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PRESS RELEASE
AND PRESS KIT
Antioch University Threatens Legal Action Against The Antioch Papers
The Antioch Papers
http://www.theantiochpapers.org
March 13, 2008
The Antioch Papers, an investigative journalism and media arts website, has received a chilling threat to
its right to free speech from Antioch University. Antioch University has demanded the removal of all
(a
llegedly) confidential and proprietary documents from The Antioch Papers website under the threat of
future legal action (see attached letter).
The Antioch Papers staff members Tim Noble and Brian Springer responded to this demand stating,
“The Antioch Papers follows the long tradition of First Amendment protected speech established by
the Pentagon Papers. Antioch University and its Board of Trustees are public figures involved in a
discussion about higher education—public figures constantly mentioned in the national and local
press. The public’s right to know supersedes Antioch University’s assertions of private claims and
private matters, especially since these materials were not ‘purloined’ as you persistently claim. Your
concerns lie with Antioch University’s Board of Trustees’ inability to control its administrators and
employees and not with The Antioch
Papers.”
— Noble/Springer (see attached letter)
For More Information Contact:
Tim Noble – theantiochpapers@gmail.com
443-653-2262
SEE ATTACHED PAGES FOR:
1. Letter from The Antioch Papers to Antioch University – 03/13/08
2. Letter from Antioch University to The Antioch Papers – 02/29/08
3. Background Materials on The Antioch Papers
4. Still from Antioch Confidential – The Video
Tim Noble – Brian Springer
Research and Publishing Staff
The Antioch Papers
www.TheAntiochPapers.org
March 13, 2008
Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP
Attorneys & Counselors at Law
Attn. – Kathleen M. Trafford
41 South High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6194
Dear Ms. Trafford,
In your letter of February 29, 2008 you refer to the article Antioch Confidential/Redacted written by
Brian Springer. For the sake of clarity it is important for you to know four things regarding this article
and its publisher, The Antioch Papers (http://theantiochpapers.org
).
First, The Antioch Papers website is a collaboration between Tim Noble and Brian Springer, and all
f
uture communications concerning materials at the website theantiochpapers.org should address both
parties. Also, all future communications to the authors of this letter (Noble and Springer) should be
sent to our attorney Robert J. Fitrakis, 1240 Bryden Road, Columbus OH 43205 – Phone 614-253-
2571.
Second, an unredacted version of Antioch Confidential – The Article has been available since February 26,
2008 at The Antioch Papers website (http://theantiochpapers.org/document/42/antioch-confidential
).
We kindly request that you read the full, unredacted version of Antioch Confidential to see if this new
version satisfies, in any way, the concerns expressed in your letter.
Third, there is also a video titled Antioch Confidential available at The Antioch Papers website
(http://theantiochpapers.org/confidentialvideo
). So, to avoid confusion, in future communications
please specify whether you are referring to Antioch Confidential – The Article or Antioch Confidential –
The Video.
Fourth, we consider all communications with your law firm public information, and all past and future
correspondence will enter the open archive at The Antioch Papers.
You should be aware that your letter (first paragraph) misquotes Antioch Confidential – The Article.
Your quotation changes the verb tense of the article’s word “were” to your word “[a]re.” By replacing
the word “were” with “[a]re” within the quotation, you have significantly altered the meaning of the
original article’s sentence. Furthermore, you neglect to notate your deletion of text from the original
article.
Let us also be clear, the document AHCRRBAS (Ad Hoc Committee Report and Related Board Action
Summary), the related closed-session Board meeting minutes, and other documents at The Antioch
Papers were not purloined, as you claim. Therefore, your statements regarding the attorney-client
privileged nature of these documents are incorrect.
Noble/Springer – Page 2
In terms of your specific concerns about attorney-client privilege in relationship to the documents
mentioned above, we refer you to the final page of Antioch Confidential – The Article that states:
“One script for transforming private stages into public commons is suggested by University
lawyer David Weaver in the AHCRRBAS closed session Board meeting. At that meeting
Weaver reviewed ‘the ground rules for maintaining the confidentiality of the report’ by stating
that ‘the documents constituted attorney work product and could be maintained as
confidential documents as long as they were not published or distributed to persons who were
not board members, officers, employees or agents.'”
http://theantiochpapers.org/document/42/antioch-confidential
Based on Mr. Weaver’s legal advice to the Board, it appears that your concerns about the maintenance
of attorney-client privilege regarding AHCRRBAS and the subsequent closed session board meeting do
not lie with The Antioch Papers.
The Antioch Papers follows the long tradition of First Amendment protected speech established by the
Pentagon Papers. Antioch University and its Board of Trustees are public figures involved in a
discussion about higher education—public figures constantly mentioned in the national and local press.
The public’s right to know supersedes Antioch University’s assertions of private claims and private
matters, especially since these materials were not ‘purloined’ as you persistently claim. Your concerns
lie with Antioch University’s Board of Trustees’ inability to control its administrators and employees and
not
with The Antioch Papers.
We hope that this letter will help to build a framework of communications that respects the future
confidential needs of Antioch University as an educational institution and The Antioch Papers as an
ongoing investigative journalism and media arts website.
Sincerely,
Tim Noble
Brian Springer
Research and Publishing Staff
The Antioch Papers
PORTER WRIGHT MORRIS &ARTHUR LLp
Attorneys & Counselors at Law
Kathleen M. Trafford
(614) 227-1915
ktrafford@porterwright.com
February 29,2008
41 South High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6194
Facsimile: 614-227-2100
Toll Free: 800-533-2794
VIA E-MAIL THEANTIOCHPAPERS@GMAIL.COM
Brian Springer
Antioch Papers
Re: Unauthorized Disclosure of Confidential, Attorney-Client-Privileged
Communications
Dear Mr. Springer:
I am writing you regarding the document you recently e-mailed to the Antioch University
Board of Trustees, titled Antioch Confidential/Redacted. You acknowledge at the top of the
document that Antioch Confidential is based on and cites to “several documents that [a]re . . .
Antioch University attorney-client privileged communications.” Some of these documents,
including the 2001 Ad Hoe Committee Report and Related Board Action Summary and the 2001
Antioch University Board of Trustees Annual Meeting Closed Session Minutes, detail privileged
and confidential attorney-client communications. You have also posted copies of these
documents, and other documents that also may contain privileged information, on your
organization’s website, http://theantiochpapers.org. I am writing to demand that you remove
these documents, and any summaries of the contents of these documents, from your website and
that you forward to me any copies in
your possession.
The Antioch University Board of Trustees has not waived its attorney-client privilege for
the documents you have purloined, posted and re-published. In Ohio, the attorney-client
privilege “bestows upon a client the privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent others from
disclosing, confidential communications made between the attorney and client in the course of
seeking or rendering legal advice.” Smalley v. Friedman, Domiano & Smith Co. L.P.A., 8th Dist.
No. 83636,2004-Ohio-2351, at 728. Under Ohio law, the client “is the
only one who has the
power to relinquish” its attorney-client privilege. State ex rel. Wallace v. State Med. Bd. (2000),
89 Ohio St.3d 431,435,2000-Ohio-213,732 N.E.2d 960. The Board has not done so. The
client here is the Antioch University Board of Trustees – not its individual members, but the
Board as a whole. The Board has gone to great lengths to maintain the confidentiality of its
communications with its attorneys. The Board has not vermitted the uublic
disclosure of the
documents you have published. or does the Board accede now to your publication of these
confidential communications. Let me
be clear – you are acting in contravention of the Board’s –
legally-protected privilege.
Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus Dayton Naples, FL Washington DC
www.portcrwright.com
Brian Springer
February 29,2008
Page 2
I note that your document also contains references to various financial and business
planning documents. Proprietary documents of this type are legally protected under Ohio law.
See O.R.C. Â 1333.61 et seq. While the Antioch University Board of Trustees has published
selected documents on its own website so as to
inform alumni, students and other interested
parties of certain events and discussions, it has continued to maintain the confidentiality of other
financial and business planning documents, by disclosing them, if at all, only after the recipient
has signed a confidentiality agreement. To the extent that you have obtained non-public
documents in this category, I also demand that you forward all copies to me and remove this
information from your website.
The Antioch
University Board of Trustees has provided information to its alumni,
students and third parties in order that they may understand the difficult circumstances and
choices that now confront the Board and may offer constructive advice and comment as
appropriate. The Board,
however, has an obligation to act in the best interests of the institution
and that obligation includes the duty to protect its confidential communications and proprietary
information from misappropriationand~isuse by use by others. The Board takes itiobligatioh
very seriously, and will act to prevent further misappropriation of the Board’s
communications
with its attorneys or proprietary financial and business planning information.
Sincerely,
.~^{JLB^-^-+ &VC_
Kathleen M. Trafford
THE ANTIOCH PAPERS – BACKGROUND MATERIALS
The Antioch Papers
http://www.theantiochpapers.org
March 13, 2008
Tim Noble and Brian Springer are the Senior Research/Publishing Staff members at The Antioch Papers.
Mr. Noble is a third generation College Alum (’02) and grandson of Former Antioch College President
James P. Dixon (1959-1975), whose development of the Antioch Network in the 60s and 70s led to the
multi-campus Antioch University of today. Mr. Springer is the spouse of an Antioch College Faculty
member and a resident of Yellow Springs.
Noble and Springer have watched the systematic dismantling of Antioch College over the past 10 years,
gathering materials that actively reveal the College’s contemporary history – a history that has been all but
invisible to people without consistent and direct contact with the staff, faculty, and students of Antioch
College during this time. This invisibility has been maintained, in large part, by the University’s structural
censorship of the College, through the University’s undemocratic governance structures, budgetary
mischief, layoffs, downsizing, and ultimately a declaration of financial exigency–effectively academic
martial law–as the University’s preferred choice of remedy.
The Antioch Papers thrives on the direct input and participation of all sectors of the Antioch
College/University Campuses. It is a collaborative community resource dedicated to investigative
journalism presented in an on-line media arts format. Noble and Springer are both artists and journalists in
their own rights. Over the past 12 years, the New York Times and the New York Sun have used the terms
“profound” and “masterpiece” to describe Mr. Springer’s documentaries. Mr. Noble is currently a graduate
student in media arts. Springer and Noble recently presented their work on the Antioch Papers at the
prestigious Transmediale08 festival of art and digital culture in Berlin, Germany.
The Antioch Papers’ contribution to current challenges in higher education is reflected in the statement
below:
“Faculty and staff at Antioch College have been using the ‘Antioch Papers’ web site as a way of sharing
information about the college’s history and its current struggles. The site includes ‘Antioch Confidential,’
a detailed essay that is a serious piece of scholarly analysis and investigative journalism. It is deplorable
to see a university that officially promotes ‘transparency’ seek to suppress information and prohibit free
speech in the community. Narrow (and quite possibly exaggerated) corporate-style legal justifications for
confidentiality are no excuse for abandoning the transparent exchange of information and the open
discussion and debate that can result. Colleges and universities need to honor a more open and democratic
set of principles.”
— Cary Nelson
Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
For More Information Contact:
Tim Noble – theantiochpapers@gmail.com
443-653-2262
Still from Antioch Confidential – The Video
The Antioch Papers
http://www.theantiochpapers.org
March 13, 2008
For More Information Contact:
Tim Noble – theantiochpapers@gmail.com
443-653-2262
