<http://www.antioch-college.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=178> Antioch News
Release Date: June 12, 2007 Antioch College Suspends Operations to Design 21st Century Campus State-of-the-Art Campus projected to open in 2012
YELLOW SPRINGS, OH- On June 9, 2007, Antioch University's Board of Trustees voted to suspend operations on July 1, 2008 of Antioch College, the University's undergraduate residential program in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with the intention of reopening a state-of-the art campus.
The Chancellor will establish a Design and Development Commission to determine the long-term future of the College with the intention of opening a re-developed undergraduate campus. An Academic Design Team will be appointed to design a new undergraduate curriculum reflecting the College's strong traditions and values while meeting the needs of today's students.
The College will continue to serve its current and newly accepted students with a strong academic program for the 2007-08 academic year.
For the 2008-09 academic year, all students will be offered degree completion opportunities at Antioch University McGregor which is moving to a new facility in Yellow Springs in September, 2007. In addition to the McGregor opportunity, students who have successfully completed the first two years of their bachelor's degree will be offered reasonable opportunities to complete their degree at Antioch University's other degree completion programs in Seattle, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Students wishing to transfer to other colleges and universities based on the requirements of the other institutions will be assisted in doing so.
Over the past several years, Antioch College has experienced a continuing decline in its student enrollment. Given its small endowment and heavy dependence on tuition revenue, this low enrollment has threatened the College's survival. Efforts to balance the College's budget over the years through faculty and staff reductions, programmatic changes and deferred maintenance of the physical plant have eroded the confidence students and parents have in the College's academic program. After careful analysis the Board determined that the College's resources are inadequate to continue providing a quality education for its students beyond July 1, 2008.
The College's low enrollment and lack of adequate funding led to the decision to suspend operations and declare financial exigency as required by the faculty personnel policy.
About Antioch University: The University is founded on the principles of a rigorous liberal arts education, innovative experiential learning and socially engaged citizenship. These campuses all nurture in their students the knowledge, skills and habits of reflection to act as lifelong learners, democratic leaders and global citizens who live lives of meaning and purpose.
In addition to the College, Antioch University is comprised of five nonresidential campuses in Keene, NH; Yellow Springs, OH; Seattle, WA and Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, CA, all accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. These campuses attract students wishing to complete BA degrees, seek graduate degrees and/or prepare for new careers.
Antioch College, founded in 1852, is part of Antioch University, which includes Antioch University New England in Keene, New Hampshire; Antioch University Seattle in Washington; Antioch University Southern California in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara; and Antioch University McGregor in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The University's administrative offices are also located in Yellow Springs. For more than 150 years, Antioch has been a leader in higher education, long known for its commitment to educational innovation and social justice.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6704600,00.html> Antioch to Close Amid Money Woes Wednesday June 13, 2007 2:01 AM AP Photo OHDAY101, OHDAY102 By JAMES HANNAH Associated Press Writer
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio (AP) - Antioch College, known for its offbeat approach to education, will close in 2008 because of a money shortage and will try to find enough funds to reopen four years later, the school said Tuesday.
Enrollment at the private liberal arts college has dwindled from more than 2,000 students in the 1960s to 400 this year, and a small endowment and heavy dependence on tuition revenue combined to hurt operations, the school said.
Efforts to balance the budget over the years through faculty and staff reductions and programming changes have eroded confidence in the academic program, said officials at the college, founded in 1852.
``At this point in time, Antioch does not have the financial wherewithal to continue as it is,'' spokeswoman Linda Sirk said. ``It will be a much healthier thing to do if we close it now, stop the financial difficulties that we have, go through this process, and then open as a strong institution. You're going to see us again.''
Students will be offered a chance to complete their degrees at Antioch University McGregor, an adult education school in Yellow Springs.
The school hopes that alumni will provide financial help, that it will attract investors and that it can develop more partnerships with the Yellow Springs community, said Mary Lou LaPierre, vice chancellor for university advancement.
Antioch doesn't grade classes, encourages students to develop their own study plans, and combines academic learning with experience through a co-op program in which students leave campus to work in various fields.
The school in southwest Ohio counts the late Coretta Scott King, ``Twilight Zone'' creator Rod Serling and evolutionary scientist Stephen Jay Gould among its graduates.
In 2000, death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, gave a taped commencement address. Hundreds protested nearby, including Faulkner's widow.
The college drew national attention in 1993 with its ``Sexual Offense Prevention Policy'' that required students to ask permission from one another if they wanted to have sexual contact, including holding hands.
The top reason students who are accepted decide not to attend is the poor facility conditions, said Antioch president Steven Lawry, who concluded the school's $30 million endowment was insufficient.
``That kind of investment in endowment-building just had not been done. The modern liberal arts college has to do that to survive,'' Lawry said.
The school will create commissions on facilities improvement and curriculum design, he said. Officials hope to recruit a class of at least 300 students for 2012.
``There's not another school like Antioch,'' said Rory Adams-Cheatham of Washington, D.C., a 21-year-old who graduated in April with a literature degree and is working for the school as events manager. ``This was where I had to be. It's really devastating.''
The school has been a fertile ground for social activism, with protests from the Vietnam War era up to the Iraq war. In 1994, students took over a building for 32 days to protest plans to turn it into an admissions office instead of a student-activity center.
The school will have one more academic year, then suspend operations July 1, 2008. The school said it will work with students who want to complete their degrees at Antioch University McGregor; at other Antioch schools with degree programs in Seattle, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Calif.; or at other colleges.
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Associated Press writer Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.
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Antioch College: http://www.antioch-college.edu/ -- Yoshie