‘We laughed at him:’ Ohio State community reacts as President Carter announces end of Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Center for Belonging and Social Change

The fabric of Ohio State’s diversity, equity and inclusion programming has begun to unravel following Thursday’s University Senate meeting. 

Inside Drinko Hall’s Saxbe Auditorium, Ohio State President Ted Carter Jr. announced the university’s plan to discontinue the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Center for Belonging and Social Change effective Friday, meaning 16 related professional staff positions will be removed within 60 days, per prior Lantern reporting. The 3:30 p.m. meeting drew a full audience, with several university leaders speaking before and after Carter detailed the changes.

Carter was interrupted multiple times by the crowd of roughly 200 via laughs, groans and disgruntled murmurs, both during his address and a post-meeting Q&A session. The first audible instance of discontent came when Carter attempted to reassure the community that Ohio State’s values were still intact.

“Let me talk about some of the things that are still here. [The] most important thing is our values, our mission statement, what we do — let me finish,” Carter said as the room grew noisy. “They are still there. The work that’s being done in the colleges at the unit level, they are all still going to continue in this important work.” 

Pranav Jani, an Ohio State English professor and president of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, referred to these interruptions as he addressed a crowd of roughly 90 that gathered outside Drinko Hall to protest Carter’s announcements after the meeting.

“Even when Carter spoke, I was like, ‘Oh man, why are we so quiet? Why aren’t we, like, booing him and being like, ‘Get out?’ But, you know, that wasn’t the mood, right? Because people were listening and building their strength,” Jani said. “And then what happened? What happened? He started saying, ‘But we still have our values,’ and we’re like, ‘no.’ We laughed at him. We laughed at him, we actually took him off his game. He’s Vice Admiral Carter, a very smooth-talking guy. We actually took him off his game.”

Notably, Undergraduate Student Government President Bobby McAlpine tearfully addressed the crowd during the meeting, where he said students “knew [their] history” and would fight against anti-DEI legislation. Various members of the Faculty Senate also expressed concern during the meeting that the university was preemptively complying with Ohio Senate Bill 1. 

When protestors gathered around 5:30 p.m., they chanted inside and outside Drinko Hall. These chants included “O-H-I-O, SB 1 has got to go,” “When education is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back” and “When DEI is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.”

Excerpts from Thursday’s meeting

Around 4:26 p.m., McAlpine addressed the crowd, urging students in attendance to organize against anti-DEI legislation and policies. Notably, he said a 2,000-student survey conducted by USG found 92% of respondents indicated they value DEI on campus.

“This is why you all aren’t getting the usual, bubbly, ‘Hey, how you doing’ Bobby that I usually am — because I don’t know what to do,” McAlpine said. “I don’t. I have been honest with so many students, so many human beings. So many people, what they value has just been taken away.”

McAlpine also shared details about his personal family history, particularly the fact “[his] grandmother was born a sharecropper, and [his] other set of grandparents broke the all-white block they lived on.”

Bobby McAlpine, undergraduate student president, speaks out against the changes announced to the university’s diversity programs during the University Senate meeting Thursday. Credit: Sandra Fu | Photo Editor

“I stand before you all today, not just as a student, not just as a leader, but as a testament that in one generation, my family went from sharecropping to being where I am today,” McAlpine said.

McAlpine’s comments, as well as his exit from the stage, were met with applause and cheers. 

Sara Watson, a Faculty Council senator and professor of political science, said the university’s faculty has serious concerns about the future of research and overall teaching at Ohio State. In addition, she said many faculty members desire “more and improved communication” from Carter’s administration, as well as “a strong defense of [Ohio State’s] mission and values.”

“As you might expect, many of our faculty expressed both fear — and I think grief — about the future of their work at OSU,” Watson said. “They talked about anxiety, in terms of changes in the teaching sphere. There’s a widespread belief that many of the executive orders and SB 1 are designed to restrict academic freedom and instill fear in our classrooms, and there are worries that this is going to curtail the communication of evidence-based information on topics like climate change [and] sexual health, at a time where misinformation is running rampant.”

Though Watson said the faculty appreciates hearing some concrete updates from Carter, she said she believes many prominent questions surrounding Ohio State’s structural future haven’t been sufficiently answered. 

“What is the university’s contingency plan if federal grant support is cut?” Watson said. “Will there be bridge funding — for how long? Should we be advising our graduate students to stay in their Ph.D. programs? Will we have to lay off staff? If so, when will the university tell us this needs to happen?”

Watson cited general education requirements as another prominent source of worry. According to previous Lantern reporting, students who enrolled at Ohio State for the fall 2022 semester or later are required to “take four to six credit hours in the ‘citizenship for a diverse and just world’ theme.” 

Watson then reiterated the faculty’s hope to be included in DEI-related conversations with regard to the university’s plans moving forward.

“Many of us are asking, ‘Who is standing up for us right now?’” Watson said. “Who is standing up for our work and for our institution? We understand the constraints, but we feel abandoned by the general institutional side.”

Following scheduled testimonials, Carter attempted to adjourn the meeting at 5 p.m. due to what Secretary of the University Senate Jared Gardner said in a text message was an unintentional mix-up between the agenda that was posted online — which listed a scheduled Q&A portion — and the agenda university leadership received.

“Today is not the time that we’re going to go through [a] Q&A in this body, but I look forward to having that conversation as we get this work done,” Carter said. “I want to say thank you again for allowing my team to join you here today.”

Gardner said the University Senate did not intend to have a Q&A session, as Thursday’s meeting was framed as a “listening session” between Carter and his constituent leaders. Instead, the University Senate desired a “more robust discussion,” including a Q&A, at a later time.

“Inadvertently the Q&A part that is usually there at the end of our more open sessions — as when we had a session devoted to accessibility for example — was left in when our office posted it to the website,” Gardner said. “So the students had every right to be shocked when it got cut short. The president and I did not know about the discrepancy between our version and the posted version, and thus the confusion.”

Following a motion to add 20 extra minutes to the meeting, several senators questioned Carter on the policy changes. They addressed concerns about why DEI programming was being cut before SB 1 became law, his attempt to cut the session short prior to the Q&A section and the university’s alignment with the legislature over students and faculty, asking “What can you say to defend us when higher education is under attack in this way?”

Angilmarie Rivera Sanchez, a first-year student in the Moritz College of Law and a senator on Ohio State’s Inter-Professional Council, said “not a single person in this room” agrees with the new policy changes enacted. 

“I just wanted to give you guys a reminder that you represent and stand for the university, not the legislature,” Rivera Sanchez said.

Rivera Sanchez’s comment was met with verbal affirmation and applause from the audience.

Once the Q&A portion had concluded and Carter began his final remarks, he was interrupted once more by vocal dissatisfaction from the audience as he said, “I didn’t need this to be a debate.”

He went on to say DEI will “still continue to happen” at the university. 

“We shut the Office of Diversity and Inclusion as a front office, but all of the other elements right now are still continuing,” Carter said.

Audience members then voiced their disagreement as Carter responded to an earlier question about defending university staff against anti-DEI legislation. 

“You asked [me] to say whether or not I support or defend our faculty, staff, you know, all the people that are here — that’s my job,” Carter said while attendees laughed. “Of course I do, of course I do.” 

Carter pointed to the university’s official stance of opposition against Senate Bill 83 — the spiritual successor to SB 1 that failed to pass the Ohio House in 2023, per prior Lantern reporting — and said he had gone to the authors of the bill to tell them the bill was not representative of Ohio State. 

“I have said this in many other public forums, regardless of what comes out of that legislation, regardless of what comes out of the federal government: Nobody’s going to ever be able to write a law that will prevent us from doing academic freedom and freedom of speech,” Carter said. 

Carter said he is not trying to be “complicit,” but he is rather trying to protect the university’s federal funding. 

“I am doing everything I can to protect, to make sure the federal funding we have will still continue,” Carter said. “Because to not do that could have serious, serious implications.” 

Carter said the university is trying to do “just enough” to follow the legislation from the state and federal government without getting rid of all DEI programming. 

Carter adjourned the meeting at 5:19 p.m., saying he would do “everything [he] can to protect and defend the mission” of the university. 

“[I] appreciate the passion,” Carter said. “[I will] continue to listen, I’ll continue to try to advocate. In many cases where a lot of you are disappointed in me personally, I will try to do better.” 

Student comments and protest activity

Andrew Loney, vice president for the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students and treasurer of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Kappa Chapter — a historically African American fraternity — said this news is devastating, both on a campus-wide and personal level.

“People are gonna go where they feel wanted,” Loney, also a third-year in biology, said. “I mean, I can definitely say I don’t even feel wanted at my own university right now. That was a big part of me coming to OSU, just it being so cool and rich of diversity, which, like, we can’t say that word anymore. This isn’t what I dreamt of, like, my college experience to be at a university that really promoted its diversity.”

Akasha Lancaster, co-president of LGBTQ-led Ohio State student organization SHADES, said although she acknowledges Ohio State wants to follow the law, she thinks these changes will have far-reaching implications beyond current students — who feel “their safe spaces are being stripped away” — but also on potential incoming classes, who may see these changes and feel deterred from attending.

“Just because something is the law, just because it is a rule, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s right, that it’s okay or that it’ll even be beneficial to the people, and I think it’ll definitely impact student morality,” Lancaster, also a third-year in psychology, said. “I can already tell a lot of the students here at Ohio State, even now, are just really disappointed in the school and our president.”

Loney agreed and said he wishes there was more pushback from the university.

“I can’t really find any evidence that President Ted Carter or any administrator has really put their foot down, and I’m not sure what goes on behind closed doors, but definitely the message [he] put out today is kind of like, ‘We’re okay with these things going away or being modified,’ but that’s not the culture that we’ve experienced for the past three years, being on this campus, what led us to come to OSU,” Loney said.

Owen Dennewitz, a second-year in communications and former ambassador for the CBSC’s social change program, said working at the center provided him with community and a sense of purpose.

“To see that avenue just be kind of completely dismantled is devastating, really, because I know how important it was to me and my sense of belonging here, and honestly, [it was] one of the main reasons I stayed at Ohio State, if I’m going to be totally honest,” Dennewitz said. “Losing that as a resource to point [out to] a lot of students who feel and felt and do still feel the same way that I did, it’s just really heartbreaking.”

When it comes to current student employees of ODI or the CBSC, Dennewitz said the forced relocation to other on-campus positions seems “devastating and demoralizing.”

“For the people working there, I can’t imagine how that feels to lose that because going into it, there’s a big sense of pride within the work there,” Dennewitz said. “I know me and my coworkers found so much joy and so much fulfillment in the work that we were doing, specifically creating those belonging and inclusion programs on and off campus, and being moved and uprooted from that experience and that ability to create that change just seems so devastating and demoralizing.”

University President Ted Carter Jr. announces Ohio State will discontinue the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Center for Belonging and Social Change effective Friday, amongst other changes during the University Senate meeting Thursday. Credit: Sandra Fu | Photo Editor

Lancaster said the removal of these on-campus resources is upsetting, especially for those in marginalized communities.

“I am really disappointed,” Lancaster said. “As someone who’s in multiple marginalized communities, who goes to a [predominantly white institution], it is disappointing because I felt like ODI and the CBSC and all these different centers were really helpful in me finding the communities that I needed and finding the resources that I needed, whether it be for my identity or if I needed assistance, personally or academically.”

Dennewitz said these changes are in conflict with what Ohio State stands for, creating a lack of trust between the institution and its students.

“Part of Ohio State’s mission statement that they have on their website and that they share to us as we come in here and apply to the school is to try and create students who are ready to go into the world and participate as citizens — and that’s built on the general education of diversity, equity and inclusion and citizenship for a diverse world,” Dennewitz said. “And I feel like these laws and these rules and the dismantling of these programs are just kind of forsaking what they’re stating is their mission statement, and it’s just completely undermining that.”

Loney said he felt at a loss for words while Carter described the university’s forthcoming DEI changes, and he believes it’s important for the university community to continue speaking up.

“I just feel like as a student body, we really need to come together,” Loney said. “I feel like that’s the only light I see at the end of the tunnel right now, being able to have our voices out there more than we already have, being able to be in these spaces, supporting each other. This is definitely an uphill battle.”

In the meeting’s aftermath, The Lantern spoke with McAlpine, who said he remains committed to working with the university and other relevant parties to oppose DEI initiatives’ elimination on campus and beyond.  

“I’ve talked to student body presidents across the nation, and within the Association of Big Ten Students, and we are all standing very steadfast in our support,” McAlpine said. 

McAlpine said on the state level, he hopes to initiate conversations with Ohio Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) — the primary sponsor of SB 1 — and the Ohio House of Representatives to ensure students’ opinions on DEI can be heard by their legislators.   

“I would love to have a meeting with Senator Cirino,” McAlpine said. “I would love to have a meeting with every single member of the House Higher Education Committee, because at the end of the day, I’m not bringing my own experience and my own story, but I do my best to bring the stories of as many of the 60,000-something students that I represent.”

Jill Galvan, associate professor in the Department of English and a university senator, said she feels “extremely disappointed” about the DEI changes made at Ohio State.

“I think that we’re jumping the gun,” Galvan said. “We’re doing a lot preemptively. At the federal level, there are a lot of legal challenges against what’s going on, which I think even the legal speakers here kind of acknowledged.”

Galvan said although there is pressure for SB 1 to pass through the Ohio House, “we’re not at the point yet where that’s happened.”

“And moreover, there’s a ton of energy for that not to happen,” Galvan said. “There were 999 opponent testimonies and 14 proponent testimonies.”

The abolishment of DEI programs means the “staff and money” dedicated to student opportunities and success will be gone, Galvan said.

“And when you get rid of those things formally, you get rid of a lot of possibility of scholarships for students, of being able to have a university that represents students from different backgrounds — Black and brown students — that is really concerned about making sure the underrepresented are represented here at Ohio State,” Galvan said.