Celebrating Antioch’s Independence

Antioch College is free from the university and the rebuilding has begun. You’re invited to join the Chicago Chapter of the Antioch College Alumni Association to celebrate Antioch College’s independence.

Featuring Antioch College Chief Transition Officer Matthew Derr ‘89, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Steven Duffy 77, and College Revival Fund Executive Director Risa Grimes.  DJ, dessert and light snacks, cash bar.

Saturday, Aug. 1, 7-11 p.m.

1401 South State Street, 4th Floor Sky Garden, Chicago

Get directions

RSVP on the event page

or by email

The Future of the College

On June 30 the new board of Antioch College reached a deal with the Antioch University board of governors to transfer ownership to a new independent college.

They plan to complete the transfer of assets, including the campus and endowment, by the end of August, but in the meantime they are working to hire core staff and bring parts of the campus back online.

Matthew Derr has stated the intention to hire 30-35 core employees, including 6-7 core faculty.  A search committee composed partly of board members will conduct a national search, with a strong preference for faculty and staff who have previously worked at the college.

Matthew is projecting a $4.5 million operating budget in the coming year, plus some $20 million in deferred maintenance to the campus.  The new college is seeking its own accreditation and tentatively aims to admit its first new class of students in 2011.  They’ve launched a $2.6 million annual fund to support operations and a $100 million, five-year capital campaign.

For more on the rebuilding of the college

Listen to a July 7 community meeting about plans for the college

Donate

Nonstop goes on

The Alumni Board discontinued its funding of the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute as of June 30.  Yet many Antioch College faculty, staff, and students and others who have carried on the college’s legacy of educational innovation at Nonstop are continuing the enterprise.

Working as volunteers and filing for unemployment, they have incorporated Nonstop as an independent corporation and are filing for nonprofit status. They’re seeking outside funding from government and private grants.

At its June meeting, the Alumni Board endorsed a proposal from Nonstop to the Board Pro Tem, including curriculum development, diversity and sustainability initiatives, event and conference planning, and new municipal fiber optic program in collaboration with the village of Yellow Springs,. The board has yet to respond to the proposal.

Donations can be sent to Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute, 305 N. Walnut St. Suite C, Yellow Springs OH 45387.

Alumni Board Elections

Congratulations to Chicago chapter organizer James Hobart ‘58, who was elected in June to serve on the Alumni Board.  Jim joins fellow Chicagoan Emily Kirby ‘52 on the Board.  Jim will take his seat at the Board’s next meeting in October, which coincides with Reunion ‘09, scheduled to be held Oct. 2-4 on the reoccupied campus.

35 Antioch College alumni representing classes from 1946 through 2008 as well as current students of the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute met March 29 at Chicago’s Douglas Dawson (‘73) Gallery.  Alumni Board President Nancy Crow ‘70, recently reelected for a second two-year term, spoke about ongoing efforts to reopen Antioch College independent of Antioch University.  And current Nonstop Community Manager Meghan Pergrem ‘08 and current student Shea Witzberger ‘10 spoke about the Antiochian innovations that continue to unfold at Nonstop.  

Listen to the meeting here.

Nancy Crow

Report from Nancy Crow

Nancy expressed optimism about the ongoing talks between the negotiating teams of the university and the Antioch College Continuation Corporation for the disposition of college assets.  Under the terms of a Letter of Intent signed by both parties in January, they’re aiming to conclude talks by late April, with plans that the majority of the campus, the endowment (estimated at $20 million after recent market losses), the Olive Kettering Library and the Glen Helen will belong to the college, while certain key assets like public radio station WYSO and the Antioch Education Abroad program will belong to the university.  Upon successful resolution of talks, the ACCC will become the Board of Trustees of the newly incorporated Antioch College, and Nancy will resign her ex-officio seat on the university board to take an ex-officio seat on the college board.  The ACCC is raising $15 million during this 90-pay period, with $6.5 million to be paid to the university and $8.5 million to cover transition costs in restarting the college.

“We hope the keys will be passed in the next few weeks or months,” Nancy said.  She said the reopened college will be based on the core values of rigorous academics, co-op, community governance and social justice.  She said the Pro Tem Board of the ACCC is planning for better faculty pay, a smaller campus concentrated around the core buildings of Antioch, North and South halls, with 400 students on campus at a time.  She called for an expansion of the Horace Mann Society, which includes those who donated $1,000 to the college Annual Fund, and which has recently stood at around 200 people.

Chicago Chapter

Report from Nonstop

Meghan and Shea described the ongoing project of Nonstop, which the Alumni Board committed to fund through June, but which is facing an approximately $50,000 fundraising shortfall.  

They described Nonstop as a threefold entity:

• a think tank on progressive education
• a vessel to sustain the values of Antioch College until it can be reopened
• the political movement to keep the college alive (“Nonstop Antioch”)
  

They talked about how the decentralized classes of Nonstop, held throughout Yellow Springs, have brought the educational program together with the surrounding community in an unprecedented way.  A large portion of Nonstop’s small student body is non-traditional age students, ranging from high school age to seniors, and reflecting “a progressive model including a different base of people.”  Nonstop is forging new collaborations with neighbor schools like Wright State and Central State universities to develop regional cultural programs.  Nonstop is hosting presentations by alumni media makers April 16-19, and an alumni festival and work project beginning June 14.  (The official reunion has been pushed back to Oct. 2-4, in the hopes that it can be held on campus).

Nonstop will be a featured presenter at the University of Minnesota’s April 24-26 Reworking the University conference, presenting Nonstop’s achievements in developing alternative educational models and developing open source communication infrastructure.  

Call for Support of Nonstop

Many alumni attending the meeting, and chapter organizers in subsequent conversation, expressed a desire to offer our financial and political support for Nonstop.  As was pointed out in the meeting, a $50,000 funding shortfall for Nonstop in the face of a $15 million short-term fundraising goal seems egregious.  We call for alumni to make dedicated contributions to Nonstop.  Covering this gap will mean fulfilling alumni’s existing commitment to complete Nonstop’s academic term ending in June, and also demonstrate alumni’s belief the in the value of Nonstop as a continuation of Antioch College.

You can donate here by making an online pledge and selecting “Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute” in the “Apply My Gift To” section, or by sending a check to the College Revival Fund, PO Box 444, Yellow Springs OH 45387 with “Nonstop” in the subject line.

Here’s a copy of the proposal that Nonstop presented to the Alumni Board in March for the integration of Nonstop into the reopened Antioch College.  The Alumni Board agreed to form a taskforce that will further develop the proposal for presentation to the Pro Tem Board upon resolution of talks with the University.

Concept Paper for Independent Antioch College

Last week the ACCC’s Chief Transition Officer Matt Derr ‘89 publicly released his November Concept Paper and Business Plan for the independent Antioch College, which lays out plans for:

• a 3-year academic program (with projected 25% tuition savings)
• 9 14-week trimesters including 6 on-campus study terms and 3 co-ops, the last being international
• “a small number of well-resourced academic disciplines in the arts, business, humanities, sciences, social sciences and technology”
• double degree 5-year architecture, engineering and language programs with partner institutions
• remote instruction during co-ops
• a $30 million campus renovation and construction program
  

See and comment on the plan here.

Self Promotion Warning

In a sheer coincidence, the Gene Siskel Film Center will screen two Antiochian film programs this Thursday, April 9.  At 6 p.m. Nonstop faculty member Chris Hill, an Antioch College video professor since 1997, presents SURVEYING THE FIRST DECADE: VIDEO ART & ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IN THE U.S., a selection of activist videos that she curated for Chicago’s Video Data Bank.  See the Reader review.

Then at 8:15, Ed M. Koziarski ‘97 and Junko Kajino’s international psychological drama The First Breath of Tengan Rei screens as part of the 14th Annual Asian American Showcase.  See the trailer. The Film Center is at 164 N. State St. in Chicago.

By Mark Reynolds ‘80

Lee Morgan ’66, chair of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation Board Pro Tem, and Risa Grimes, executive director of the College Revival Fund, provided an update on the state of the College at the Chicago Chapter’s meeting February 15 at the Oak Park Public Library.

Morgan began the presentation with an overview of the events and negotiations that led to the signing of the Letter of Intent (LOI) in January. He went on to discuss the Board Pro Tem’s proposal for a 40-month academic program that would include six trimesters of study and three trimesters of co-op and allow students to graduate while paying only three years’ tuition. Morgan also explained the Board’s innovative financial strategy for a

Credit holder program at Pacific Continental Bank, where alumni and other supporters can open interest-bearing accounts that Antioch College can borrow against to cover operational expenses and student financial aid.  He said the Board is aiming for an entering class of 200 students in 2010 or 2011, and to continue entering classes of 200 students thereafter.

Grimes reported that $7.8 million had been raised to date, and praised her team’s dedication and commitment to raising the $10 million needed by late April under the terms of the LOI.  She expressed her confidence that the goal can be met, even during the ongoing economic recession.

Chapter members, Morgan and Grimes took up a spirited q-and-a discussion.  Topics covered included short- and long-term fundraising tactics (from individual investments to increased emphasis on planned giving), the direction and structure of academics once the College is reopened, and the state of the physical campus (water damage had been discovered in Main Building the weekend before the Chicago meeting).  Morgan did not offer specifics about Antioch’s future educational offerings, preferring to leave those decisions to College administrators and faculty once those persons are in place.  He also shared his concern about the condition of the physical campus, noting that it presently costs about $800,000 a year to maintain the buildings.

Alumni representing class years from the ‘50s to the ‘00s attended the meeting.  They were joined by current Nonstop student Katie Connelly, who talked about her experiences there.