Dear Antiochians!
For the past four decades, I have devoted my career to teaching and serving a most remarkable university. At Antioch, I found kindred travelers: students, colleagues and friends. In courses, meetings and university events, I experienced shared values, commitment to strong ideals, and a passion for social action. Antioch has not been just a job; it has been a calling.
Now everything we have worked for is at great risk. Despite our best efforts to form the Coalition for the Common Good, a partnership with Otterbein University, we are now subject to the very real threat of a hostile take-over. Legal steps have been taken by the CCG to dismiss our Antioch President and Board of Governors—in short, a take-over of Antioch University. Our independence is at stake; indeed our very existence is threatened.
Those wanting more details can delve into the various legal documents and background information to be found at a special site created for that purpose: Antioch Forward. But the key is this call to action. We must speak, indeed shout out with one voice against this terrible injustice.
We have thousands of alums in schools, clinics, environmental organizations, businesses, government, social services – we need you to raise your voices in one mighty protest. As faculty and students, we might be able to have a Teach In.
As alumni and friends please write to the CCG board members, your friends and contacts. Letters of Support are being collected and posted in solidarity with Antioch. Share your experience or submit an encouraging note to President Varlotta and Chair Crandall via email [email protected] or at the bottom of this FAQ page. Reach out to your community partners and personal networks. Ask them all to join us in protest.
For if the CCG board should succeed in squashing us, it would not just be the loss of a university we love, one that has played such a pivotal role in so many lives, but a betrayal of the ideals we have stood for since 1852.
We need you now.
Yours truly,
Torin M Finser PhD
Core Faculty, Education