Miami Valley styles
Cold weather arrives
'Tis the Season Festival
Antioch cites inability to compete for 'new millennium student' in closing
Photos | More coverage
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
YELLOW SPRINGS — — When Antioch College temporarily shuts its campus on July 1, 2008, the school will try to overhaul its finances, academic programs and overall structure to emerge in 2012 as a viable institution with its offbeat character intact.
Previous cost-cutting measures — postponing building maintenance, faculty and staff layoffs, and academic program changes — have not only failed to bring the college back to financial health, school officials said Tuesday, the measures have eroded the confidence of students and parents in the school's ability to educate.
Extras
"Our operational problems are complex" and have snowballed for a decade, said Mary Lou LaPierre, vice chancellor for university advancement.
There's the enrollment drop, which Antioch attributes to a confusing curriculum and dated facilities that don't meet the expectations of potential students.
"We're heavily dependent on that tuition revenue," said LaPierre. "Liberal arts schools are competing for that new millennium student who wants a certain modern campus experience, which we don't have."
There's also the school's drained endowment, which is small to begin with and hasn't been beefed up because of poor fundraising, LaPierre said.
The college fell significantly short of a $65 million fundraising campaign this year, and much of what had been already raised was in the form of future commitments or earmarked for the endowment.
The school's endowment provides about 4 percent of its financial resources, while other schools get about a third of their resources from endowments, said LaPierre.
Antioch College is a part of the Antioch University system that includes Antioch McGregor, also in Yellow Springs; a graduate school in New Hampshire; a campus in Seattle; and Antioch Southern California, which has campuses in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
The other campuses, which focus mostly on training adults already in the work force, have been helping to subsidize the $20 million annual budget of Antioch College, which is the system's flagship.
"But it hasn't been enough to make up the difference," LaPierre said.
Antioch's challenges are not unique in Ohio, according to C. Todd Jones, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio.
"Most independent colleges are tuition dependent, and if students don't enroll, the schools won't make it," Jones said. "They just operate on a different financial model" than big, public institutions, he said.
All institutions, he said, struggle to recruit students shopping for campuses that meet their lifestyle needs.
"They want semi-private bathrooms in their dorms, wireless Internet everywhere and a gym. The campus experience they want is different from 15 years ago," Jones said.
Antioch was unable to complete a 2004 plan to overhaul some facilities because of a budget shortfall, LaPierre said.
When the school goes dark in 2008 for at least four years, it will maintain facilities. But the doors will be closed and 160 faculty and staff will have to look for jobs elsewhere. Two Antioch University commissions will evaluate the future of the campus, but the school has yet to figure out any further details, said LaPierre.
Jones said he expects Antioch will reopen after it regroups in four years.
In most cases when a college runs out of money it closes for good and knows it can't reopen, Jones said.
"But Antioch is different," he said. "Its heritage and alumni make it different. I think it stands a real good chance."
Will WYSO be affected?
WYSO-FM (91.3), the public radio station that broadcasts from Yellow Springs as a service of Antioch University, does not appear to be in danger.
"WYSO is licensed to Antioch University, not Antioch College," said Paul Maassen, general manager of WYSO. "The university is fine; the university system is not being closed or anything. As far as I know, it doesn't affect us."
Will Antioch University McGregor be affected?
No. Antioch University McGregor is a separate institution from Antioch College. Both are in the Antioch University system. McGregor offers programs geared toward working adults, with classes mostly on weekends. It will move to a new facility in Yellow Springs in September.
