For those following the saga of Antioch College, it just gets better and better. Briefly, last June, the Antioch University Board of Trustees suspended operations at the college due to low enrollment and an endowment so paltry that subsidizing the deficit was not a viable option. The alumni went nuts. Appalled that their beloved institution (mine too) could be shuttered, they rallied, some more maturely than others.
Over the past six months, negotiations between the Alumni Board (elected by the College alums) and the Board of Trustees, augmented by a nationwide fund-raising drive among alums (not exactly known for emptying their pockets on behalf of the college in the past) led to two unexpected developments:
1. On November 3, the University Board agreed to lift the suspension with a number of provisos; and
2. Yesterday, December 11, the Board "approved a resolution instructing [the university chancellor] to begin exploring the possibility of transferring the ownership of Antioch College to a separate, free-standing liberal arts institution with its own board of trustees..." by July 1, 2008.
In the interim, a third group, the newly formed Antioch College Continuation Corporation, a 501(c)3 incorporated in Ohio, will serve as the new entity to operate the college, independent of the university. The incorporators of the new group are mostly college alums (one is not); a number are former university board members.
Hats off to this new group, to the alums working so hard to preserve this national treasure, and to the university board for moving with the tide.
NOTE TO ANTIOCHIANS: check out the virtual conversation among alums about all this along with the Antioch College Record Online. Ahhhh, for the days when I was a managing editor and stayed up all night at Yellow Springs News putting filler into lines of lead type.
