Tag: staff

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

Dear Antioch Students – A letter from Yellow Springs Citizens in Support of Antioch College

Dear Antioch Students,

During these last difficult months, we have watched many of you hard-working, intelligent, courageous young people with delight and pride. We want you to know that you are not alone in your struggle. We, members of the Yellow Springs community, are also working in good faith (sometimes to exhaustion) to save our beloved Antioch College. Our commitment is strong, for our lives are deeply intertwined with the College. We, or our family members, have worked at the College; faculty and staff and their families are our friends; we, ourselves, are Antiochians or could have been, as we, like you, have a commitment to the historic vision and values of Antioch College.
We know in these last months you have found valuable friends and found from faculty and staff deep concern and inspiration. Many good and brave things have occurred even during this time of great duress. So we ask you, if you are able, to please hold on.
While it would be prudent to develop a backup plan, we want you to know that this important fight for the College is not yet over and that the struggle for its survival is dependent on many of you choosing to stay. By staying, you will not only learn in your area of study, you will also continue to learn what is possible when people work together towards a good and powerful vision. You must know how very important an Antioch College education is. Author Rita Mae Brown, when she spoke at an Antioch Commencement, called Antioch College the “point of the arrow” among progressive institutions of higher learning. To quote Antioch alumni, Dan Shoemaker, whose recent email is making wide circulation, “Antioch’s traditional educational model (based on the three pillars of community, academics, and co-op) has among the most robust and enviable outcomes of any college in the country.” Continue reading Dear Antioch Students – A letter from Yellow Springs Citizens in Support of Antioch College

Letter from Nancy Crow, President, Antioch College Alumni Board

The Antioch College Alumni Board is calling for the retraction of the November 9th letter from Andrzej Bloch, Interim President of Antioch College, to the Antioch College faculty.  This combative approach to academics is anathema to all of us; shared governance and faculty tenure were two main points of our Resolution of June 2007, and we continue to champion those ideals. A letter that hides behind financial exigency to declare that most of the faculty “won’t be rehired past June 2008” is in no way collaborative, accurate, respectful of tenure, nor in any way a part of the shared vision for Antioch College.
The misstatements and miscommunications have challenged our efforts for Antioch College. Part of our agreement in principle with the Board of Trustees was that the Alumni Board will be part of the College planning process going forward. This letter from the Interim President does not convey the spirit of our agreement, and indeed, was not shared with us ahead of time.  We are calling on the University Trustees and administration to live up to the letter and spirit of our agreement.
Antioch College is a vibrant institution with a world-class faculty. The Alumni Board fully supports the gifted Antioch College faculty, and has nothing but admiration for the spirited and committed student body and the dedicated staff as well. Our plan going forward calls for recruiting transfer students now, and first-year students as soon as the Ohio Board of Regents extends the College’s authority to grant credits and degrees.

We are still ashamed to let it die!

–Nancy Crow, President, Antioch College Alumni Board

Hell, High Water and Hope

By Linda Sattem
It is hard to accept that Antioch College is in bad shape when daily we work with such wonderful students. The following are comments and feelings I have had since the closing announcement this summer that I don’t often have a chance to share.

Hell
This summer was very hard with the second round of layoff of staff. Then when I offered requested programming about grief, loss, searching for jobs, etc., there were complaints that I was “giving up” on Antioch, that I was undermining the good fight.
In fact we were acknowledging what had already begun to occur. We were both mourning the loss of friends and colleagues while still trying to prepare for a difficult year with a skeleton staff.
It is difficult to work, with ever increasing workloads for Student Affairs staff, especially with the criticism that we are not working to save the college. We all care deeply about the college and we are working to support the students still here.

High Water
This term has been equally hard. We are watching students struggle with their course work and organizing. They are struggling with decisions most people never face.
Many are struggling to keep their heads above the rising tide of fatigue, anger, hopelessness and feeling powerless. How do you feel good when you have done all you can, and it still is not enough?
As we work with students we have to help them figure out what is best for them. Maybe they have to leave, so that they continue to be strong and balanced. Only then will they ever be able to come back, as alumni, as faculty, as staff, as parents sending their children to Antioch College.

Hope
The recent efforts of alumni/staff/students/faculty and the faculty lawsuit are where I receive hope. There was genuine shock over the uproar about the closing. (And I firmly believe that the end game was to never reopen.)
At a church I once saw a hand printed sign that read:
The church is what is left after the building
burns down and the minister leaves town.
They can tear down as many buildings as they want, send away as many people as they can, and Antioch will still be here. When we reopen it will be with residential students and tenured faculty.
All staff in the various student services feel privileged to work with students day in and day out, in the dorms, in the café, in the ASC, in the gym, the library, Main Building, in counseling and wellness. For our amazing students — present, past and future — who are brilliant, compassionate activists, will not let us die.

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