YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio

Hanging by a chain from the ceiling in the main hallway of Antioch Hall is a black sign that reads: “Office of Transition.” The placard points Antioch College students to the place that can help them transfer from the private liberal arts college known for its social activism and creative approach to education, now on the brink of shutting its doors.

The administration’s plan to temporarily close the school has rallied alumni to help raise funds for the college. So far, they have received cash or pledges worth about $15 million.

“This is the only chance we’ll ever have because if we blow this, it’s gone,” said Rick Daily, executive director and treasurer of the Antioch alumni association.

School officials announced this summer that because of declining enrollments, heavy dependence on tuition and a small endowment, Antioch will close after the spring term, reorganize and reopen in 2012.

The college, founded in 1852, is the flagship for Antioch University, which has five other campuses in Ohio and on the East and West coasts.

“Our financial situation hasn’t changed since the June meeting,” Dr. Toni Murdock, chancellor of Antioch University, said Friday. “The financial situation was extremely severe regarding our cash flow to the point that the entire university was in jeopardy.”

Murdock believes the alumni must have a plan to sustain Antioch College for the next three years.

Antioch, which costs $36,000 a year to attend, has an $18 million operating budget and a $2.6 million deficit.

The alma mater of Coretta Scott King, “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling and two Nobel Prize winners, Antioch doesn’t grade classes, it encourages students to develop their own study plans and combines academic learning with experience through a co-op program in which students leave campus to work in various fields.

Over the years, activism and civil disobedience became part of the school’s fabric, with anti-war protests and weekly peace vigils in the 1960s.