[SaveAntioch] Fwd: An open letter to the Antioch trustees
Robert Devine
bdevine at antioch-college.edu
Wed Jun 13 23:33:49 EDT 2007
Hope,
Some difficulties with the Trustee's talking points are these:
1) The Board did not actually deal with alternative scenarios for dealing
with the College's financial difficulties, such as (a) merging McGregor
and the College, (b) closing another center of the University, (c)
liquidating the endowment, (d) bailing out of the so-called Renewal Plan
that the Trustees imposed on the College. Some of these may be drastic,
but they provide viable alternatives to closing the flagship campus. They
did not consult with the faculty, the alumni Board, the Village or the
major donors in deciding on a course of closing;
2) The Board did not take responsibility for the financial condition of
the College. Policies on depreciation and adult-campus subsidies
implemented by the Board made it impossible to balance the College's
budget. The Board imposed a "renewal plan" on the College that involved
re-tooling the curriculum (which was not what needed to be fixed),
projecting a five year transition period, and promising to provide the
resources for the transition. The plan resulted in the College moving
from 650 students to below 300 in just two years, along with a dramatic
rise in attrition. A large percentage of the Trustees did not contribute
to the Renewal Plan, and the Board did not raise the funding to support
the transition. After two years, without taking responsibility for the
situation, the Board pulled the plug by announcing the closing of the
College;
3) The Board proposes to raise sufficient funding to improve the campus,
to reinvent the College, and to reopen in 2012. If the Board was unable
to raise sufficient funding to implement the 5-year "Renewal Plan", I'm
wondering about the possibility of raising the magnitude of funding
required to restart the College from scratch -- with an improved and high
tech campus during the four years that the College is closed. Further,
the Board's vague proposal for reopening the College takes no account of
the requirements for maintaining the existing campus in a mothballed state;
4) The Board failed to acknowledge the transfer of assets from the College
to Antioch University. In the process of closing the College, the
University walks away with the Glen, AEA, the library, the campus, its
buildings and infrastructure, the endowment and the brand;
5) The Board has failed to explain, rationalize or reconcile their action
in authorizing the new McGregor building. This project, undertaken
concurrently with the College's deepest financial difficulties, encumbered
the bulk of the institution's borrowing capacity, and used the resources
of the institution to leverage the development of a branch campus, rather
than the flagship campus. The contrast is obvious here in the Village; a
new building rises on the outskirts of town, while the legacy institution
languishes and is closed.
Again, my 2 cents.
Bob
Hopita at aol.com on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 6:42 PM -0500 wrote:
>Attached please find my brief email to the trustees, and the responses I
>received from two of them.
>
>- Hope '92
>
>
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------See
>what's free at [ http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503 ]AOL.com.
>Return-Path: <stone at metsci.com>
>Received: from rly-mb02.mail.aol.com (rly-mb02.mail.aol.com
>[172.20.118.138])
> by air-mb02.mail.aol.com (v115.17) with ESMTP id
> MAILINMB22-d04670a8412c2; Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:30:38 -0400
>Received: from mercout.metsci.com (mercout.metsci.com [66.17.137.1]) by
> rly-mb02.mail.aol.com (v115.17) with ESMTP id
> MAILRELAYINMB28-d04670a8412c2; Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:30:25 -0400
>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5
>Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
> boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C7AE2B.F0BB6626"
>Subject: RE: An open letter to the Antioch trustees
>Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:30:14 -0400
>Message-ID: <9A2586DA53C29D44828E47CEFA9474D201F8EACD at mercury.metsci.com>
>In-Reply-To: <C2961C36.14025%df at carnegie.org>
>X-MS-Has-Attach:
>X-MS-TNEF-Correlator:
>Thread-Topic: An open letter to the Antioch trustees
>Thread-Index: AceuKBtPYi4F/BfRRvmXz6iM72uDWgAAUxh1AABpKCA=
>References: <bcd.c2edbd6.33a1fb9f at aol.com>
><C2961C36.14025%df at carnegie.org>
>From: "Stone, Larry" <stone at metsci.com>
>To: "Daniel Fallon" <df at carnegie.org>, <Hopita at aol.com>,
><tfaecke at antioch.edu>,
> <lalexandre at antioch.edu>, <Msweetwood at aol.com>, <nielslyster at msn.com>,
> <malexander at ebellc.com>, <dcrippens at comcast.net>,
> <mllapierre at antiochseattle.edu>, <azucker at nc.rr.com>,
> <tam845 at sbcglobal.net>, <Halmary80 at aol.com>, <dbfraser at resprofs.com>,
> <aschappell at lilly.com>, <bedfob at yahoo.com>, <sherwood at sglawoffice.com>,
> <guernsey at adelphia.net>, <Bwpurplewins at cs.com>, <JCKasch at aol.com>,
> <john at thecollaborativeinc.net>, <everette.freeman at asurams.edu>,
> <rharris at cswg.com>, <ptreich at uiuc.edu>
>Cc: "Harriet Stone" <harriet04 at comcast.net>
>X-AOL-IP: 66.17.137.1
>X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version)
>
>Ann,
>
> I am one of the trustees and a 1964 college graduate. So is my wife.
> I will be at the reunion and would be glad to talk to you, although I am
>not as eloquent a spokesman as Dan. This decision was one of the
>hardest and most difficult I have ever made. I do feel that is the only
>hope for saving the college.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Larry Stone stone at metsci.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------
>
>
>From: Daniel Fallon [mailto:df at carnegie.org]
>Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 10:12 PM
>To: Hopita at aol.com; tfaecke at antioch.edu; lalexandre at antioch.edu;
>Msweetwood at aol.com; nielslyster at msn.com; malexander at ebellc.com;
>dcrippens at comcast.net; mllapierre at antiochseattle.edu; azucker at nc.rr.com;
>tam845 at sbcglobal.net; Halmary80 at aol.com; dbfraser at resprofs.com;
>aschappell at lilly.com; bedfob at yahoo.com; sherwood at sglawoffice.com;
>guernsey at adelphia.net; Bwpurplewins at cs.com; JCKasch at aol.com; Stone,
>Larry; john at thecollaborativeinc.net; everette.freeman at asurams.edu;
>rharris at cswg.com; ptreich at uiuc.edu
>Subject: Re: An open letter to the Antioch trustees
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Dear Hope,
>
> Thank you for your thoughtful message. Your sentiments are
>shared, I believe, by everyone on the Board. I can’t be at the reunion,
>but many other trustees will be there and I’m sure you will get the kind
>of useful information that will allow you to form your own opinion. The
>Board now is focusing on “restarting” Antioch College within 4-5 years,
>in a manner true to its historic core values and mission, and its
>illustrious performance. The interim gives us an opportunity to
>reorganize thoughtfully, seek the funding we need to improve the physical
>plant, and work out a financial plan that will keep Antioch College
>healthy in perpetuity. I believe it occupies a unique place in the
>American higher education landscape, and I will be working as hard as I
>can to find a way to make sure that it remains in a position of
>leadership.
>
> With best wishes,
>
> Dan ‘61
>
>
>On 6/13/07 10:02 PM, "Hopita at aol.com" <Hopita at aol.com> wrote:
>
>My name is Hope Anne Nathan. I graduated from Antioch College in 1992,
>with a BA in Film.
>
>I'm sure your email inboxes have been overflowing all day long, and I'm
>certain that others have said it more eloquently than I will. But, simply
>put, there is a need for Antioch College in this country, and in this
>world.
>
>Throughout my life, the very best people that I have known have been
>Antiochians. The friendliest, the smartest, the most open-minded ...
>Antioch creates critical thinkers, and Antiochians make this world a
>better place.
>
>I will be attending reunion next week, and look forward to the
>opportunity to speak with you in person. Surely there must be a way that,
>if we all work together, we can save Antioch. Because the alternative is
>simply too much to bear.
>
>- Hope Anne Nathan
> Antioch '92
> Hopita at aol.com
>
>"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent
>revolution inevitable."
>- John F. Kennedy
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------
>
>
>See what's free at AOL.com [ http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503
>] .
>
>
>
>***************************************
>Daniel Fallon
>Program Director, Higher Education
>Carnegie Corporation of New York
>437 Madison Avenue
>New York, NY 10022-7001
>Tel: (212) 207-6306
>Fax: (212) 207-6333
>Email: df at carnegie.org
>***************************************
>
>_______________________________________________
>SaveAntioch mailing list
>SaveAntioch at lists.antiochians.org
>http://lists.antiochians.org/mailman/listinfo/saveantioch_lists.antiochians.org
Robert H. Devine
College Professor
Antioch College
Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387
Our lives begin to end
the day we become silent
about things that matter"
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
More information about the SaveAntioch
mailing list