OK, this might not seem expressly political if you aren't familiar with the school, but trust me on this one. antioch is almost certainly the most radical school in the country, creates activists and at least people who give a fuck faster than harvard creates lawyers. and it's gone out on the alumni listserve that the school is closing in a year.
i'll post the letters by the president and bob devine below the fold.
first, the official letter from the current president, steven lawery (who i met recently and actually seemed like a very nice guy, so i don't blame him, really, it's the university):
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.
Current Mood: depressed
and this is the message from bob, all the realism and a little less of the spin:
It stunned all of us at the College as well. We only learned this "plan"
at 2pm this afternoon. No-one was involved in the decision-making other
than University administrators and the Board of Trustees. The only
College rep was the President who was trying to sell a merger with
McGregor as a way to deal with the financial situation. No conversations,
no consultation, no consideration of alternatives. As I understand it,
the Trustees did not have a lot of time to consider this plan, did not
have alternative plans on the table, did not consult with major donors
(who might have helped close some of the fiscal gaps), the faculty, the
Alumni Board, the students or the Village. Reading between the lines, it
seems to me that the University, in consultation with a few Trustees, had
decided on this course of action long before the Board meeting.
The Trustees forced a "Renewal Plan" on the College several years ago, to
move the College beyond "incremental growth". As Joe Cali would say, "The
Idea Boys are working overtime...." They gave us five years to implement
it, and promised the resources for the transition. The faculty worked
their butts off, speeding up the implementation by a year. We're now two
years into the plan, but the Board has not contributed nor raised the
funds for this transition, so they're pulling the plug. The faculty did
their part in attempting to implement what was essentially a bad plan, and
did so with modest success. The Board failed in their stewardship role,
and did not provide the 5-years of support for the transition. And so we
have a Board that (a) rolled the dice with the College's legacy and all of
our livelihoods in an "all or nothing" Renewal plan of dubious merit, (b)
failed to support its own imposed plan or to raise sufficient money to
implement it, and (c) seeing the results of the Plan in terms of
recruitment and retention, precipitously decided that closing the College
-- rather than raising additional funding, closing another campus,
liquidating the endowment, merging the College & McGregor, etc. etc. --
was the only avenue to deal with the financial difficulties.
The other notable dimension of this story is that since 1999 the
University has been focused on usurping College resources, first by
pursuing policy changes that made it impossible for the College to break
even and then by framing the College as a constant financial problem in
the minds of the Trustees. As a result, the Trustees have removed more
and more autonomy and decision-making from the College President (while
gutting the systems of shared governance), and have given the University
more and more discretion for fiscal and programmatic control. The
University has used that control to raid College resources and consolidate
their hold on the College and its directions. A "reorganization"
eliminated the College's own VP of Finance and Administration and HR and
moved them across the street. Likewise, Technology Resources was
dissolved on the College side of the street and the College is now served
by an IT department that reports to the McGregor School. This latest move
is a logical next step. The University will walk away with Glen Helen,
AEA, the campus and all its buildings, the endowment and the brand, while
getting rid of all those pesky, critical, and "toxic" students.
As for re-opening in 2012, that's probably either a fantasy or a fig leaf.
It's a nice thing to say when you're closing the doors and putting 160
people out of work, but my sense is that IF the College closes (and I'm
optimistic enough to believe that is not yet a given if people rally
support and press contacts and bring appropriate pressure to bear) it will
be closing its doors for good. If the College could not raise money to
keep its doors open, why would be believe that it could raise the sort of
money required for a ground-up re-invention -- including a new high-tech
physical plant????? If Antioch College re-opens, my prediction is that it
will be a shallowly normed version of what the adult campuses are doing,
NOT an institution that bears the legacy of the College.
My 2 cents.
Bob
i know this is supposed to be some modicum of original content, but i don't have much other than to say that as an alum myself, i'm absolutely fucking crushed. if anyone knows anything else, please post.
jen halbert, '99