[Alumni-chat] FW: San Francisco Bay Area Alumni Fundraising for Antioch

[Barrie Grenell]

I just sent this to the Trustees; I hope everybody who feels similarly will
keep up the pressure. We cannot live with what's happening.

 

Barrie

 

_________________

Barrie Grenell

(415) 826-5391 home

(415) 652-1038 cell

sercle at sbcglobal.net

Subject: San Francisco Bay Area Alumni Fundraising for Antioch

 

Since June, the alumni of Antioch College raised $18 million in gifts and
pledges IN OUR SPARE TIME!  This was no mean feat, and many of us are
exhausted. At first we were happy to hear that the Trustees had voted to
rescind the vote to close the college, but I don't know if you are aware of
how your vote is being rolled out on the ground. It's a disaster!

 

 I and others spent weeks calling alumni from our list of 2731 Bay Area
Antioch College Alumni, and with rare exception, they all cared deeply about
the college, it had meant a great deal to them in their lives, and they were
happy to reconnect with the extended family of Antiochians.

 

The other day one alum who had pledged one million dollars called me to see
if they should go forward. It seems that the first order of business is to
use the money to pay back the University for loans the University made to
the college operations. I think this is not what you ordered or what anyone
else thought to be the first priority. They are also upset that the
financial exigency is still in place and that you are not recruiting
students. I don't know what this person will do; they may be gathering with
other major donors to withhold their gifts until some improvements are made;
I hope this is the case.

 

Andrzej's talk at the announcement stressed the three R's: Recruitment,
Resources and Retention. Now I hear that the students are fed up and will
leave; you are not allowing recruitment of new freshmen and not putting
resources into recruiting transfer students; you are doing nothing to retain
current students with the cutbacks in faculty and facilities. Your folks on
the ground - Andrzej and Toni - are running the college into the ground!
They are using OUR money to do what they intended all along, yet I have
NEVER seen their plan for this so-called 21st Century Educational
Institution.

 

These people do not belong at Antioch! They do not understand Antioch!

 

What are you going to do when the students and faculty are gone and the
alumni won't give money any more?

 

Please, I urge you, STOP this madness. Stop your adulation of Toni Murdock,
she is clearly the Jack Kevorkian of higher education.

 

Don't let this wonderful extended family go by the wayside. Many of us
ignored the College all these years because it became the University and
spread its seed everywhere while the parent tree was abandoned, and the
governing structure, the huge bureaucracy that grew up around the University
and its Chancellor had a life of its own-something we could not connect
with. As soon as we thought we had a chance to save and revive the College
we knew, we jumped it. DON'T YOU SEE THIS? WE HAD A GLIMPSE OF THE COLLEGE
WE KNEW AND LOVED AND THOUGHT WORTH SAVING, NOT THE HODGE PODGE THAT WAY
LAYERED ON TOP OF IT AND SMOTHERED IT.

 

In spite of all this, the faculty continued to hold their high standards and
teach students in ways that were meaningful for the students in their lives.
The recent graduates, of the last 15 years, are wonderful. They are smart,
engaged, doing good in the world, and they are fun; this recent organizing
has helped us cross generational lines to recognize each other as
Antiochians.

 

Three weeks ago, I went to Los Angeles to meet with Paula Treichler and
Robin Lithgow to talk about a huge fundraisier, perhaps in LA, NYC and YSO,
for "Theater at Antioch-Past, Present and Future." I got this idea after
hearing about then watching a DVD of movie stars giving thanks to Roy London
(an alum) for all that he had done to help their careers-Sharon Stone, Gary
Shandling, Patrick Swayze, Calista Hendrickson (Miss Piggy's designer and an
alum), Patricia Arquette, Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis.  I have a list-surely
incomplete-of 100 (!) Antioch alumni who are doing well in theatre (most in
theatre, some are authors or doing well in related arts, or arts financing).
I have talked or emailed several of them and they are excited about doing
something significant for theatre at Antioch. I CAN GUARANTEE YOU THAT THEY
WILL HAVE ZERO INTEREST IF YOU CONTINUE TO LET TONI AND ANDRZEJ DO THEIR
DAMAGE. CALL TONI AND ANDRZEJ OFF, NOW!

 

Two days ago I met with three alumni and got more names of very wealthy
people to ask for money for the College or the Antioch Theatre Department.
Yesterday, I gathered all the names on the various notes I have made over
the weeks into an organized spread sheet; I Googled several to see what I
could find out about them; I contacted Matthew Derr and Ina Frank about a
couple. DON'T YOU SEE WHAT YOU ARE JEOPARDIZING? DON'T YOU CARE?

 

This is not what we understood the agreement to be. Please get rid of those
very UN-Antiochian folks you have working for you.

 

And the faculty! These are the folks who have done the heavy lifting through
the various nutty administrations, who have given consistency to an Antioch
education, who have been taken for granted and abused. LIFT THE FINANCIAL
EXEGENCY AND STOP THREATENING FACULTY WITH LOSING THEIR JOBS OR ENCOURAGING
THEM TO GO ELSEWHERE. INSTEAD LET TONI AND ANDRZEJ GO ELSEWHERE.

 

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it has been to reconnect with
Antioch College alumni. I do not think the San Francisco Bay Area Antioch
College Alumni Chapter can sustain ourselves if Antioch College dies, or
even if it becomes some commercial enterprise of Toni Murdock's dreams. HER
DREAM IS OUR NIGHTMARE. STOP HER NOW!!

 

I feel at such a loss about what I can do. I thought writing to you all
might help. I hope it does. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Barrie Grenell '65

_________________

Barrie Grenell

(415) 826-5391 home

(415) 652-1038 cell

sercle at sbcglobal.net