Buy Your Own College

One group of graduates is adding meaning to the expression "givie it the 'ole college try." The students have raised millions of dollars in an effort to reopen Antioch College, a small university in Yellow Springs, Ohio, that shut its doors in June 2008. If the alumni are successful, the college could see its new incoming class as soon as 2011.

It's easy to see why the small university is held in such high regard by the group of former students and the Yellow Springs community. According to an article in today's LA Times, the college and its town served as a center of radical thought and progressive activism in the 1960s, setting itself apart from its conservative home state. Antioch College was one of the first coed colleges in the nation and it was the first to name a woman as a full professor. It was also one of the first universities to eliminate race requirements, which is fitting seeing as Yellow Springs was one of the last stops in the Underground Railroad. The college itself was a vital part of Yellow Springs -- at least one in five of the town's 3,800 residents attended or have family that attended Antioch, and the school brought needed employment and tax revenue to the small town.

So far, alumni have raised about $6.2 million, but they still have a ways to go. They must hire faculty members, renovate the buildings and raise an additional $40 million to maintain an adequate operational budget.

Let's hope the group of grads can pull the whole thing off -- it would be inspiring to see a school and a town get a second chance at success.

Photo courtesy of StockXchange.