Here's a copy of an email exchange I had recently with J. David Coldren '66, now living in Michigan City, Indiana, and quite attentive to the current Antioch closedown crisis.

The email exchange includes Dave Coldren '66 's pretty good ideas for re-opening Antioch, and his "take" that the present fund-raising, bail-out activity will not succeed....all attention must be focussed on a 2012 re-opening, that is our best hope realistically.

Following Coldren's detailed message about re-opening Antioch, and how to do it, I report on the Washington DC Antioch Alumni Meeting held yesterday, July 1, 07 at 122 Maryland Ave NE Wash DC on Capitol Hill at the residence/ office complex limosene liberal Stuart Mott makes available to Antioch alumni meetings and causes from time to time, as a courtesy.

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Here are Dave Coldren's words to me (part of them), followed by my email message reply to Dave Coldren, thanking him for kind words he made about the video tape about Antioch I sent him and he screened, and telling him about the Antioch meeting in Wash DC on July 1 (which I concluded the BOT controlled).

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Words of J. David Coldren, Antioch '66, proposing a plan for re-opening Antioch in 2012 and providing particulars about his plan:

" I think it’s great that we have an endowed chair in peace studies and that students can major in gender-specific studies, but I refuse to believe that the value of a liberal arts education--as defined in the catalogs of the 1960’s with an emphasis on writing skills, broad knowledge in the physical sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and languages—is out of date. It seems to me that specialization in a field of study comes way too early in a student’s “education” these days and that those students are being short-changed. They soon find out how limited are their intellectual underpinnings.

"So I hope what Antioch will do is, yes, put together a social entrepreneurship program that requires at least two years of rigorous liberal arts classes before the students can get all charged up about turning a co-op job into a full-time activist job thereby aborting their education.

"So I’m 'down for the struggle' with some minor issues that need clarification.

"Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been challenged to come up with some theoretical idea of how Antioch Yellow Springs could quickly reinvent itself and come away in a few years quite alive and with a sustainable revenue stream. In the foregoing, I assume that the faculty’s search for an injunction to save their jobs (and tenure) will fail; the Alumni trying to raise $10 to $40 million will come up far short; and that the College will cease operations next July maintaining only skeletal security, library, and mechanical services.

"I’ve gone thru quite a few iterations of this. And I want to make clear my idea is not based on one iota of data so I obviously haven’t “run the numbers” and am relying solely on my 65+ years as a participant/observer plus my passion for the founding spirit of Antioch College.

"

1. We honor the landmark status of North, South, and the Main Building and make whatever repairs and remodeling is required to house the AC administration, CG, the auditorium, faculty offices, and some classrooms. I don’t know if the library needs to be totally rebuilt; same for the science building. Whatever we do it must be handicap (wheelchair) accessible.

   "

2. We find a developer who has a proven track record in building environmentally-friendly and human-friendly communities. We also find a nationally recognized developer of assisted living communities. The process of finding them may involve brief competitions for concepts, etc. They are asked to imagine a clean slate of structures around the core described above and to build clusters of residential homes and retail stores anchored by a state-of-the-art residential assisted living center (services from adult day care, independent living, and assisted living, to Alzheimer’s care, nursing home and hospice) and, if necessary, a clinic. The assisted living center (ALC) structure would also house first-year students with all the dining facilities required for both populations: table service for the seasoned citizens and cafeteria service for the students and the seniors’ family and guests. The students are encouraged to eat with and get to know their elders and vice versa. In my imagination, that would be good for modifying the behaviors of both groups (for the better) and be a real-world, up front look at old age, death and dying and an acquaintance with ALC residents who may well be former faculty, former students, former YSO townies, etc. who love YSO and the Glen and have lots of stories and wisdom to share. There should be some mandatory seminar for all first year students to help them process this experience and maximize the benefits to them.

   "

3. The income streams for leasing space to the ALC management company (Marriott, Hyatt, and others are experts in this business now) and the rent from student residential housing in the ALC (which Marriott, at least can do) will both be part of a sustainable income stream to the College.

   "

4. The remaining land is to be configured in ways to:
   1. Minimize land footprints (go up, not out);

   2. Maximize green space and water amenities;
   3. Maintain an architectural coherence; NOT cookie cutter buildings; but also NOT a plate-glass 7-Eleven next to a Tudor structure;
   4. Employ solar energy for common area utilities;
   5. Use constructed wastewater wetlands for sewers and drainage as allowed by Ohio law;
   6. Provide residential units for AC 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-year students and faculty for short-term rent and long-term lease, the student rentals coinciding with Antioch’s academic calendar;
   7. Provide adequate, attractive retail spaces on long-term leases
   8. Provide a performing arts center for AC drama, music, and dance departments as well as for “town-gown” theatrical productions, concerts, and visiting artist programs; funds for the non-academic portions of the arts center to be raised from private donors;
   9. Minimize maintenance costs to the College; and
   10. Maximize recurring income to sustain the College’s undergraduate education programs.

   "

5. Outsource as much of the food services, maintenance, security, landscaping, etc. to the new retail restaurants and other businesses as possible. One hand washes the other.

"My sense is that a greatly improved endowment plus tuition plus the sustained income from leasing the land could pay for the administration, faculty, student scholarships, and maintenance and improvements to the three core buildings plus the performing arts center.

"To your point of social entrepreneurship, I believe that by linking an assisted living community with an academic institution you greatly enhance in students a natural empathy for America’s demographic imperatives. How do we as a society treat people who lead active lives long past retirement? How do we treat people enmeshed in the epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease? (Who knows? Maybe some entrepreneur will set up an accreditation program for assisted living personnel using Antioch College and the co-op program as a base. That could improve treatment of our elders in due time.) In the meantime, the academic and cultural activities that should take place at a true liberal arts college will greatly enhance the lives of all ALC residents. So we’re already doing good by doing well.

"To bring my idea to fruition, it needs to pass the “snicker factor” among the Antioch constituency and then needs to run the gauntlet of endless meetings with the greater Yellow Springs community, alumni, business interests, government funding sources, the Board of Trustees and some major, major donors. (I think some of these recent software gazillionaires might like to start a new college with a social twist.)

"As for the proposed student body, I would instruct the admissions people to trumpet the revival and to admit only the really smart, the reasonably mature (self-aware at present if still curious about the future), and those seeking a rigorous non-bullshit liberal arts education. We need to recruit a faculty that can deliver that and who can suppress any tendencies to revert to the 60’s or70’s as a cultural template. We may have to pay more for faculty and we may have to discount tuition for the first two years or so to prove the new Antioch Yellow Springs isn’t just smoke and mirrors..

Thanks for getting touch,

J. David Coldren ‘65

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Words of Yazz Allen '66 (aka David Allen '66) thanking Dave Coldren '66 for his email message, and describing the July 1, 07 Antioch Alumni meeting (5 hours!) in Washington DC, attended (and dominated) by Antioch University BOT member (and closedown voter!) Larry Stone '64, and his friend and BOT supporter, current Antioch College President Steve Lawry, obviously controlled by and promoting the BOT closedown decision.....................

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"June 2, 07

"Hi Dave!

"Thank you for your kind email message which I was glad to receive, and also for your kind words about the ANTIOCH ADVENTURE 2007 6 Hour Video I put together, which included images of the Antioch 2007 reunion closedown speeches/ meeting (I also am sorry the battery died.....I left Kelly Hall to try to get the battery re-charged and get back, but couldn't do it...missed the comments you heard on the PODCast...I ordered a DVD the Antioch Library people made of the meeting...costs $10 and may / probably does include the entire meeting....I doubt the headshot closeups I provided will be part of it....non-pro videographers usually depict people and meetings in full frame).

"Thanks, too, for your proposed plan, very much of which I agree with with and support.

"The outside food services proposal is bad, though. I attended grad school at the U. of Maryland/ College Park MD USA in 1988-1989 and was subjected to AWFUL food in the U/MD student union farmed out to fast food franchises..McDonalds, Burger King, etc.

"It was so awful (the eating experience), there is no way to say how awful it was. Sharing meals at college was a signal part of the social experience with other students. Farming out food service to restaurants which don't provide TLC is bad, and such restaurants will certainly get the contracts, bring in awful people for workers, and otherwise screw up what should be a good part of college living.

"Food and food intake is important...vital, really. It shouldn't be turned over to people part of one of America's and the world's present tragedy trends...the emergence of fast food with its plastic food and service.

"I'd like to post your proposals on the Antioch College interest website titled WWW.AntiRecord.Org for which I write quite a bit. It's been around for 10 years since its founder, Yazz Atlas '97 started it with the unfortunate name WWW.AntiochSucks.Com .
Changed the name a year or two ago.

"I attended the Washington DC Antioch College alumn meeting yesterday. About 60 people attended....meeting lasted 3 hours with food served and consumed after that for about 2 hours.

"The meeting was controlled and dominated by Antioch U. trustee Larry Stone '64 and current Antioch College President Steve Lawry, both of whom set the tone of the meeting, and defused/ drained the mood and energy of protest and objection to the closedown decision of the Antioch U. BOT. Those two got up and spoke first at the meeting, thanks to the fact the meeting was run by Karen Mulhauser, former BOT member, and former Antioch Alumni President (in the 1980's) and long time moderator of the Wash. DC area Antioch alumni group.

"Same thing happened last week at the 2007 reunion in YSO....the energy of protest and objection to the BOT closedown decision was "managed" and drained away by stall tactics and talks given by Lawry and others intentionally diverting listeners from the main issue....how to stop the closedown of Antioch in 2008, how to stop the BOT obviously committed to the closedown.

"The visiting Antioch alumni at the meeting yesterday (July 1, 07...4 PM....9 PM in Washington DC at the Capitol Hill estate home of limosene liberal Stuart Mott) did what the organizers of the meeting wanted....nothing. The way was further paved for the closedown, and the threat of anyone interfering with the BOT's act legally or in other ways was lessened, as those running the meeting intended.

"Reminded me of the image in the Charlie Chaplin MODERN TIMES (1935) movie of hoards of NYC people emerging from the subway staircases onto the NYC streets followed by a quick cut to hoards of sheep emerging from the same subways into the streets...Chaplin's point was that people are sheep, too often.

"Antiochians, too.

"The meeting has poignant moments where present day students from Antioch got up and spoke and lamented the closedown. Challenged (rightly, to my thinking) the need for big money re-jazzing-up of Antioch building.

"The old buildings are OK. Not luxurious, and that is not a crime or something which interferes with supplying students good education.
Larry Stone explained the claim $30-$50 million is needed all has to do with rebuilding the campus. He then claimed the lack of that money means Antioch is "bankrupt" which is not true.

"Cheap is OK...workable and doable.

"Stone complained present day Antioch undergrads deface the public space part of the Union with offensive grafitti, and bully non-politically/socially correct students (the J. David Coldrens of 2007!).

"Part of his reason for closing down Antioch.

"How about simply outlawing grafitti in public places, painting the walls with offense grafitti white and punishing/ expelling future violators of the "no grafitti in public places" rule, and how about punishing/ expelling intollerant bullies the same way the SOPP people punish/ expel excessively agressive students making wrong sexual advances on other students.

"No need to close down Antioch permanently.

I don't buy into the closedown decision, and agree with you the fundraising (not needed to my thinking) will not succeed. The "big money" the BOT claims is needed for survival is a straw dog....and excuse to enact an agenda they have not revealed, cynically.

"This closedown decision is wrong....it's the brainchild of a half dozen millionaires on the BOT who desire a non-residential, non-unionized staffed, non-tenured faculty school...like the 3 night schools on the west coast, the biz school in YSO, and the teacher training school in NH.

"The remaining BOT members are rubber stampers, and should have conscience enough to oppose the cynical closedown decision.

"I agree with your analysis about what is coming. The money raising bail-out effort will not work, will not succeed.

"The only way to stop the closedown is to face the BOT head on and get legal...to impune motives and actions proveably wrong, I think, if just a few BOT members siezed with belated attacks of conscience would break the conspiracy of silence and rat out the dorks on the BOT (esp. Shylock look-alike Art Zucker) who perpetrated this whole scam in the first place.

"The raised money should go to lawyers sic'ed on the BOT...but that won't happened, thanks to the naive and sheep-like nature of Antioch alumni presently being "managed" by the BOT and their agents (Prez. Lawry, Ms. Mulhauser of DC, the Antioch alumni board, which the BOT controls, the new WWW.Antiochians.Org which is set up to preach the "party line" etc., etc.)

"Soooooooooooo......we return to the Coldren "Plan B" which assumes (accurately, I sadly conclude) that the closedown will occur as scheduled, and protest, bailouts won't happen.

"My ancestors from England attended Oxford Universiety, which was set up in the 12th century, and often went through periods of set-backs, major deterioration, semi-abandonment, scandals, etc.

"But......NOBODY closed Oxford down! It kept going. When times were tough, people toughed out the times. That would be best for Antioch.

"This closedown is disasterous. Those responsible should be exposed and brought to account, though you and I agree this won't happen (I understand your words about some on the BOT being your friends, and you don't think it should happen).

"I'd like to remember the Antioch of years gone by as much as possible, and my motives for making the tape I sent you are largely to serve that goal. 5/7ths of the tape is history/nostalgia.

" 'The way we were.'

"Best,
Yazz '66