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?â€
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
“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
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
By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans & Alex Borowicz
Only a week after the Antioch University Board of Trustees announced the recision of the resolution suspending the operations of Antioch college, a lawsuit filed by members of the college’s faculty was dismissed without prejudice.
But the legal battle may not be over. Dismissing the lawsuit “without prejudice†gives the faculty the option of refiling the same claim at a later date and this is but one of the legal cards that the college faculty now hold.
Professor Peter Townsend, lead plaintiff in the faculty lawsuit, stressed the need for collaboration between the university and the college faculty. “It’s really important that the university start negotiating in a functional way with all the parties,†Townsend said. He noted that the faculty would be willing to reinstate the lawsuit, but that the main point of the lawsuit was simply to keep the college open.
Other lawsuits may still be options for the college faculty, and these options have already been reviewed. “We’re holding them in our pockets and we’re hoping to get some collaborative behaviour from the administration of both the university and the college,†he said. “If we do, then we won’t need these suits, and we’ll be working together, which is what we’d like to do.â€
The faculty are more than willing to begin collaborative negotiations, as they feel that the faculty contract they hold is still being violated. A letter was sent to the legal team of the college stating that the lawsuit was to be dropped and that fair negotiations were expected by the faculty.
Townsend admitted it was unlikely that the previous lawsuit would be reinstated, but contended that “there are other lawsuits that are options with the faculty that we could file.â€Â But the weeks to come remain unclear, and the faculty are uncertain if further legal action will be necessary. “The current situation changes minute to minute now,†Townsend said. “Predicting two weeks is nearly impossible.â€
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…