02 April 2008 Wednesday

DailyKos discussing the purchase of Antioch College

Posted yesterday: Can we kossacks buy a College? Update

This sounds like April fools but it’s not. today Ella H posted this http://www.dailykos.com/… about the sale of Antioch college. I am proposing that we, as kossacks, buy it!

After comments, I have changed the title. The previous title was “Buy Dkos a College” and this was confusing. What I meant is that as a community we have the financial ability to actually buy a college. It would obviously take the development of an entity to deal with the financial part of it, such as a 501c-3, but people here are resourceful. This is meant as a call-out to those who think it is worth the trouble, those who may think they can contribute expertise and anyone who is willing to see an effort like this.

According to a comment below, the college is not actually for sale, but the current admins are trying actively to kill it so the assets can be sold. Accckkk!

DailyKos has always been a great community — a great site even before it was a full community — so it’s nice to see some attention there on this subject. Some good comments and a bit of background information on the situation of Antioch College and its destruction threatened by the University system it founded, so I won’t go into additional explanation here. It’s a pretty confusing situation, but the bottom line is that Antioch College should be saved, and the University system has not offered any reassurance that they are interested in the well-being and sustainability of the College as the bastion of liberal arts education that it has been for over 150 years.

I’m trying to get caught up on the situation and at least skim through the emails (over 50 threads a day)… However it’s achieved, whether DailyKos or some other entity has a hand in it or not, I hope the College is able to be kept safe from those who were willing to dismantle it, and that it is revitalized and re-equipped to address its original mission — winning victories for humanity.

*edit: I think tsanford put this very well, referring to the article in the Chronicle

the state of Trustees: they have taken on the role of a Board of Directors and seek to cut the educational model to keep institutions afloat rather than fulfill their duty to raise some money.