Save Antioch College as a progressive residential liberal-arts college with a tenured faculty.

We, the undersigned higher-education professionals, urge that Antioch College be reopened as a four-year residential liberal-arts institution at the earliest possible time, so that it can continue its historic mission of educating students to–in the words of its first President Horace Mann–“win victories for humanity.”

Antioch University’s administration and Board of Trustees announced last year that the University would close Antioch College due to alleged financial exigency, without consulting the faculty or alerting alumni to the gravity of the situation. When alumni demonstrated significant financial support for an independent Antioch College, the Board rejected three viable plans to keep the College open. We believe that it is time for Antioch University to step aside and cede control of Antioch College to alumni and faculty holding the needed skills, resources, and determination to restore and maintain this institution.

In line with the recent Antioch University Board of Trustees resolution inviting a new proposal from the Antioch College Alumni Association, we call on the board to facilitate transfer of the College and its assets in a manner that will allow it to reopen as soon as possible under the able stewardship of faculty and alumni who have worked tirelessly to support this institution.

We applaud the work of Nonstop Antioch, a coalition of alumni, community members and friends dedicated to saving the College, and the ongoing parallel efforts of the dismissed College faculty to continue the Antioch College tradition of progressive academic and civic education in Yellow Springs next year. The Nonstop educational enterprise is built on Antioch’s core values, distinguished by high academic standards, a co-op structure of work and study, dedication to social justice, and community governance.

We urge that this tradition be preserved, along with the tradition of tenure and unionized labor, in the form of an autonomous Antioch College.