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

[Ann Frye]

Beautifully said. I agree with every word. Ann Frye '61

>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.
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>Barrie
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>_________________
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>Barrie Grenell
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>(415) 826-5391 home
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>(415) 652-1038 cell
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>sercle at sbcglobal.net
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>Subject: San Francisco Bay Area Alumni Fundraising for Antioch
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>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!
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> 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.
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>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.
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>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.
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>These people do not belong at Antioch! They do not understand Antioch!
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>What are you going to do when the students and faculty are gone and the
>alumni won't give money any more?
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>Please, I urge you, STOP this madness. Stop your adulation of Toni Murdock,
>she is clearly the Jack Kevorkian of higher education.
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>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.
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>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.
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>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!
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>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?
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>This is not what we understood the agreement to be. Please get rid of those
>very UN-Antiochian folks you have working for you.
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>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.
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>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!!
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>I feel at such a loss about what I can do. I thought writing to you all
>might help. I hope it does. 
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>Sincerely,
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>Barrie Grenell '65
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>_________________
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>Barrie Grenell
>
>(415) 826-5391 home
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>(415) 652-1038 cell
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>sercle at sbcglobal.net
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