Jesse Lemisch
----- Original Message ----- From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages at gmail.com> To: "lbo-talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 12:23 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] Antioch College Closing!
> I was wondering what can be done for Norman Finkelstein -- Can he win
> a lawsuit? Will another institution hire him? Can the movement
> support him financially? -- and then I heard this terrible news. --
> Yoshie
>
> <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.
>
> ---
>
> Associated Press writer Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this
report.
>
> ---
>
> On the Net:
>
> Antioch College: http://www.antioch-college.edu/
> --
> Yoshie
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