Alumni to unveil plan to halt Antioch's closing
Oct 4, 2007 at 12:01 AM Oct 5, 2007 at 10:43 AM
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio (AP) -- Alumni of Antioch College will present a plan at the end of the month to keep the school from temporarily closing, a trustee said yesterday.
About a dozen school officials and alumni representatives met in Denver for five hours to discuss the future of the college, said Art Zucker, chairman of the school's board of trustees.
Zucker said alumni have raised about $12 million in cash and pledges to try to keep the college from closing next summer. He declined to discuss fundraising goals or any other specifics of the meeting.
Antioch officials announced in June that they intend to restructure the college, upgrade facilities and reopen in 2012.
Enrollment at Antioch, a private liberal-arts college about 15 miles east of Dayton known for its social activism and creative approach to education, has fallen from 2,000 students in the 1960s to about 250.
In August, the college announced that trustees had agreed to work with alumni .
Toni Murdock, chancellor of Antioch University, has estimated it will take about $50 million to make improvements and operate the school.
Antioch College, founded in 1852, is the flagship for Antioch University, which has five other campuses in Ohio and on the East and West coasts.