2008

Terror at 25,000 feet

Cruising at an altitude of 25,000 feet towards a 2002 Antioch University Board of Trustee meeting, Chairman-elect Dan Kaplan has an in-flight epiphany – the Board lacks information that would help them to steer the institution and the Executive Committee has possibly usurped the functions of the full Board. Kaplan reports that the Board has not been given information it needs to make “strategic, macro decisions,” a startling admission given the fact the Board has just terminated the College’s Strategic Plan based on the advice of an allegedly small secretive committee of the Board (see article Antioch Confidential ).

anti_kaplan.pdf [1.03MB], Documents

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Excerpts:

“Does the information we as a board receive help us steer the institution? I think the answer is no… As I sat on the plane yesterday plowing through the financial documents we were provided, I thought — I cannot tell from all of this material, how we are doing… How many faculty do we have? What are the faculty earning on average? Are our enrollment numbers up or down… Not one of those questions was answered in the document we received.” Page 2

“The business of the Executive Committee is to transact the business of the University only when it is not feasible for the full board to meet. The Executive Committee must in no way usurp the functions of the Board. That bears repeating… I want this to go away. It gets in the way of doing Antioch’s business, of building a better, stronger Antioch.” Page 4