Ding dong, Antioch is not dead

News stories about Antioch's closure next year have already decided the college is dead. But not even the Antioch administration ever said they plannned to permanently close the school. Antioch has been to the brink of closure and beyond, then come back, more than once.

Antioch can make a comeback and turn this story around. To start, the Chicago Tribune posted this response by Antiochian Ed Koziarski to reporter Julia Keller's story, which was one of many prematurely ringing funeral bells for the school. As Ed writes:

The alumni reunion weekend was not a wake for a dying institution.Beyond the contentious Friday meeting that anchors the article, there was a much more inspiring story.

The alumni of Antioch College, along with faculty and community residents, are doing everything in our power to assure that the college remains open well beyond the 2008 "suspension" date announced earlier this month by the administration of Antioch University. We will not let Antioch die.

The college is small, and its financial crisis is real. But it holds a vital place in American higher education as a training ground for free thinkers and innovators in art, science, media, social service and other disciplines, as well as the activism for which it is widely known.

There are thousands of students who seek the kind of education that Antioch provides, rooted in independent thought, imagination, pragmatism, compassion and a willingness to challenge the status quo.

The problem is that the present university and college administration have lacked the confidence in these values that they need in order to successfully promote the college to prospective students, donors and the media. The announced closure is a wake-up call to revitalize Antioch and make it financially self-sustaining once again.

The Columbus Dispatch has this:

Perhaps that is why all of the fuss about plans to close the college is a puzzle for some.

Those who do not call themselves Antiochians may not realize the irony of the announcement. This private, liberal-arts college teaches that activism is more than a buzzword, that contributing to society is a mission, that participatory democracy is life's requirement.

And now, with word that the campus founded by the Christian Church in 1852 will close next year, the people who learned social justice at the hip of Antioch leaders find themselves pushing against the establishment that nurtured them.

The alumni are meeting in bars, libraries and living rooms across the country. They want to keep the college open, protect its assets and establish a local board of trustees to take control away from the larger system of Antioch University. They have raised a half-million dollars in three weeks. They promise to fight to save their school.