[Antioch, Pacific Oaks, and New College are among the last remaining schools of progressive education in the US. They are all fighting for their lives. Alumni and alumnae at Antioch have raised millions for their school, but won't release the funds without reform. They have worked on this for years and it looks like they may succeed.Here's the final version of Agreements in Principal Between the the Antioch University Board of Trustees and Antioch College Alumni Association Board of Directors. Pacific Oaks has acommittee to save the college, made up mostly of alumni/ae. They too are struggling with the board of trustees.--Ed.]
from Inside Higher Ed
Antioch Survives — at What Price?
Following an outpouring of anger over the order to suspend Antioch College’s operations — and an outpouring of donations to avoid the suspension — Antioch University’s board on Saturday announced it was lifting the suspension order.
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The announcement followed weeks of intense discussions between the university’s board and administration and the alumni association of the college — which has played a historic role in American higher education, but which has struggled financially for years. Under the agreement between the alumni and the university, the alumni must come through with key financial contributions to keep the college operating. In addition, the alumni are going on record accepting that the college is in a state of financial exigency, that faculty and staff reductions will be necessary, and that some programs will be curtailed.
In a sign of how fragile the situation remains, the agreements announced by the college focus on continuing Antioch courses for current students and there are no plans to recruit a new freshman class to enroll in the fall. In an interview Sunday, a university spokeswoman said that new freshmen would not be recruited until the curriculum was revised and facilities were substantially improved — a process that will take at least a year and could take longer.
These and other details about the plan — which were not the focus of Antioch’s public statements — have some students and alumni questioning whether the plan represents a viable way to preserve the college. Generally, those who are the most skeptical are among those who haven’t trusted the university’s trustees or chancellor for some time, viewing them as responsible for the crisis facing the college.
Nonetheless, the shift on Saturday represents a dramatic reversal. In June, the university’s board announced that the college would suspend operations after this academic year and would not re-open until 2012. At the time, trustees said that they had no choice, and that the college lacked the funds to operate responsibly.
The college, on a campus designed for 2,700, was expecting only about 300 students this fall. Antioch was ahead of the times in combining liberal arts education with “co-op” education in which students worked at jobs all over the country. It was also early to embrace the civil rights movement, numerous social causes (of the left) and the idea that students should play a key role in setting the direction of their education.
Read the rest of the article and educational comments from the Antioch community:
Antioch Survives
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Money and Management
From the issue dated November 16, 2007
Deal to Save Antioch College Hits Snags as Alumni Donors Question Its Terms
By GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK
Trustees and alumni of Antioch College have reached a deal to keep the college from closing in June, but the agreement depends on support from donors, many of whom are unhappy with the terms.
The donors say the agreement does not give the 155-year-old liberal-arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, adequate independence within the overall structure of Antioch University, of which it is part. Such independence was a condition of their pledges to revive the struggling college, they say.
The college is the only residential campus within the university, whose five other campuses specialize in adult education.
The trustees of Antioch University “seemed to have come away from that poker game with all the chips,” Terry O. Herndon, a 1957 graduate, said of the negotiations between the boards of the university and the Antioch College Alumni Association. He had pledged a significant donation on the condition that the college be given more independence.
Several dissatisfied donors have been circulating drafts of a letter that they may send to the heads of the alumni association’s Board of Directors and the university trustees stating that the signers “cannot in good conscience contribute” until their concerns about the “extremely vague” governance provisions and other matters are resolved.
Mr. Herndon said he probably would sign if a formal letter were presented.
A group of more than two dozen former trustees of the university, some of whom are also major donors, were also in discussions last week about a letter of protest that they may write.
Advisory Group Planned
The alumni group and the trustees had agreed to change the governance of the university, with a plan to ultimately create a board of governors for the university and a board of trustees for each campus. For the short term, an advisory group for the college will be established, with members appointed by the president of the alumni group and the chair of the university’s Board of Trustees.
The advisory group will be an “integral part” of the search process to identify a president of “national stature” to lead Antioch College.
The new structure was part of the deal that the alumni group’s directors and the university trustees jointly announced on November 2, after the alumni came forward with a business plan for keeping the college open.
The alumni also announced that they had raised more than $18-million in pledges in a mere four months.
As part of the agreement, the trustees revoked a resolution that would have suspended operations of the college in June for four years. And the alumni board agreed to turn over $2-million in cash by November 12 and an additional $4.6-million by December 15. (The alumni are expected to raise an additional $57-million by 2010.)
Also under the plan, an unknown number of faculty positions at the Yellow Springs campus are to be cut, some buildings will be razed, and some student services will be outsourced, said Tullisse A. (Toni) Murdock, Antioch University’s chancellor. Those decisions are to be made in consultation with the college’s faculty, Ms. Murdock said. That process could take about a month.
As of last week, however, it appeared that many of the donors who had offered pledges would not release their money until they got greater assurances that the new governing board to oversee the college will have more authority. “Most donors are going to wait to see something more substantial before they write checks,” said one alumna, Laura Markham, who has been working with donors and former trustees.
Ms. Markham, who was herself a trustee, said many of the donors are furious that, as part of the deal, the university has asked that some of the money the college alumni are raising be used to repay $4.6-million to the university.
That sum covers subsidies provided to the college from other units of the university over the past several years. Many former trustees say the subsidies were never designed to be repaid, although the current chairman of the university’s board, Arthur Zucker, says they were. The trustees and the alumni have agreed that the final amount due would be determined by an audit.
Ms. Markham said she suspects that enough alumni will come forward with $2-million “to keep the process going,” but she declined to predict how matters will proceed after that.
More Assurances Wanted
Nancy Crow, the alumni association’s president, said last week that she had identified donors willing to provide the first $2-million, even though they were upset about the university’s requirement to repay what some alumni are calling “the alleged debt.”
As for the rest of the next phase of donations, she said, she recognized that donors who have made pledges wanted more assurances, and she said she was optimistic that she and others could provide them. “It’s a very volatile situation,” she acknowledged.
Mr. Zucker said he too was optimistic that the impasse could be resolved once donors had a chance to get past the “discomfort” they have. “There’s education and information that needs to be transferred,” he said. “If we’ve come this far, we’ll find a way.”
Ms. Crow said she knew that many alumni were disappointed with the deal, but she said “it’s the best opportunity we have to rebuild Antioch College.”
Besides raising $18-million in pledges, the campaign to save the college, which operated with the slogan “Be Ashamed to Let it Die,” has rejuvenated alumni interest and led to the formation of 40 new alumni chapters around the country. (The slogan is a play on famous words from a speech at Antioch by its first president, Horace Mann, who said, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”)
For some alumni who were active in the campaign, questions about the deal are now beginning to overshadow their initial enthusiasm.
“We want our college back, and we can’t have it unless we have some authority in deciding who’s our president and how our resources are used,” said Karen Mulhauser, an alumna who is active with the association but not part of the team that negotiated with the trustees. The deal has an implicit understanding that a new board of advisers for Antioch College would eventually become a governing board, but “unless it’s in writing,” she said, “we’re reluctant to take it on faith.”
Jean Evangelauf and Anna Weggel contributed to this story.