“You asked me to visit, so here I am†declared Antioch University Chancellor Toni Murdock as she sat down at the AdCil table at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Murdock was responding to an invitation sent to her two weeks prior by the Administrative Council –which was also extended to Board of Trustees Chair Art Zucker and College President Steven Lawry. The invitation’s purpose was “to discuss the process by which the current leadership of Antioch college was appointed.â€
Student Representative Julian Sharp opened the discussion. “Question number one is why AdCil wasn’t consulted in the change in college leadership.†Murdock said that under more “normal conditions…, a more thorough process,†would have been followed. When Steve Lawry “resigned,†he recommended Andrzej Bloch to run the college under the suspension of operations. “Since we are under suspension there was really no need to have a new president,†she further explained. “It’s very normal, when a president is [out of office] that the Chief Academic Administrator takes over in that interim type of position.†Murdock confirmed that Lawry was currently under Administrative Leave until December 31st, when his resignation will take effect. When Sharp insisted to know whether Steve intentionally “stepped down†or was forcibly “placed†under administrative leave, she refused to make any comment. “That’s a personnel issue,†she argued. “I would subscribe that indeed when you have a situation of lack of normalcy and crisis you need to act with more legitimacy and credibility in order to heal the crisis,†remarked faculty member Hassan Nejad, “and that has been lacking and I don’t know why.â€
