The Coalition for the Common Good’s president told Antioch University’s accreditor last week that he has authority to “take any and all actions necessary” on accreditation-related matters for Antioch.
CCG President John Comerford also told the Higher Learning Commission in the Oct. 1 letter that the coalition plans to appoint a new acting president of Antioch. On Tuesday, less than a week after his letter, Antioch President Lori Varlotta and members of her cabinet met with the HLC amid the governance turmoil.
“The assertion by CCG and Otterbein President John Comerford that he has been delegated the authority to serve as Antioch’s voice on Accreditation matters is not recognized by the commission itself,” Michelle Finley, Antioch’s accreditation liaison officer, said Tuesday in an emailed statement.
A spokesperson for the HLC did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
In an emailed statement Tuesday, the CCG said, “The HLC letter speaks for itself.”
Comerford’s move is one of the latest escalations in CCG’s ongoing battle with Antioch over control and governance of the university. The pair are battling it out in Ohio state court, and CCG faces a new discrimination lawsuit from Varlotta in California state court.
Antioch launched the coalition in 2023 with Otterbein to bring together institutions with similar missions to collaborate on shared services, academic programming and other areas. But a bitter feud erupted between CCG and Antioch earlier this year, culminating in the coalition voting in late August to dissolve the university's advisory board of governors. The Antioch board sued CCG in response.
Throughout the dispute, CCG has maintained it has full fiduciary authority over Antioch. When the coalition launched, the university reincorporated as CCG and became a division of the corporate parent. This was meant as a temporary arrangement needed to win regulatory approval for the coalition’s structure, current and former Antioch leaders have said.
Antioch was dealt a legal blow on Sept. 28, when the court ruled that the board of governors lacked standing to sue. The same day, a previous court order blocking CCG from dissolving the board of governors lapsed.
Since then, CCG and Comerford have moved to take control of Antioch despite a different plaintiff — one of CCG’s board members selected by the university — refiling the lawsuit.
Last week, Comerford attempted to put Varlotta on administrative leave and instructed high-level administrators to stop communicating on behalf of Antioch’s board of governors. Comerford also told them to take down an Antioch website related to the dispute, which remains live as of Tuesday afternoon and published his letter to the HLC.
In the letter, Comerford notified the accreditation body that CCG dissolved the board of governors. CCG’s founding bylaws task a committee composed of four board members chosen by Antioch with overseeing the university’s operations “in consultation” with Antioch’s board of governors.
Comerford told the HLC that the action did not represent a change of control in need of the accreditor’s approval.
“The CCG Board has plenary authority over Antioch University’s operations” and the board of governor’s duties “can be revisited, modified, or terminated by the CCG Board at any time or for any reason,” Comerford wrote. “Nothing in the CCG organizational documents provides otherwise.”
Similar arguments by CCG have been fiercely contested in court and public statements by Antioch’s board of governors and Varlotta, who allege that CCG violated its bylaws when voting to dissolve the board and take other measures to assert control over Antioch’s finances and operations.
Another legal battle begins
As Comerford looks to take the reins of Antioch, CCG also faces a lawsuit filed by Varlotta on Sept. 28 in California state court.
In her complaint, Varlotta alleges CCG leaders retaliated and discriminated against her following complaints she made about Comerford’s behavior after a conflict emerged over the coalition’s structure and future in February.
According to Varlotta’s complaint, the dispute arose after she and her cabinet issued findings raising concerns about Antioch’s financial relationship to the CCG and Otterbein.
Antioch was intended to be the graduate education provider of the coalition. Once it was established as such, Otterbein transferred graduate programs to Antioch when the coalition launched. Most of those programs had gone through revenue declines that added pressure to Antioch’s finances, according to Varlotta’s team.
In response to the findings, Varlotta alleges that Comerford “attributed his negative reaction to the team’s analysis to her alone, attacked her motives and professional judgment with gender-specific terms rather than addressing the substance of the analysis, and personalized his criticism of her.”
Her complaint quotes Comerford as calling her analysis “biased,” “manipulative,” “entirely negative” and a “full disavowal of what we are trying to build here” while describing Varlotta as “showing off” and being “adversarial.”
Meanwhile, the complaint alleges, Comerford spoke in different terms with Antioch’s male CFO, who produced much of the analysis, by engaging with him about the “substance and specific details” of the team’s findings.
“By contrast, Comerford directed a concentrated series of unprofessional emails, text messages, and voicemail communications to Dr. Varlotta concerning those same materials, despite the fact that she had not prepared the financial analysis,” the complaint states.
Varlotta filed a formal HR complaint against Comerford on March 29. An independent investigator later determined Comerford had violated the university’s employee code of conduct by speaking to Varlotta in an “unprofessional and verbally intimidating manner” and hampered her ability to carry out her job duties, according to her lawsuit.
In an emailed comment Tuesday, CCG’s board said it hired independent external investigators to review “internal complaints raised by Ms. Varlotta” but said their probe “did not substantiate allegations of harassment or discrimination, and the appeal process related to that matter is now in its final stages.”
“The CCG Board remains focused on supporting Antioch’s students, faculty and staff and ensuring strong, effective leadership for the university,” it said in the statement.
In a previous interview with Higher Ed Dive, Comerford said of her initial HR complaint, “My conduct towards Lori was always professional, will always be professional.”
On April 6, days after Comerford learned of the complaint, the CCG board passed resolutions that “restricted Dr. Varlotta’s presidential authority and contravened protections for Antioch,” according to the lawsuit.
Varlotta had requested workplace protections while the complaint was under investigation, including an alternative arrangement so she wouldn’t have to report directly to Comerford.
CCG board leaders rejected those requests. Moreover, the organization’s board chair and vice chair threatened Varlotta with termination over the coming months, including less than an hour after learning that she filed a civil rights complaint against CCG in California, where she mainly works, according to the lawsuit.
Coalition board leaders also first floated the possibility of dissolving Antioch’s board of governors during the summer. That threat “dramatically escalated their retaliation against Dr. Varlotta” through a plan of nixing the “governing body through which she exercised presidential authority and received institutional support,” according to her lawsuit.
Varlotta is seeking damages and court protection from retaliation, discrimination and CCG actions that would impede her leadership of Antioch. Those actions include making changes to Varlotta’s authority, reporting lines, governance responsibilities, the makeup of her executive team or to the authority of Antioch's board of governors.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include an additional comment from CCG.
