By Billy Joyce
A year after the MAN collective and the CCR collective created Facebook groups, filed applications, took pictures and put up posters, the community is again under siege.
Before, it was Marjorie Jensen, Anne Fletcher and Niko Kowel and Corri Frohlich, Chelsea Martens, and Rory Adams-Cheatham who stood in front of the community in McGregor 113. On Tues. it was a different group of students who humbly introduced themselves to the community.
The collectives, as they stand now, don’t have catchy nicknames: Jamila Hunter, Meghan Pergrem, Fela Pierrelouis, and for an encore Niko Kowell are running up against Nicole Bayani, Micah Canal, Sarah Buckingham, and Julian Sharp.
The news out of this forum is that each collective running for CG has four candidates. This is abnormal since there are only job descriptions and funding enough for three people. ComCil last week, as reported by CM/OM Corri Frohlich, deliberated for hours to accept the collectives’ proposals for a fourth member. Continue reading The Race Is On!
Tag: AdCil
Sink the Captain Save the Ship
“I did not get this college into this mess, it’s been going on for 30 years, I’m here to get it out of the mess.†–Toni Murdock
If one thing has become evident this week, then it is that Toni Murdock is not the person to get Antioch out of this mess. While holding on to the claim that she did not build the sinking ship, she is not using the wisdom of the crew that sailed it for years. Meanwhile, she does not have the expertise to address the needs of the college, nor the willingness to learn about its history in order to tackle the systemic problems that prevent it from flourishing.
Her appearance in AdCil on Tuesday has once again made that clear.
Murdock’s interpretation of the joined resolution, two weeks ago, goes straight against that of the Alumni Board. Good faith indeed seems to be lost when seeing members of the AB shake their head in disbelief this week when hearing the chancellor convey her outline for the road ahead.
Following Toni’s vision, we cannot recruit students until “financially stable†another two years from now. Financial exigency, meanwhile, continues to be used as a means to terminate faculty and staff contracts, setting off an avalanche of insecurity across campus.
Current students fear their departments and community disappearing, and accepting new students in the near future does not seem to be part of the Murdock strategy for success. Continue reading Sink the Captain Save the Ship
Imagine…
By Matt Baya
I’m an Antiochian and one of the side effects of this affliction is that I have a pretty big imagination. This is a blessing and a curse. The curse in this instance is I can imagine how exponentially better the current situation could be with just a few small changes. Continue reading Imagine…
Chancellor Murdock Visits AdCil Again
By Jeanne Kay
Andrzej Bloch opened AdCil on Tuesday morning by apologizing for the tone of the letter that was sent to the faculty on November 9th, confirming the fact that they would all be fired on June 30th, 2008. “It may have come through in a very harsh manner,†he said, “But the reality is quite harsh and the letter reflects this reality.†The letter would he retracted and redrafted, but, he specified, the content would remain the same. Continue reading Chancellor Murdock Visits AdCil Again
Letter to AdCil and Q&A from Toni Murdock
November 13, 2007
Dear AdCil,
When I first met with you several months ago, I told you I would come across the street and spend more time with you. I have not done that as much as I have wanted. Instead we’ve sat across from each other and walls and barriers have grown between us. Now, I want to sit with you and solve problems together and I hope you will welcome me to do that. This morning, I hope, will serve as a first step.
As you read this and as we talk, I want to appeal to you to suspend a little bit of your disbelief that we can overcome our problems together. I know this process has been painful and frustrating – for all of us. I am sorry for my mistakes and limitations. I do want to build, or rebuild, your trust and confidence in me. I know that things have happened that have led us to deeply diverge in our views and approaches. Now is the time for us to figure out how to work together again.
I view this note and our conversation this morning as a discussion starter. I have addressed some of the most pressing problem’s. Please send me a list of other problems as soon as you can. Important decisions–important for you, students, and staff, the College, University and Village–need to be made soon. If we work together, I believe we will make sounder decisions and develop more successful processes. I will arrange to meet with you at your request whenever I possibly can.
Respectfully yours,
Toni
What is the College Advisory Body, when will it be established and how?
It is an interim body. It should be established within a month to help us transition the College through difficult months ahead. It will be charged with helping to design and establish a permanent College Board of Trustees. Also, it will help to design and launch a process for recruiting a new President. It will take on a significant role in fund-raising. The President of the Alumni Board and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees will appoint the body.
Is there a College debt to the University, what will be done about jt and when?
The college has a debt of approximately 4 million to the University. Of this, 2 million will be paid back by summer of 2008. The remaining 2 million will be paid over a several year period. To affirm these amounts and build trust, designees of the Alumni board will review books and records.
Nothing from the immediate $6.6 million that is to be transferred to the college before the New Year will be used to repay debts.
When will the College recruit?
i. Transfer students – The College will recruit transfer students as soon as possible. We are talking this week to OBR for permission to extend our accreditation for current and transfer students to at least until 2010. When this happens, and we are hopeful it will be very soon, we will start actively recruiting transfer students.
ii. First year students – The College will recruit first year students again when the College IS in better financial condition. Specifically, if we the alumni, the University leadership and the College Advisory Body, working together, are indeed successful in raising 18 million this coming fiscal year (from now until June), and we are assured of success in achieving the target of an additional 25 million next year, with the approval of OBR, the College should be able to start recruiting new students at that time. However, there is much to do regarding our facilities and learning environment before accrediting agencies will be convinced of our sustain ability.
What Faculty and staff positions will be retained?
You have my commitment: I will work with you, the members of AdCil, Andrzej, the Interim President, and the new College Advisory Body to try to keep as many faculty and staff positions as possible. Until we know about our student body – those who will stay and those who will join us ~ and our fund-raising success, we just don’t know what is necessary and realistic.
I know this uncertainty is extremely painful. My heart does truly go out to you all. I look forward to working with Andrzej and you as soon as possible to collaboratively figure out a sound process to determine needs and feasibility and then a process for determining who will be asked to stay.
For those faculty and staff members wbo will not be asked to stay, we know how excruciating this will be, even more so given how late in the year these decisions may be taken – perhaps as long as two or three months from now. We are currently looking in to various ways and options for assisting with transitions.
What Facilities will be available next year?
We are still unsure. As we all agree our campus needs nearly a complete overhaul. With adequate funding that we very hopeful will be forthcoming, this can become a marvelous opportunity. I look forward to working with the office of the President, the Alumni Board and orher appropriate stakeholders (for example the students and faculty group that has been studying the Greening of Antioch) to develop and implement a facilities plan that will help us transform this campus. In the transition time, we are going to need to be imaginative and creative about transforming classrooms, library, gym, office and living, eating and socializing spaces while still funning our colle