Antioch College alumni plan to save their school
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hometown-antioch2-2009sep02,0,7557481.story
Graduates of the activist school, which closed because of financial
problems, have raised more than $6 million to buy the 1,300-acre
campus and bring in a new freshman class.
by P.J. Huffstutter
September 2, 2009
Reporting from Yellow Springs, Ohio - Lawn signs and bumper stickers
around town still rally support for Antioch College -- an academic
icon of the 1960s counterculture and the civil rights and antiwar
movements that ran out of money and closed more than a year ago.
The dream of bringing the college back has never wavered among the
residents of this Ohio village of 3,800. The school and its owner,
Antioch University, were among the largest employers in Yellow
Springs, and many alumni have never left: At least 1 in 5 people
attended the college or had family that did.
"I haven't talked to anyone who doesn't want the college back," said
Tom Gray, owner of Tom's Market, the village's grocery store. "It's a
part of the town's identity. Losing it was like losing a limb."
A group of alumni has raised nearly $6.2 million to purchase the
1,300-acre campus and plans to open the school again in 2011 with a
freshman class of 120.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the week. The college
will retain the Antioch name but will no longer be part of the
Antioch University network, which includes campuses in Culver City;
Santa Barbara; Keene, N.H.; and Seattle.
"There's a lot of pride here in Yellow Springs being a college town,
and a lot of relief that it's going to stay a college town," said
Aimee Mayurama, 36, a village native who graduated in 1995 with a
degree in environmental science. She's been named director of alumni
relations for Antioch College Continuation Corp., the nonprofit group
formed to take control of the school.
The group has raised $10 million more this year to help get classes
up and running -- a sum gathered from change tossed into buckets at
local fairs, donations from unemployed former students and heftier
checks written by wealthy donors.
Still, there's much work to be done.
Faculty must be hired, and the school must be solvent enough to
instill confidence among future donors and would-be creditors.
Organizers want to raise an additional $40 million to help establish
a strong operating budget.
"Everyone wants to know what's coming," said Matthew Derr, the chief
transition officer for Antioch College Continuation Corp.
Derr, 42, who graduated in 1989 with a history degree, added, "What
they really want to know is, can the institution be financially
perpetuated? Or will it fail again?"
The campus needs to be physically overhauled. Even before the college
closed in June 2008, it had suffered from years of neglect.
Many of the school's structures have crumbling mortar or missing
chunks of brick. Animals have nested in some of the dormitories. Over
the last winter, water pipes burst and flooded the Main Building and
South Hall -- both listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Antioch College, founded in 1852, was one of the nation's first
coeducational institutions of higher education. It was the first to
name a woman as a full professor. Set in a village that was one of
the final stops on the Underground Railroad, the school was one of
the first to eliminate race as an admission requirement.
Its first president was congressman and education reformer Horace
Mann, and its alumni include civil rights activist Coretta Scott
King, actor Cliff Robertson, screenwriter Rod Serling, biologist
Stephen Jay Gould, playwright Herb Gardner and Nobel Prize-winning
scientist Mario Capecchi.
The school became known for educating artists, activists and
nonprofit organizers. By the 1960s, the college -- as well as the
village -- had evolved into a haven for radical thinkers and social
reformists, surrounded by the cornfields of conservative western Ohio.
But the school's financial woes mounted steadily from the 1970s. Its
endowments shriveled.
When news came in 2007 that the campus would close, enrollment had
plummeted to less than 300, down from a peak of more than 2,000.
Village officials said 716 people lost their jobs when the college
closed, which led to a 16% drop in the town's tax revenue.
The recession only made things worse. Tourists continued to flock
here, drawn by the community's Berkeley-like culture and downtown
lined with organic food cafes and New Age spas, but they spent less.
Now, as news spreads of the impending sale, there's a tangible
excitement in town. Derr can't step onto Xenia Avenue, the village's
main street, without being stopped and peppered with questions.
"When's it going to open?" hollered one person walking out of the post office.
Lee Morgan, a village native and grandson of former Antioch College
President Arthur Morgan, said it was heartening to see how much the
college meant to the town.
When the college closed, "people in the village started to ask, 'Is
this really that important?' " he said. "The answer was yes."
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1 comments:
Antioch lives!
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