Students, faculty and staff showed their disapproval of the university’s recent move to eliminate the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Center for Belonging and Social Change with three on-campus demonstrations Friday.
What started as a small gathering of roughly 10 students sitting inside the Ohio Union turned into a group of about 70 marching across campus, protesting university President Ted Carter Jr.’s Thursday announcement about Ohio State’s removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programming within the university.
Starting at 8 a.m., between 10-15 students gathered for a sit-in outside the CBSC — located within the Ohio Union. They did schoolwork and talked amongst themselves, also placing handmade signs in support of DEI on the Union floor.
Demonstrators then walked to Hale Hall in order to write letters in support of ODI staff around noon, by which point the group had grown to roughly 80 people. Subsequently, they marched along the Oval’s paths, through Thompson Library, by the North Clocktower, on North High Street and back to the CBSC.
Tania Linares Escobar, a fourth-year in speech and hearing sciences and psychology, said the sit-in was organized following Carter’s announcements at Thursday’s University Senate meeting.
“It just felt like an immediate call to action for us,” Linares Escobar, also a member of Ohio State’s chapter of Alpha Psi Lambda — a co-ed Latinx fraternity — said. “I remember getting to Hale Hall [after Carter’s Thursday announcement], and my fellow students were already there, organizing.”
Linares Escobar said ODI and CBSC served as important resources for many students at the university.
“Many of us wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for these programs retaining us and keeping us coming back every year,” Linares Escobar said. “So, it’s really disheartening to see another one of our homes being taken away, essentially.”
University spokesperson Chris Booker said in an email “the university’s commitment to free speech and expression on [its] campuses is unwavering.”
Despite the strong sense of community among demonstrators, Linares Escobar said those being affected are still concerned for their futures at Ohio State.
“There’s a lot of positive emotions, but there’s also sadness, especially from faculty, from the students who are being directly affected,” Linares Escobar said. “So, an overwhelming sense of support and community coming from students, faculty and staff, but we’re still worried. What is the administration thinking, and what are they going to do?”
Penelope Rupert, a second-year graduate student in comparative studies, said she firmly believes the removal of DEI at Ohio State will harm the university in overarching ways.
“To be very blunt, I would rather this institution not exist than continue to exist for an increasingly small, elite few,” Rupert said. “The moves that are made by this university right now — to fire staff, it looks like they’re going to eventually cut programs — these moves are going to shrink the university over time.”
Chila Thomas, executive director of the Young Scholars Program at Ohio State, spoke at the Hale Hall gathering and said the administration’s decision is “disheartening.”
“I think that we are sacrificing this space of belonging for students on campus, and I think that the university has to think about [that] that’s not something you can see in the data,” Thomas said. “And so, you will see, I think, that the programs that we support here in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion support the university in meeting their goals for retention, persistence and graduation, and that these programs, when they are changed, will impact that.”
Manú Flores, a third-year in political science and economics who helped organize the demonstration, said the university’s compliance with Ohio Senate Bill 1 before it has been signed into law is discouraging.
“I’m extremely disappointed and upset with how the university just simply complied with this and did not consider the displacement of faculty in their workforce, and also the impact that these mentors had on also the students here on campus,” Flores said.
SB 1 would ban DEI and faculty striking at public Ohio universities, per prior Lantern reporting. At the time of reporting, the bill has been passed in the state Senate and is awaiting committee reporting in the House, according to the Ohio Legislature website.
In his Thursday campus-wide email, Carter said the institutional changes being made at Ohio State are due to both federal and statewide legislation.
Flores agreed with many attendees who called on the university to reinstate its DEI departments, but also acknowledged the broader political forces at play, but also acknowledged the broader political forces at play.
“I would like the university — it’s a big reach — but ideally [to] bring back DEI and ODI, but we know that’s a far shot considering the administration and the political landscape,” Flores said. “What the university can do is allocate resources towards these institutions that were set up in Ohio State that have now been dismantled, and not only give us the resources, but also educate us on how to utilize these resources.”
Megha Saravanan, a fourth-year in environmental policy, said the sundowning of the CBSC feels “like taking away community.”
“It’s taking away opportunities to learn,” said Saravanan, also a member of the American Civil Liberties Union’s campus action team. “It’s taking away so many connections that I made as well. So I’m just disappointed by what’s happening with the OSU administration, and I’m hoping that doing things like this [sit-in] is just raising awareness and maybe finding ways to bring this program back. I want to see more pathways for change.”
