YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio
Cash-strapped Antioch College held a bittersweet commencement ceremony Saturday as officials moved ahead with plans to close the school this summer until it gets back on its feet.
The pioneering, private liberal arts college announced last year that because of declining enrollment, heavy dependence on tuition and a small endowment, the college would close to reorganize and would reopen in 2012, possibly sooner.
A group of wealthy alumni and former trustees scrambled to raise money to purchase the school, but negotiations broke down when the group couldn’t come up with $12.2 million to take over operations and keep the school running.
Some of the 101 graduates who gathered in an auditorium Saturday still held out hope that a deal could be reached.
“I wish I had something to tell you, but I don’t,” said trustee Sharon Merriman. “But we know many of you broke your necks to graduate, and the trustees are very proud of you.”
About 200 students were enrolled during the academic year. Faculty members and students found creative ways to finish the year, with many third-year students cramming their junior and senior years together to graduate.
