Antioch Forward

Antioch University is a 174-year-old institution with a proud tradition of progressive education and innovation. We are currently working to resolve a governance dispute with the Coalition for the Common Good (CCG), which Antioch co-founded in 2023. This site provides updates, verified documents, answers to common questions, and context about the issues under review.

Antioch University is standing against the CCG’s attempted hostile takeover for three reasons:

• The agreements we signed when founding the CCG protect Antioch’s autonomy.
• The CCG’s business model has not proven to be successful nor to benefit Antioch.
• Antioch’s future must be shaped by its own board and leaders who know Antioch best and love it deeply.

Our alumni, faculty, staff, and students are united in one simple conviction. We will stand together to Keep Antioch University Antioch.

How to Support Antioch

Many in the Antioch community have asked how you can show your support. There are many ways to do so, and each person should choose whether and how to participate. For those who are interested, an Antioch alum has created a petition on Change.org. Signing the petition is entirely voluntary.

Another powerful way to show your support is to write a letter explaining why Antioch’s continued independence is crucial. We would love to add it to the letters of support page—just email your letter to [email protected].

You can download the Keep Antioch University Antioch background for Zoom calls, and use it to show your solidarity.

Perhaps most importantly, we encourage you to come together with your fellow Antiochians. This could be in person or digitally, over an email list or on social media. The more that the whole Antioch University community can rally together in loving defense of our institution, the better our outcome will be.

Where Things Stand

On September 29, an Antioch University Board of Governors member who also serves on the CCG Board of Directors filed a new complaint in Greene County, seeking emergency protection for Antioch’s Board, assets, governing agreements, and employees while the case proceeds. Antioch believes the director has standing to seek that relief. The court has not yet ruled on the new action.

What We’re Protecting

The current dispute has not changed the work happening across our University. Students are learning. Faculty are teaching, researching, and mentoring. Staff are ensuring our services and operations continue uninterrupted. And Antiochians are working alongside communities to address real needs.

That work is not separate from what Antioch is protecting. It is the reason this institution matters.

For more than 170 years, Antioch has challenged people to examine the world as it is, and take action to make it better. Today, that commitment continues in classrooms, communities, clinics, organizations, and natural environments across the country and around the world.

The Core Argument for Keeping Antioch University Antioch

We are confident that Antioch University is in the right as we defend our 174-year history of having our own leadership and autonomy. We have a strong legal case, an alarming business case, and an indisputable moral case for resisting the CCG’s attempted hostile takeover. We invite any who are interested to dig into this argument, read the key documents, and decide for yourself.

• The agreements we signed when founding the CCG protect Antioch’s autonomy.
  • The CCG Board lacks the legal authority to eliminate the AU Board or assume control of Antioch’s governance, finances, and institutional affairs. (Read our lawsuit)
  • The Antioch leaders who negotiated the founding agreements never agreed to surrender Antioch’s Board or autonomy. (See Bill Plater’s statement and Bill Groves’s statement)
  • The takeover attempt betrays the CCG’s foundational promise of a “collaboration of equals.” (Read “Why the Antioch Board Approved the Coalition Structure”)
  • Antioch conceived the idea for the CCG and entered the coalition as a committed partner—not as an institution to be absorbed or controlled. (Explore the timeline)
  • Antioch has repeatedly sought collaboration, mediation, and a good-faith resolution, but those efforts have not been reciprocated.
• The CCG’s business model has not proven to be successful nor to benefit Antioch.
  • The Otterbein programs transferred to Antioch were already declining before the transfer process began. (Read “Otterbein Pitched Growth. Its Programs Were Already Shrinking.”)
  • The CCG leadership has offered no evidence that it could operate Antioch more effectively than Antioch’s current Board and administration.
  • Otterbein is not separate from this dispute; its president also leads the CCG, and its institutional interests are directly implicated.
  • If the organizational structure must be simplified, the unnecessary layer is the CCG—not Antioch’s own governing board.
  • The available financial and operational evidence calls into question whether the CCG model delivers the promised benefits to Antioch. (Read “Flashpoint: the March 12 Board Book”)
• Antioch’s future must be shaped by its own board and leaders who know Antioch best and love it deeply.
  • Antioch’s Board, administration, faculty leaders, staff, students, and alumni possess the experience and institutional knowledge needed to guide the University.
  • The dispute over the AU Board Book demonstrates that Antioch needs leaders who are willing and able to present independent analyses and speak candidly about institutional realities. (Read “Flashpoint: the March 12 Board Book”)
  • Attempts to suppress or discredit those analyses raise serious concerns about commitments to transparency that AU holds dear. (Explore the timeline.)
  • Antioch’s alumni, faculty, staff, and students have demonstrated broad support for speaking truth to power and preserving the University’s autonomy and identity. (Read the Letters of Support)
  • The effort to take control of Antioch is being driven by a small group of CCG Board members and the Otterbein/CCG president—not by the Antioch community.