Save Antioch College - The Portal

Dan Fallon, Chair of the Antioch University Board of Trustees (“UBoT”) Governance Committee and UBoT Vice Chair, hosted a group of major donors to the College Revival Fund and former trustees who are deeply committed to the sustainable future of Antioch College. Other participants included UBoT Chair Art Zucker (by telephone), Alumni Board Vice President Ina Frank, Alumni Board Legal Team and Governance Committee Member Judi Church, UBoT consultant Tom Ingram and your humble Alumni Board President.

Everyone at the meeting agreed, in keeping with the November 2, 2007 Agreements in Principle, that Antioch College must be in control of its own destiny, through its own Board of Trustees. The discussion revolved around the degree of that Board’s authority and autonomy and the timetable for its establishment. A number of the donors and former trustees who participated are on the list of proposed members for the “Advisory Body” to be appointed by Art Zucker and Nancy Crow. They made it very clear that they have no intention of serving on a body whose advice the UBoT (soon to become the Antioch University Board of Governors) would be free to accept, reject or ignore, and pressed for meaningful and increasing authority for the interim body and the future College Board of Trustees.

Our discussions were frank, open and intense. We applaud the Board of Trustees for being willing to hear governance issues that are key to saving the college expressed by people with the wherewithal to make it happen. It’s not over yet; we will continue to talk – very soon. The former trustees presented a draft memorandum of understanding proposing a rapid time frame for establishing the College Board of Trustees and setting forth a number of specific areas that must lie within its control to ensure that the College and University not sink yet again into a dysfunctional structure. It will be discussed at the already-scheduled meeting of the University Board of Trustees Governance Committee, on which I sit, this Sunday, 12/2, in Dallas. Several of the participants in Monday’s meeting will attend that meeting. With good will and good fortune, a proposal that students, faculty, alums and major donors can support will emerge from that meeting and be approved as rapidly as fiduciary duty allows by the University Board of Trustees.

Nancy Crow, President
Antioch College Alumni Association