The issues raised in Chancellor Murdoch’s communication addressing AAUP president Cary Nelson’s INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION’S open letter about Antioch’s future concern all Antioch students, faculty, and alumni. As Cary makes clear, he attended a series of meetings in Yellow Springs in June. There he would have heard BOT members and university officials repeatedly assert that the five satellite campuses are healthy and operating in the black. They are endangered, so university officials testified, only by their association with Antioch College.

If the college is sold to the ACCC, therefore, the risk to the other campuses is eliminated and their 200 faculty protected. Of course faculty anywhere can call on the AAUP for assistance, as Antioch College faculty did. It is a fundamental tenet of AAUP policy that faculty must be given an opportunity to present and discuss alternatives before serious actions are taken under a declaration of financial exigency. It is a matter of record that the Antioch College faculty had no opportunity to do so. Now an alternative is on the table.

The Committee A staff–not Nelson and the other elected leaders–handle complaints about academic freedom and tenure. Early in March the national staff member coordinating the Antioch case wrote to express the AAUP’s official concern that the BOT make every effort to accommodate the ACCC offer. Failure to save tenure at Antioch–if a viable means exists–could trigger further AAUP actions. Now Cary Nelson has added his personal voice to those encouraging open communication and agreement with the ACCC to keep Antioch College alive and well.

Bob

Yellow Springs, Ohio

September 26, 2007

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS EXPRESSES ADDITIONAL CONCERNS ABOUT ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP

The American Association of University Professors, the largest and most prominent advocacy organization for higher education faculty in the United States, has issued a second letter to Tullisse A. Murdock, Antioch University Chancellor, and Art Zucker, Chair of the Antioch University Board of Trustees. The September 19 AAUP letter reiterates the Association’s earlier concerns that College governance procedures and College Faculty Personnel Policies were bypassed in the June 2007 announcement of the upcoming suspension of Antioch College operations due to financial exigency. This second letter also calls attention to the AAUP’s heightened concerns about responsible stewardship and the preservation of tenure in the wake of recent administrative upheaval and of newly-released information about the proposed direction of a reconstituted Antioch College.

The AAUP letter provides a brief recap of some significant recent events. Following the June announcement, Antioch College Faculty responded with a lawsuit attempting to halt the suspension of operations at the College; the suit alleges that “less drastic means existed and exist to address the financial crisis,” and that the Board of Trustees had ignored institutional personnel procedures and long-standing traditions of participatory governance. On August 27 a meeting between the University Board and College faculty, alumni, staff, and local supporters yielded a resolution in which the Board agreed to consider Alumni proposals regarding the financial and academic feasibility of keeping the College open. This cooperative effort was jeopardized a week later when the Chancellor unexpectedly eliminated the position of the College President, placing President Steven Lawry on administrative leave four months earlier than his planned departure. On the same day, the fundraising and communications operations of the College Office of Development were shut down, and only restored through intervention by members of the Alumni Board. In the aftermath, the Faculty voted “no confidence” in the leadership of Chancellor Murdock. The AAUP cites these actions by the University leadership as possible evidence of continued violations of College governance procedures and the ongoing lack of “meaningful faculty participation” in important decisions affecting the survival of the College.

New information released by the University about the College’s potential 2012 reopening without a tenured faculty has increased the AAUP’s concern that the proposed suspension of operations involves an attack on the system of tenure. While all parties agree that the financial situation confronting the College over the past several years has been a serious one, the current AAUP letter questions whether the University administration has demonstrated that the criteria for declaring bona fide financial exigency–”an imminent financial crisis which threatens the survival of the institution as a whole and that cannot be alleviated by less drastic means than the termination of tenured appointments”–have indeed been met.

The AAUP notes the lack of response to their earlier letter of concern regarding the June 2007 actions taken by the University Board of Trustees, and continues to invite the University leadership’s comments on the issues they and the College Faculty have brought forward.