Antioch DC Alums meeting Nov. 8, 2008

We had a good turn-out of 27, fitting snugly into my living room with a few in the peanut gallery on the stairs.  Matt Derr began by telling us the “conversations” between reps of the BoT (Dan Fallon and Jack Merselis) have been ongoing with him and Lee Morgan from side and that he is confident an agreement will be hammered out before too long.  Having been wrong on previous time-line predictions, he thought it best not to pin it down. Matt, for those of you who don’t know, is now working full-time on saving the college, employed by the College Revival Fund (CRF), which is funded by alumni.  He supervises a staff of five – Risa Grimes, Aimee Marayuma, Fred Kraus, Steve Duffy and one other support staff.

[BTW, there is a new Antiochians.com website.  You may have trouble signing in, as I have.  I haven’t figured out how to fix this yet.]

The reason these are called conversations instead of negotiations is that both sides agree on the fundamental issue – transferring the college from the university to independent status.  The goal is a Letter of Intent that spells out the path to resolving specific ownership issues – untangling bond debt, who gets WYSO and AEA, accreditation, etc. The basic values of rigorous academics, co-op jobs and community governance are not in dispute. The endowment (now about $22 million) is restricted to use by the College.

There is a pro-tem board in place ready to hire a president as soon as the college is ours.  They have already had a meeting in New York.

The college is currently closed, except for the library, which is open limited hours with a staff of three.  Matt said the other buildings have been brought into code compliance for empty facilities, which is basically draining the pipes and moving furniture out of the way of firefighter access.  The University has not agreed to heat the buildings this winter.

He also said the estimate for restoration and renovation is between $24 and $30 million – considerably less than the $50 million the University’s consultants predicted.  These improvements and deferred maintenance could be accomplished over 5 or 6 years as the student population grows.  He also noted that this is an opportunity for the school to become ADA compliant and greener.  Thanks to Arthur Morgan, we have our own heating plant that is available for new technology.

Gary pointed out that only 2% of the college age population goes to a residential, private, liberal arts college.  In the current economic climate, and with demographic trends predicting a decline in graduating high school seniors, the re-born Antioch must be able to communicate its special qualities.

Matt pointed out that Antioch has always been a highly tuition dependent college.  Several alums said that designing programs in which students actually help build state of the art green infrastructure would be innovative and cost effective.

Mark Haskell asked Matt “what do you want us to do?”  Matt said: Keep having meetings.  Talk about Antioch to non-Antiochians.  Think about creating co-op jobs.

Catherine McHugh said she had decided to make a monthly pledge rather than leaving Antioch money in her will and urged others to think about that.  Karen Mulhauser said that one of the pro-tem board members, Atis Folkmanis, has offered some of his company’s puppets to our group for a fundraiser when we’re ready.  (www.folkmanis.com).
She also said we should think about how to recruit students in this area.

If you know any alums in this area who are not on this list, please forward this info to them if you wish.  Forgive us if you get this twice.
There was also some discussion of the Non-Stop Institute in YSO, but I’m trying to keep this brief.

–Megan Rosenfeld

Last Modified : November 10th, 2008 Filed under : Washington, DC Navigate : Previous post / Next post