Ohio State President responds after protesters removed from Chase event
Protesters removed from Salmon P. Chase event; Ohio State President Ted Carter responds.
The Ohio State University Faculty Council voted April 24 to join a Big Ten “mutual defense compact” that would support defense of academic freedom and research at universities and also amended the resolution to expand the support to all willing universities.
The resolution passed 35-11 among those in attendance, although some in attendance expressed concern that the legislation was performative or would damage the negotiating position of the faculty because the university considers provisions of the demands in the letter unlawful.
The resolution calls for the Big Ten Academic Alliance, a conference of 18 universities, to join together against the Trump administration’s “threat to the foundational principles of American higher education, including the autonomy of university governance, the integrity of scientific research, and the protection of free speech.” The resolution was first brought forward by the Faculty Senate at Rutgers University
The resolution says that member universities “shall commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund.”
“This fund shall be used to provide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement,” the resolution reads.
Faculty Council also voted to approve an amendment to the resolution to include “other universities willing to work together on this issue.”
During the meeting, Council member Ashley Perez said that the resolution “publicly recognizes the grave harms of these current attacks on the mission and independence of our universities.”
“Our universities are essential to the well-being and success of our democracy, our economy and our continued recognition of shared humanity — and the need to work for the common good, all of which are under attack,” Perez said.
In a statement, an Ohio State University spokesperson said that while it “is committed to shared governance” it is “not legally permissible for the university to participate in a common defense fund.”
“Ohio State is committed to maintaining an environment in which students, faculty and staff have the resources needed to fully participate and succeed in teaching, learning, research and patient care,” the OSU statement said.
It is unclear how the council’s vote to join the compact will actually change how the university deals with the Trump administration.
This month, faculty senates at Rutgers, Indiana and Nebraska approved the resolution, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The faculty senate at Michigan State University also joined the mutual defense compact on April 15, according to The Lansing State Journal.
The full list of members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance mirror the Big Ten sports conference: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Washington and Wisconsin.
During the meeting, Professor Yana Hashamova said that she spent the first half of her life “under state-sponsored socialism,” and the current Trump administration attacks on higher education remind her of what it was like in eastern Europe before the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Our professors were taught, told what to teach, and we were told what to study and how to teach it and how to study it,” Hashamova said. “And this moment is very uncanny for me, and truly parallels the experience for my first half of my life, which I came here to avoid.”
The OSU Faculty Council resolution is among the latest actions in a growing conflict between the Trump administration and higher education institutions. On April 22, Harvard University sued the Trump administration, accusing it of unlawfully threatening the school’s “academic independence” and “pathbreaking research,” according to USA Today.
The lawsuit comes after the Trump administration announced it was freezing $2.2 billion in funding to the elite school, which resisted demands to ban masks and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Cole Behrens covers K-12 education and school districts in central Ohio. Have a tip? Contact Cole at cbehrens@dispatch.com or connect with him on X at @Colebehr_report