NONSTOP ANTIOCH MOVING FORWARD IN THE WAKE OF FAILED NEGOTIATIONS TO SAVE ANTIOCH COLLEGE
**Faculty and College Revival Fund Taking Immediate Steps to Keep the Spirit of Antioch College Alive and Fight Runaway University Board of Trustees**
Yellow Springs, Ohio, May 9, 2008 –Alumni,faculty and staff renewed their commitment to fight to save Antioch College, the 154 year old liberal arts institution known for its groundbreaking educational innovations, in the wake of the announcement today that final talks between the Antioch University Board of Trustees and the Antioch College Continuation Corporation had failed. “We are outraged at the Board’s decision to suspend College operations rather than accept an extremely generous offer that would have kept the College open and put the entire University on a sound financial footing,” said Ellen Borgersen, Acting President of the College Revival Fund, Inc. “Nonstop Antioch will keep up the fight by supporting the dedicated faculty and staff who have committed to keeping the spirit of Antioch College alive here in Yellow Springs, and pursuing legal action against a runaway Board of Trustees that has abandoned its institutional mission and breached its fiduciary duties in many ways.”
Nonstop Antioch is supported by the Antioch College Alumni Association and the College Revival Fund (CRF), a 501(c)(3) established in 2007 that has raised over $19 million in cash and pledges to save the College. The CRF has committed $1 million of its current cash holdings to Nonstop Antioch, and resolved to raise the additional funding necessary to keep it going through the 2008-09 academic year and beyond.
A number of Antioch College faculty and staff, whose contracts with Antioch University end on June 30, have been hard at work planning curriculum, preparing a budget, and establishing governance structures based upon Antioch’s core values of shared governance, community activism, and experiential learning. They have named an Executive Collective – Susan Eklund-Leen (administrative coordinator), Hassan Rahmanian (educational offerings coordinator), and Chris Hill (external relations coordinator).
In addition, the CRF is pursuing legal efforts to keep Antioch College open and to prevent the University Trustees from doing further damage to the historic institution. These efforts include supporting the pending lawsuit brought by members of the tenured faculty, which seeks to enforce their contractual right to require the University to consider less drastic alternatives than closing the College, and to enjoin the University from liquidating or misappropriating any College assets; potential claims by students, donors and other stakeholders; and a variety of claims based on the Trustees’ breaches of their fiduciary duties of care, proper accounting, and loyalty.
“This Board must be held accountable for its actions,” Borgersen said. “They cannot be permitted to walk away from the catastrophe they created without a public accounting. We have every confidence that the courts will provide a remedy for the Board of Trustees’ egregious misconduct.”
Since the Board of Trustees announced the suspension of Antioch College operations in June of 2007, alumni across the country have rallied to their alma mater’s defense. Alumni chapters have grown worldwide.
The Alumni Board and College Revival Fund are continuing with their fundraising and planning efforts. For additional information, visit antiochians.org.
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