Noooooo! Antioch College (Yellow Springs OH) might be closing.

[Blue-Jay]

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio -- When Hope Anne Nathan, class of '92, heard the word "Chicago," her eyes widened.

"If you run into Oprah, tell her that $41 million saves us," said Nathan, with an eager, earnest, maybe-I'm-not-really-kidding sort of smile.

The scenario whereby a talk-show tycoon swoops in to save a doomed college might sound like the plot of a feel-good movie, but stranger miracles have occurred. And Antioch College, a tangerine dream of a place that sticks out in the featureless farmland of west-central Ohio like an odd treasure found in the attic, is a bit of a strange miracle itself.

The college, founded in 1852 with Horace Mann serving as its first president, was among the first schools to indulge the outlandish notion that female faculty should be treated equally with male, that black and white students ought to learn together, that grades may not be the best measure of progress, that education is not just a matter of abstract theories but also hands-on experience.

link: http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/news/celebrity/mmx-antioch_bdjun24,0,5377682.story?coll=mmx-celebrity_heds

Shit. Yellow Springs is my favorite little village in the world. I practically grew up there. This news makes me want to cry.

[AX10]

1. What happened?

[Xithras]

4. Basically, declining enrollment.

Most private universities nowadays exist on a combination of tuition revenue, profit from research patents, and either interest or direct revenue from endowments. Antioch is seeing declining enrollment, it has no investment base to draw from, and its endowments are pathetically small for a university of its stature.

Basically, there's not enough money to keep it operating.

[freeplessinseattle]

2. Nooooo! that is a very special school

I attended Antioch Seattle and always dreamed of finishing up at the Yellow Springs campus. It has such a rich history, one of the first truly progressive schools, and was even part of the underground railroad.

This makes me so sad!

[ConsAreLiars]

3. That would be a great loss to the world.

When I attended it offered the ideal mix of educational experiences. I assume these things have not changed. A diverse student body with every single student involved year-round in alternating quarters devoted to on-campus study (and more), and work at the lower tiers of whatever types of occupations the student might wish to explore, wherever, in cities all around the country plus some outside the country.

I can't imagine any better program for providing young adults the kind of breadth of experiences that would enable them to have some real understanding of the world they were a part of, and thus become a truly educated individual.

(edit typo)