Antioch wants faculty suit ended

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio (AP) — Antioch University asked a judge Friday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by faculty members who want to keep Antioch College from temporarily closing in June.

The college is known for inspiring quirky academic programs that produce students with a passion for free thinking and social activism. In recent years, it has struggled with declining enrollment, heavy dependence on tuition and a small endowment.

The university, which governs the college in this southwest Ohio village, said the lawsuit is a tactic by teachers to get the university to sell the college to alumni operating as the Antioch College Continuation Corp.

The faculty members who filed the lawsuit in Greene County Common Pleas Court said they want to keep classes going and keep the governing board from selling any assets.

The university denied that its decision to suspend operations violates its contract with the faculty. And it said the lawsuit will impede any mutally agreed-upon resolution of the college’s future.

Trustees for the governing board plan to close the college June 30 and keep it closed for the 2008-09 academic year. University spokeswoman Lynda Sirk said the trustees want to reopen the college by 2012 or as soon as possible.

Last month, trustees reaffirmed their June 2007 decision to temporarily close the college. They said they ran out of time to reach a deal on transferring the school to a group of alumni, donors and others with its own board of trustees.

Trustees had reversed their earlier decision in November, contingent on whether alumni and the school could meet fundraising deadlines.

The college, founded in 1852 and located about 15 miles east of Dayton, is the flagship for Antioch University, which has five other campuses in Ohio and on the East and West coasts.