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64 2O24–2O2 5 GU I D E to Y E L LOW S P R I NG S a growing financial deficit. At the time, 400 students were enrolled at Antioch. Then, following several years of orga- nizing and fundraising efforts from alumni, Antioch reopened as an independent four-year college in the fall of 2011 with 35 students. Since the reopen- ing, enrollment has fluctuated. At its height in 2015, approxi- mately 150 students attended the college at once. Now, that number has dipped to about 120, according to Sanders. Over those years, the college has regained its accreditation, seen three different college presidents and has undergone significant reorganization efforts that have led to expan - sion and reduction in various academic programs. Although staff and faculty have come and gone, Sanders has weath- ered it all. “After we graduated our class in 2008, the whole place shut- tered,” he said. “For the next two years, this place was abandoned ... except for the library.” Sanders said that because of third-party agreements Antioch University — the parent corpo- ration of the college at the time — had made with organizations such as OhioLINK, a service that connects borrowers with the collections of libraries throughout the state, the board of trustees was obligated to keep Olive Kettering open. “It was a really, really weird time. Nobody was coming into the building except for stu- dents and staff from Nonstop who still had library cards,” Sanders said, referring to the independent Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute that students and faculty formed in the wake of the closure. “That’s how I started getting in trouble [with Antioch Uni - versity],” he said. “By providing aid and comfort to ‘the enemy,’ as they saw it. All I was doing was checking out books to those who wanted them. So while I was doing my job, I was just expected to come to work. the recession made the job hunt near impossible and he anguished over the state of the college’s archives. But after only two months, Matthew Derr, Antioch College alumnus and chief transition officer for the Antioch College Continu - ation Corporation approached Sanders and told him to stop his job search. “It was easy to say ‘yes,’” Sanders said. “In fact, I was the first person the alumni brought back. I was employee — no, agent double-o-one.” The rest is history, so to speak. Almost 12 years later, on the dreary mid-March day when Sanders spoke with the ▲ In Sanders' historical stacks in Antiochiana are the papers of Arthur Morgan who, in addition to serving as Antioch's president between 1920 and 1936, was a civil engineer and social philosopher. The university didn’t even care if the lights were on.” Then, in 2009, Sanders’ time had come. His contract wasn’t renewed. Since nego- tiations between alumni and the university weren’t going well at the time, he was told Antiochiana would be closed indefinitely. “Obviously, I felt like this was a monumental historic tragedy,” he said. Things seemed bleak when Sanders became unemployed. Although he had more time to spend with his wife, Kathy, Serving your Real Estate needs from Yellow Springs to Columbus . www.HomesThatRockByKami.com Kami Berkey 614- 801-1095 Clark State Performing Arts Center at 7:30 pm TICKETS ON SALE SOON Formore info: www.springfieldsum.org SUBSCRIPTION SEASON PRESENTS OUR MARCH 8 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” movie with live score by your SSO APRIL 5 GUSTAV MAHLER Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 5 MAY 17 SSO CHORALE The SSO Chorale performs John Rutter’s, Gloria alongside Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms SEPTEMBER 28 MIRIAM K. SMITH Teenage prodigy cellist Miriam K. Smith and Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony NOVEMBER 9 ANNA SHELEST Ukrainian pianist Anna Shelest, a night of women composers JANUARY 25 BABATUNDE AKINBOBOYE Babatunde Akinboboye, The Hip Hopera Singer and Side- by-Side with the Springfield Youth Symphony