COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio State University faculty said the school is not doing enough to protect students and staff amid legislative changes, calling out President Ted Carter for remarks made in a recent interview.
“The compliant posture of the current administration, bending to the whims of those who see university faculty and students as ‘the enemy,’ has seriously compromised and threatened academic freedom and freedom of speech at Ohio State,” faculty members wrote.
Carter spoke on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on July 27 and addressed friction between President Donald Trump’s administration and higher education institutions. On Tuesday, the American Association of University Professors chapter at Ohio State (AAUP-OSU) published a statement criticizing Carter’s remarks. AAUP-OSU disagrees with Carter’s assertion that Ohio State is prioritizing academic freedom and challenges the university to do more to protect students and staff.
In the interview, Carter was asked about federal funding at Ivy League schools like Harvard, Cornell and Brown. All three schools have had millions of dollars frozen in federal funding following pro-Palestine encampments on campus. Carter said he is “not feeling a lot of pressure” after being federally identified as a school that should be similarly investigated for antisemitism.
“We stand behind our actions. We know how we acted during the time of the protests … so I’m confident that as this plays out forward, that we’re going to be just fine,” Carter said.
In April 2024, more than 30 students were arrested during pro-Palestine protests on campus. AAUP-OSU brought up these protests in their statement, calling the arrests a “suppression of free speech” and “a dark mark on OSU’s recent history and a sign of the current crisis.”
Even without federal funding freezes, Ohio State is facing monetary losses. It has lost millions in research funding from DOGE cuts and new grant standards that bar research about diversity, equity or inclusion.
Carter said that although cancellations have affected individual researchers, the university as a whole has not felt the same devastation from cancellations because it’s such a large research institution. However, university researchers with canceled grants were less optimistic when speaking with NBC4, as they spent years working on projects that now lack the funds to be completed.
AAUP-OSU said Carter’s comments promoting academic freedom did not align with the university’s actions at the student protest, or several other changes that faculty disagree with. Ohio State said several concerns raised by faculty are not legally possible to fix, and it maintained that it values academic freedom.
In June, Ohio required all public universities to stop DEI programming and offices by law. However, Ohio State closed its DEI offices in February, meeting a federally imposed deadline that most other universities did not enforce. AAUP-OSU said 1,000 people protested the decision so faculty and student perspectives were made clear, but disregarded. In a statement, Ohio State said Carter acknowledged concerns, but complying with the federal deadline instead of waiting allowed OSU to preserve scholarships and aid.
AAUP-OSU similarly raised concerns over how the university handled international students’ visa revocations, saying it did not do enough to help students. Ohio State said it provided “all available resources” to the dozen students who were affected, all of whom have regained their legal status. See previous coverage in the video player above.
“The principles of academic freedom, what is taught in the classroom, the move towards scholarly pursuit, the research that we do here at Ohio State, those are things that we are still very passionate about, and I know that we’re going to continue that work,” Carter said.
AAUP-OSU said Carter’s words about protecting academic freedom were “empty rhetoric” without more action.
“We expect our university President to speak and act in defense of our core principles,” AAUP-OSU wrote. “What is the OSU Administration going to do to support our freedom of speech and academic freedom?”
