ANTIOCH COLLEGE ALUMNI, STAFF, FACULTY AND STUDENTS PICKET ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE REVIVAL FUND, INC.
ANTIOCH COLLEGE ALUMNI, STAFF, FACULTY AND STUDENTS PICKET ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY;
Urge Trustees to stop stalling in talks to keep Antioch College open
For Immediate Release
CONTACT
443-864-0514 | press
March 15, 2008–Residents of the Village of Yellow Springs and vicinity and Antioch College alumni, students, faculty and staff staged an informational picket today to urge Antioch University and its Board of Trustees to negotiate in good faith toward creating an independent, ongoing Antioch College.
In December of 2007, the University Board of Trustees began negotiating with the Antioch College Continuation Corporation (ACCC) to transfer Antioch College and all of its assets to the ACCC. These negotiations, say alumni leaders, have been undermined by a few members of the University Board of Trustees and its Chancellor, Toni Murdock.
“The University leadership is sending out misleading messages, breaching the confidentiality that they have imposed on the negotiations while insisting that the ACCC remain silent,,” says Ellen Borgersen, Vice President of both the Alumni Board and the College Revival Fund, Inc., a 501(c)(3) that has raised over $18 million dollars to date for a continuing, independent Antioch College with tenured faculty and unionized staff.
She continued, “The last straw was on February 22, when Interim College President Andzrej Bloch was sent back to campus from a University Trustees meeting and announced that the College would close on June 30, 2008. He acknowledged that negotiations with the ACCC were continuing, but claimed that the ACCC ‘agreed’ that the College would have to close. That was absolutely not true. In addition, the University Board of Trustees unilaterally sent out a damaging and misleading press release claiming that Antioch College would be closed for the 2008-2009 school year.”
This past weekend, College alumni met with students, faculty and staff to discuss next steps. What emerged from this weekend was a plan for Non-Stop Antioch. Alumni will support students, faculty and staff, financially and otherwise, in their efforts to keep Antioch College alive and open in Yellow Springs next year. If the negotiations with the ACCC are successful, Antioch College will continue, without interruption, on its beautiful and historic campus. If no deal is reached, Non-Stop Antioch will operate at another location in Yellow Springs, and fight to return Antioch College to people who will carry its great history and traditions forward in the 21st century.
“Non-Stop Antioch means Antioch College for our time, and Antioch College for all time,” Borgersen said.
Since the University Board of Trustees announced the suspension of operations in June 2007, alumni across the country have rallied to their alma mater’s defense. Alumni chapters have grown worldwide. The alumni are continuing with its fundraising and planning efforts. For additional information on the Antioch College Alumni Association and the College Revival Fund, Inc., visit the Antioch College Alumni Association web site, www.antiochians.org.
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