By Peter Townsend
First, a disclaimer - I am not an alum and I am not a lawyer. But I am the lead plaintiff in the faculty lawsuit, so I’m going to try to bring you abreast of where we are and how we got here. Please forgive me if my lack of legal expertise causes any mistakes in this communication.
The Antioch College faculty have a clause in our contract requiring that in the event of a financial crisis at the College, the College Faculty must be consulted and Antioch University must work with College Faculty and ADCIL to find the “least drastic solution” to the fiscal crisis. Last summer it struck a few faculty that AU administration and the AU BOT precipitously announcing the college’s closing did not constitute “consultation” with the faculty, and that closing the place perhaps did not represent the “least drastic solution” to the problems at Antioch College.
Consequently the faculty formed a small legal group that selected Evan Price, of Bailey Cavalieri, Columbus, Ohio to represent us. Evan is doing a fantastic job for the faculty and, because our legal case is about keeping the college open, Evan is doing a great job for everyone who wants Antioch College to continue.
The faculty filed for a preliminary injunction to force AU to abide by our contract and work with the faculty and ADCIL to find a “least drastic solution”, and in the meantime to not sell any College assets. To see the actual court filing by the faculty, click: collegefaculty.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/faculty-lawsuit-edited.pdf
Our case is in the Greene County Ohio Common Pleas Court, which is the lowest level State Court. Elected Judge Stephen Wolaver was assigned the case. Sometimes Magistrate Judges are also assigned to a case. Recently Magistrate Judge George Reynolds was assigned to our case.
On March 18, 2008, Magistrate Judge Reynolds scheduled an Evidentiary Hearing for April 1, 2008, from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. at the Greene County Ohio Courthouse.
At the April 1 hearing both sides will call witnesses, and the witnesses will testify in open court. I am predicting the courtroom will be packed with extremely interested folks.
The April 1 hearing was not expected by either side, and it has both sides scrambling. On the county WEB site:http://www.co.greene.oh.us/pa/pa.urd/pamw2000*docket_lst?316215 there a list of people our lawyer was going to depose. That list is for the case going forward, not for the April 1 Evidentiary Hearing before Judge Reynolds.
Last week lawyers for the faculty and Antioch University agreed they would take depositions before the April 1 hearing. Both sides are still scrambling to decide whom they will call for witnesses, and both sides are working frantically to schedule the depositions. The people being deposed are not necessarily the same people we indicated in our filing. This case is now moving forward at warp speed.
On March 17, 2008, the University’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case. Because of court rules on timing of responses to a motion to dismiss, the motion to dismiss cannot be ruled upon by the court until after the April 1 hearing. Which means that, even if the case were to be dismissed, there will already have been testimony in open court, with reporters and witnesses present. Woohoo!
The Antioch College faculty believe that after looking over our lawsuit, you will agree that our suit is not for personal faculty gain, it is about trying to save the college. We are well aware of the efforts of ACCC to save the college. In fact, ACCC represents our “least drastic solution”. The University has sworn ACCC to total secrecy, but we do know that many millions of dollars have been offered by generous alumni to keep Antioch College open and free. It is our contention that this generous outpouring of money represents a “less drastic solution” to shuttering the College, and our suit is urging the AU BOT to strike a deal with ACCC.
Legal stuff is not cheap. So far the Antioch College faculty have raised $60,000 for the case through both personal faculty donations and through generous non-faculty donations. We are a small and poorly paid faculty, in jeopardy for our financial futures, and $60K represents all the $ we can muster. We need help, if we are going to move the case forward. We hope you will donate to our legal fund to help keep Antioch College going. If you wish to donate to help us, please send a check endorsed to the Antioch Faculty Legal Fund to:
YS Federal Credit Union
217 Xenia Avenue
Yellow Springs, OH 45387
Telephone 937-767-7377
www.yscu.org/1.php
The wonderful staff at the Yellow Springs Credit Union will ensure the check gets deposited to the faculty legal fund account, and we thank you so much. This is not tax deductible.
Or you can make donations directly via PayPal on our website:
collegefaculty.org/
However, Paypal takes a small percentage of all donations made via this method so mailing a check to the above address is better for large donations.
Yours for the future of Antioch College,
Peter Townsend
Professor since ‘71
