AC_1965_Web

178 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K T R E I C H L E R June 30, 2008), a core group of alumni proposed to the board al- ternative sources of revenue along with a structure that granted the College greater autonomy. But with the university’s apparent refusal to negotiate in good faith, the alumni position hardened into a determina- tion to separate from the university entirely. This took until September 2009, at which point the College had been officially closed for more than a year, boarded up and off lim- its to everyone except lively pos- sum families, raccoons, bats and pigeons. By keeping the College closed for more than a year (even if only by two months), the chan- cellor hugely compounded the dif- ficulty of re-opening: the buildings had further deteriorated, the Main Building had been flooded and the flood waters contaminated with pi- geon and bat droppings and above all a reopened College had to be considered a new legal entity and buildings required extensive ren- ovation to comply with the ADA. But bad as the closure was for the physical plant (along with dete- rioration and destruction, code deficiencies could not be grand- fathered in), it was worse for the academic program. In addition to debates over the status and rights of faculty and students at the time of closure, the College has been re- quired to undergo the complex and labor-intensive accreditation pro- cess from scratch. Some academ- ics would prefer physical torture to the preparation of accreditation documents. Here’s what I would like to say to my classmates of 1965.You may have followed the Antioch saga or you may not. In the process of “sav- ing the College” (and we must en- sure that it stays saved), we saw the stark contrasts between the values of Antioch College and those of the university and its trustees.As I came to know and admire the College’s students, faculty, staff and alumni be- fore this closure period, I concluded that the board’s charges were to a significant degree of the board’s own making: starving and abusing the College over many years, then using its deliberately weakened state as proof of its incompetence, intransigence, and, yes, toxicity. I’m on theAntioch College alumni board now and very much hope you will come to Reunion, see the classy ren- ovations to the physical plant, talk to current students and faculty as well as President Mark Roosevelt, and see what the campus has become as it emerges, with spirit, from its in- duced coma. Today, Halloween. Today in the Glen. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z