Dive Brief:
- Antioch University is facing what it calls a “hostile takeover” as the coalition it co-founded is seeking to fire the institution’s leader and control its finances and governance.
- On Friday, the Coalition for the Common Good’s board leaders voted to dissolve Antioch’s governing board and take over its bank account and funds, Antioch President Lori Varlotta announced that day.
- Antioch’s board sued in state court the day of the vote, arguing that the coalition lacked authority over the university’s operations. On Tuesday, the university won a court order temporarily barring CCG from moving to access Antioch’s bank accounts or dissolve its board.
Dive Insight:
Antioch alleges that the CCG executive committee held a closed-door vote to dissolve the university’s board, violating its contract with Antioch and the spirit of the coalition.
Antioch co-founded CCG in 2023 with fellow Ohio private institution Otterbein University as a partnership to share academic and operational resources.
Per the contract, Antioch’s board of governors chooses four members for the nine-person CCG board. Those members also constitute what is called the “Antioch Standing Committee,” which the university argues must approve changes to the coalition’s bylaws and major operational matters for Antioch.
Antioch argued that no major changes to the university’s operations, accreditation or arrangement with the CCG can happen without the standing committee’s approval, meaning the coalition lacks the authority to dissolve Antioch’s board of governors or take over its bank accounts.
Otterbein President John Comerford, who is also president of CCG, attempted to fire Varlotta last week, Antioch alleged in a status update filed with the court on Sunday.
In a brief filed on Tuesday, CCG called the status update “unverified” and “inaccurate” but did not elaborate. Neither Comerford nor CCG responded to questions at publication time.
For now, Antioch said in an FAQ page that its leaders will avoid any meetings with CCG leaders and not follow any directives from the coalition’s board “until the Court sorts this out.” The university FAQ also said that “Antioch’s affiliation with CCG is not beneficial or sustainable in its current form.”
Last year, Varlotta became the 23rd president of Antioch, which has locations in California, Washington and New England and an academic portfolio focused largely on graduate education.
Shortly after stepping into the role, as well as into the position of CCG executive vice president, Varlotta told Higher Ed Dive that Antioch aimed to function as the graduate system for the coalition. At the time, she said she hoped CCG could someday grow to half a dozen or a dozen institutional members.
“The exciting thing about the coalition is that all of the individual undergraduate institutions retain their governing board, their mission, their brand and their institutional undergraduate offerings,” she said then. “They’re not giving any of that up.”
Across its campuses and online education, Antioch has over 5,000 students, according to institutional data. Federal data shows that Otterbein, based in Ohio and focused on undergraduates, has about half as many.
According to Antioch’s complaint, Varlotta began voicing concerns about the coalition shortly after starting.
She “raised serious questions about CCG’s long-term strategy and financial viability” to the coalition’s leadership, Antioch said in its complaint. “Her analysis showed that CCG was in financial trouble, that it had not fulfilled its goal of attracting other institutions, and that continued financial distress would interfere with Antioch’s ability to serve its students.”
But CCG leaders sought to shut down the inquiry, according to Antioch.
Open conflict broke out between Antioch and the coalition this summer. In late May, CCG board Chair Dan Gifford — a retired software company CFO with long-standing ties to Otterbein — and Vice Chair Charlene Hayes sent a meeting notice to Antioch, Otterbein and CCG leadership. On June 30, the notice said, the CCG board could vote to dissolve Antioch’s board unless the coalition hashed out “comprehensive, meaningful and definitively actionable recommendations that are fully supported by all parties.”
In a June 22 letter to the Otterbein and CCG boards, Antioch attorneys described this proposed move as “a hostile takeover that is both unlawful and misguided.”
Coalition leaders, meanwhile, also tried to pressure Varlotta out of her roles. According to the university’s complaint, an independent investigator hired by CCB concluded that Otterbein’s Comerford “treated and spoke to Dr. Varlotta in an unprofessional and verbally intimidating manner.”
Later that week, Gifford and Hayes issued a written warning to Varlotta and later suggested it could take disciplinary action, including termination, against her, according to the complaint.
The day the vote was scheduled, CCG did not act on it and instead agreed to mediation, according to Antioch’s lawsuit. Mediation had been scheduled for this Thursday.
But conflict quickly resumed. The coalition wanted to charge Antioch for legal and consulting expenses related to its takeover efforts, according to Antioch’s complaint. Then on Aug. 28, the CCG executive committee voted to dissolve Antioch’s board of governors.
Varlotta announced the vote and Antioch’s lawsuit that same day, while also assuring staff and faculty that the spat wouldn’t disrupt courses or workflows.
“We will do everything we can to preserve this institution, maintain its independence, and safeguard its mission,” Varlotta said Friday in the public message. “Antioch University does not exist because of the Coalition; we founded the Coalition and never could have imagined that creating this ambitious enterprise — which began as ‘a coalition of equals’ — would lead to an attempted hostile takeover by our inaugural partner.”
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