To the Yellow Springs Community:

Did you know that the Antioch University Board of Trustees has never met with the Directors of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation about their proposal to acquire Antioch College?  It is shocking that the Trustees would contemplate a transaction of such enormous consequence without talking directly to the principals.  And yet, despite the AC3’s repeated requests to meet with them over months of negotiations, the Trustees instead rejected the AC3’s best and final offer to keep the College open without ever just sitting down and talking to them.

The next step is obvious.  The Trustees must meet face-to-face with the AC3 as soon as possible.   On March 30, the Antioch College Alumni Board passed a unanimous resolution calling upon them to do just that.  It is clear that the Trustees have been ill-served by their negotiating team.  It is long past time for them to step up to their fiduciary responsibilities – which cannot be delegated to University administrators – and work with the AC3 to find a solution to the impasse.

The Trustees say that they were “heartbreakingly” close to resolution when talks broke down.  But we have been close before, and time was running out for the AC3 to get the necessary regulatory approvals to operate Antioch College independently next year.  The AC3 therefore renewed a proposal they made in February – the “10-10″ plan – which calls for the AC3 to make an immediate contribution of $10 million in return for ten seats on the nineteen-member University Board of Trustees.  This is a generous offer and an ingenious plan that avoids all regulatory hurdles, keeps the College in continuous operation, and gives the reconstituted University Board time to plan carefully for an independent Antioch College and a secure Antioch University.  That is the win-win solution that College alumni and the AC3 have been working for all along.

And, while the AC3 has withdrawn its final offer to acquire the College because of time constraints, it might still be possible to resurrect that plan if the University agreed to secure the regulatory approvals necessary for Antioch College to operate independently next year.  That would require a full-throated endorsement of the AC3’s operational plans by the University.  And that might be difficult to square with the University’s repeated, public, and wholly unwarranted attacks on the College’s faculty and curriculum.

Which raises the question, why has the University persistently and publicly trashed Antioch College while claiming to be in good-faith negotiations to keep the College open?  The inescapable conclusion is that University administrators – who are also the lead negotiators with the AC3 – have never wanted or intended to reach an agreement to keep the College open.

When the Trustees directed University Chancellor Toni Murdock to work with the Alumni Board on fundraising in August 2007, her response was to dismiss the fundraising staff.  They were locked out of their offices, their email accounts were closed, and their credit cards were cancelled.  It was a humiliating experience for those dedicated and consummately professional people.

Murdock has claimed that those were just innocent, unconnected events.  But if you ever believed that story, consider this:  exactly the same thing happened to exactly the same people last Friday.  They were locked out, sent home, and placed on indefinite administrative leave.  No reasons were given.  And, to add insult to injury – quite literally – this was done in the middle of a going-away party for an IA staffer who has loyally served Antioch College for eight years.

The IA lockouts are part of a pattern of persistent harassment of the people who are essential to the survival of Antioch College.  Indeed, Chancellor Murdock has done everything she can to undermine efforts to save the College.  Given her very public disdain for Antioch College, it defies common sense that the Trustees put her in charge of negotiating with the AC3 in the first place.  If, as they claim, the Trustees really do want to resume negotiations in good faith, they must get Chancellor Murdock out of the way and meet face-to-face with the AC3.

Meanwhile, plans for Nonstop Antioch are moving forward and gaining momentum.  We are not giving up and we are not going away.  We are still ashamed to let it die.

Best regards,

Ellen Borgersen
Vice President, Antioch College Alumni Board
Acting President, College Revival Fund, Inc.

Last Modified : April 2nd, 2008 Filed under : CRF, Letters, to the Community Navigate : Previous post / Next post