timed my arrival to be Wednesday, which is twenty years to the date of my commencement.
There are so many questions that need to be asked; here are mine to which I want answers:
1. Where are the minutes of this Trustees meeting where Antioch College was apparently chloroformed while it slept? Was the vote to close unanimous? Were there dissenters?
2. What did Lawry know, and when did he know it? It has been written elsewhere that he was holding out at the meeting with a proposal to keep the college going by merging it with McGregor, arguing that this was supposedly the only way of staving off closure? Even assuming all this to be true, why on earth did he go into Dodge without backup, in the form of support from alumni, faculty, and the small number of students who were even in Yellow Springs at the time?
3. What about this "new" Antioch College that is supposedly sought to be reopened in 2012 is going to be different from the rest of the University, other than being presumably residential? All of the faculty are being fired now; are the "new" faculty going to be anybody other than adjuncts? There was supposedly no money to save the college while it was at least taking in (dwindling) tuition dollars; how is it going to be saved with nothing coming in? Why should we expect that there will be a "state of the art" campus in 2012 when there's no accounting for maintaining the already-deteriorating physical plant while the campus is deserted for four years and vulnerable to vandalism?
4. Why, oh why, should the "trustees" earn the "trust" of alumni who they claim in their terse press statements of last week are needed to bring Antioch back when they went out of the way to do this while students were away, faculty were here and there, after new applicants were admitted and in the process of enrolling and two weeks before the Reunion?
The reunion website (which alluded to the "sad news of yesterday", which is how I learned of the closure) ominously posits that events at the reunion will be "adjusted as is appropriate." In other words, are Lawry's "State of the College" address and remarks from Chancellor Murdock now shelved in exchange for three more hours of folk dancing???
I don't know what else to propose going forward but I will say that any trustee who saw fit to sneak into town on June 9th but won't be there on June 20-24 to answer these and other questions ought to resign immediately.
Strategy going forward
I can't stop thinking about all this and also recognize that we have to balance the criticisms of what went wrong with decisive action going forward. As a lawyer, one idea comes to mind: Where can we find the bylaws for the Board of Trustees? Can the Board's unilateral and unannounced action be picked apart for even the slightest technical violation? Do the bylaws permit, for instance, the termination of faculty contracts without cause (i.e., not for poor performance of the faculty member)? This would give a faculty member standing to be a plaintiff in a suit for an injunction against closing the school on 7/1/08, which would at least buy us some time to figure out all the other things that have to be done.
Just one idea - I'm sure there are better ones and would love to hear them.
Shad '87
Reunion and going forward
Shad, given your posts here, I feel I can count on you to be asking the tough questions of any Trustees or Presidents or Chancellors courageous enough to show their faces at the Reunion. Thanks for doing that for those of us unable to attend.
The concept of an injunction to buy a little time to coordinate sounds fruitful. It would seem that an institution such as Antioch would have had a system of checks and balances written into the bylaws to prevent such a dangerous unilateral action as this.
Further forward, the next best idea I can muster is to completely sever the University from the College and empower an independent Board of Trustees for the College.
That all of this happened at this time and in this way is a travesty and affront to the Antioch community.
JD '88
I was a student at Antioch
I was a student at Antioch from 1963-1965. Even though I didn't finish my education at Antioch I was proud to be an Antioch student while I was there. The academic standards were high and there was a sense of community despite the disruptive nature of the work-study program. It always seemed to me that Antioch would have been able to strengthen its sense of community if it had eliminated the work-study program. Instead of consolidating the internal sense of community President Dixon's drive to expand had the opposite effect. I believe the demise of Antioch is a reflection of an underlying philosophy that has very little substance or cogency. I am actually glad to see the college close if it reopens based on a more solid foundation along the lines of a Bard or Earlham.
so what happened?
obscure from press reports whether the administration has made decades of bad decisions or, as the Saturday Times sugests, they simply gave power to the students who made it ever more marginal. In any case, it appears we got little value for money from those paid to run the place. question now is whether an effort should be made to save the place and, if so, why (other than the sentiment we all feel). I personally hark back to the long-forgotten Morgan mission, as I understood it, of linking work in the real world with academic study. Near as I can tell, Antioch seceded from the real world more than a few years ago and had only a minor amount of what others call academic study. At least they had no small dreams. But the dreams, whatever they were and whoever they belonged to, apparently fail as an economic model.
Does anyone have one beyond the usual peace and blather which makes it difficult to distinguish between Antioch and the Miss Universe pageant? Lots of small liberal arts colleges are surviving and thriving. A lot of my my fellow Antioch alums have joined me in sending our kids to such placess -- Reed, Oberlin, Swarthmore, to name but a few.
What next?
Jim Jaffe
Cube plans to introduce
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