Jon Baker posted the following to the Antioch College Alumni & Community Facebook group.
The College has a major push on right now to have an enrollment of 175 students for the 2026-2027 academic year. That number is meant to help celebrate Antioch’s 175th year of operation. The College claims on its website to be 76% of the way to reaching this goal. That percentage has remained unchanged for several weeks, if not longer.
So let’s do some math. 76% of 175 is 133. That is just 10-12 more than the current enrollment. Assuming that this is still correct, the College needs to get going to reach its goal — new student orientation is August 31 and classes begin September 2.
The College did recently replace the director of admissions after years of poor enrollment:
- 2020-21: 44 entering students
- 2021-22: 32 entering students
- 2022-23: 27 entering students
- 2023-24: 35 entering students
- 2024-25: 17 entering students
Perhaps new people can produce better results.
There is a concern, however, that even with several new students arriving total enrollment could drop. Some current students may not return given the deteriorating state of the campus and the turnover of staff and faculty (not to mention Michael Casselli’s firing).
175 is more than a magic number to honor Antioch’s age – it reflects a critical need to increase student derived income. Total net student tuition and fees for 2025 was $1.2 million; the College’s operating expense that year was $11 million. Students really only paid about 11% of the cost of their education. The administration knows this is a problem, stating in the 2025 Auditor’s report that one of the “key strategies” for “maintaining and sustaining its financial stability” is by “increasing student-derived revenue.”
Without sufficient tuition revenue the College has kept the doors open by borrowing from the endowment and alumni donations. The endowment is almost exhausted, as are many donors. A plan to turn seven campus facilities into “learning hubs” to generate additional revenue has failed and there is no successor plan in place. As a result, the College has run in the red, racking up deficits year and year:
- 2021: $6.1 million
- 2022: $8.0 million
- 2023: $3.0 million
- 2024: $1.7 million
- 2025: $2.4 million
Time is running out. On September 2 will there be enough students on campus to help pay for their education? What other sources of funding are there, if any? The Board of Trustees meets in October and they will need clear and candid answers from the President and her Executive Council.
