By Aaron Keith Harris, Staff Writer, Xenia Gazette. Tuesday, August 7, 2007

YELLOW SPRINGS — Antioch College alumni urged the Yellow Springs Village Council Monday night to join their fight to halt the planned closing of Antioch College next year, while council members discussed how the village should approach an upcoming meeting with the Antioch University Board of Trustees.

Village Manager Erik Swansen and Council President Karen Wintrow were invited to and plan to attend a “stakeholder discussion session” with the university board in Cincinnati on Aug. 25.

The session will be closed to the media and the public and will include only those invited by the university. Earlier the same day, the board plans to have a town-hall style meeting, which is open to
the public.

“I want to find out exactly what it is that’s going to happen and get a handle on the community impact it’s going to have,” said Village Manager Erik Swansen.

Wintrow said she would take the “discouragement of the village” to the Cincinnati meeting, but that the university’s finances, governance and operations “are not issues for Yellow Springs village government.”

Council member Judith Hempfling criticized the Cincinnati meeting as undemocratic, saying village council should have been asked to choose which members to attend. Hempfling also said she was concerned about
the transparency of the process since the stakeholder meeting would be held “in secret.”

Don Wallace, of the Antioch College Alumni Association, presented a letter from his group to council urging them to act to keep the college open and stop the loss of jobs, including those held by tenured faculty.

“If the college is your number one employer, how is that not an issue for council that those jobs continue to exist?” said Rory Adams-Cheatham, a recent Antioch college graduate and current community manager.

Last Modified : September 29th, 2007 Filed under : News articles, announcements, news Navigate : Previous post / Next post