[Alumni-chat] A report on thursday

[Laura Fathauer]

This is my own personal reflections of the last
several days. (i.e. I'm not the Alumni Board). 

The sadness, stomach-clenching, head scratching, and
disgust that has been expressed by one student online
following the Thursday meeting, is shared by many in
the town. I was there. I spoke to many of them. I sat
there and saw the tears in their eyes during the
Thursday afternoon meeting. The reaction is real, it
is shared, and it is powerful. 

Sitting in the meeting on Thursday watching as current
students are brought to tears by current events, I had
my own strong reaction. I hated the University
Administration for callously making decisions that
directly affect the live and futures of amazing
students. I hated Toni Murdock for not having one bit
of courage to stand face to face with the community
and explain her position. I hated the Board of
Trustees and their years of disengaged landlordism
which has allowed inept and inexperienced managers to
run the College operation into the ground. 

And now we're being told that its no longer "us" and
"them". 

The sad, pathetic fact is that it is still the UBoT's
game. We all know events that led us up to this point.
We all know the UBoT did not live up to promises to
fund operating deficits that the UBoT themselves
mandated for 5 years. We all know that the University
Chancellor preaches a "do as I say not as I do" model
of Democracy. We all know that throughout the rest of
the University they have an ill-formed (and actively
cultivated) negative impression of the culture of the
College.

And we're in this together?!??

In fact, even though the University Board of Trustees
resolved to support the College through 5 years of
deficits, they have the right to go "Whoops, sorry, we
couldn't find the money, we have to close it down." In
fact, they've already done that. Art Zucker said just
that at Reunion.

It could have been case closed at that point. It still
might be, come the end of October. 

But the Board has given the AB the chance to play a
single round- one hand in the overall game. Sadly,
that means the AB still has to play by the rules of
the game currently in play. That means cooperation
with the management by law responsible for all the
university operations. That means cooperation with the
leaders that are by law responsible for the fiscal
stability over all the university operations. 

This is where the "we" comes in. It is University
finances the AB is dealing with. It is the
University's viability that the University
Administration is looking out for, and to the extent
that the AB NEEDS the University's cooperation, this
becomes one of the AB's concerns as well. 

To some extent, if we want the AB to succeed, we have
to accept some of the concessions that have to be made
for the AB to be in the game right now.

That isn't to say these concessions aren't
problematic. As I sat in the meeting Thursday
afternoon, I have to admit myself that there were
times that I was shocked by things I was hearing.
Things that seemed to come out of left field. Issues
that if aren't handled carefully, we might as well
fold this hand right now.

My own gut-wrenching moment was this- we have to be
VERY clear to alumni, students, faculty, and staff, of
a key point in the Alumni Board's proposal: "This
financial support is only available to an Antioch
College with independent administrative leadership in
charge of its own future and with its own Board of
Trustees."

When AB members walk the fine line between talk of a
fully independent, free-standing college and one that
still has connections with the University, the message
can be misinterpreted. We have to be absolutely clear
of the message, that this will only succeed, that
alumni will only give, to an Antioch College in charge
of its own future, and not subject to the whims of the
University or the ULC.

These were some of the concerns I heard from others
regarding the Thursday meeting-

-The presence of Linda Sirk. This came as a shock to
many. Many felt that her presence influenced what Rick
Daily could say. The only thing I can say about this
is that Linda Sirk is representing the University's
interests in this process. 

-The role of Linda in ongoing operations. It is my
understanding that Linda will serve 2 roles. She will
coordinate the request of information by AB members to
direct it to the appropriate individuals, and she will
observe meetings and other functions between the AB
and Development. I think the perception held by many
is that the University is now involved in the AB's
plans, but the College Community STILL has no
representation/participation in the University. This
was expressed in particular regarding the dismissal of
Lawry- while the AB had a relationship with the
Chancellor and the Board and could phone them up to
find out what was going on, the College community had
no such channel available to them.

-The mention of the AB looking for land & building
development by an alumni who works for the army. Some
felt that this meant RD was saying that the army was
going to come in and develop campus
buildings/land/etc. My recommendation is that someone
provide some further
info on this and on the alum(SOON)- I've mentioned to
the record editor that an interview with the alum
might
be a good idea. I think that getting out information
on who she is, what her perspective is, and what her
thoughts are would be GREAT and VITAL transparency for
the AB.

-The mention of land development, again in the form of
a senior center. This idea presented in this way,
well, sucks. Drop the 'senior center' talk. YS already
has one. Instead, lets talk about the true issue-
obtaining value from our assets, including land, that
can potentially turn into long-term revenue generating
operations, instead of short-term financial benefits.

-When mentioning governance, an impression that Adcil,
its history, and its members are being slighted. Rick
mentioned (and I paraphrase) 'we want adcil to be
smart again, to be the committee that "of course you
seek your input"'.

-Ok, lets talk about money. I really didn't learn much
that I didn't already know prior to Thursday. We know
that the College can not operate on a tuition basis.
We know that the tuition revenue has gone down by 40%
since 2001. 

We know that the University believes its put a lot of
money into College deficits. We know that the
University feels the College should have budgeted
overhead payments to the University. 

We know that the College very likely still hasn't
received enough money back to cover what the College
lost with the creation of the Network.

What is going on right now, is the Alumni Board is
developing a business plan for FUTURE operations of
the College. That plan will take money. Lots of it. If
the AB plan is accepted at the October Board meeting,
I'm sure we'll have details of where exactly each
chunk of money will go. I can't say if some has to go
to the University or not yet- the plan hasn't been
developed. However, I think a STRONG case could be
made that for investor confidence, IF money has to go
to the University, we have to have a VERY clear
accounting of WHAT has to go to the University, and
WHY. 

-Issues with the AB, what its doing, and transparency.
Summed up in one comment-"What good does it do to
replace one closed board with another?" Thursday's
meeting was a great time for the AB to hear from the
community, and hear their concerns. HEAR THEM. Don't
dismiss them based on identity politics, perception of
lack of knowledge or participation, or just cause you
haven't had coffee that morning. Hopefully, the AB's
staffed office in town will go a long way towards
establishing dialog between the various
constituencies.


There's a lot more I can say regarding the last few
days, but this is primarily a message following up on
the Thursday afternoon town meeting, so I'll end
here.. plus, I need more coffee.

-laura



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