Tag: transfer

Dude, Where’s My Application?

By Jeanne Kay and Kim-Jenna Jurriaans

Prospective transfer students browsing the Antioch College website this weekend in search of the Common Application will be disappointed. As of yesterday, the form has disappeared from the Admissions site, which now only shows a link to the readmission application and financial aid information. The removal of the material was done without consultation of the current Director of Financial Aid and new head of Admissions, Robin Heise, who was presented with a fait accompli when she opened the online admissions section in the early afternoon on Friday.
Heise was on her lunch break when she was called by one of her fellow financial aid officers who informed her that Director of Communications and Public Relations, Lynda Sirk, had just walked into her office and used her computer. When Heise returned to her workplace, the Common Application had disappeared from the college website and alterations to the admissions part of the site had been made under her name.

Suggestions made by Sirk that the move to pull down the Common Ap followed instructions from Art Zucker and Toni Murdoch in consultation with the University lawyers leave open the question why the changes were made from Heise’s computer. Sirk, under her own web account, would have full access to the sections of the site that were modified.

Further investigation into the motives to pull down content off the site amidst current negotiations between Antioch University and major donors to the college, and whether University officials authorized the action, is expected to take place after this weekend

Students Pack Up, Donors Push Forward

By Eva Erickson and Kim-Jenna Jurriaans

Today the University Board of trustees is voting on a proposal put forward by the deeppocket donors in support of an autonomous Antioch College. As the community awaits the outcome of the vote that is likely to determine the level of operations at the college in future months, community members try hard to adapt to campus life under continuing insecurity.

A group of major donors, over the course of the last month, has taken a collective stance against the outcome of the October 25 summit between the University Trustees and the College Alumni Board, that outlines the future relations between the college and the university. After a preliminary meeting in New York City, last week Monday, donors and representatives of the Trustees met again on Sunday at a session of the Board’s governance committee in Dallas to discuss the donors’ demands. Now the Trustees are voting as a full Board.

Continue reading Students Pack Up, Donors Push Forward

Time to Move On

While drinking my routine cup of coffee in Emporium yesterday, my eyes lingered for a minute on the bright red flag near the window that reads “Antioch alive!” I remember thinking “Yeah… It is for now. But for how long?”

In spirit, the campus appears pretty dead right now; students and faculty are trying to secure a future at other institutions and alumni throughout the country are once again left without agency. Continue reading Time to Move On

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

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