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