The Ohio State University 'sunsets' offices amid ongoing review of diversity, equity and inclusion work
The Ohio State University (OSU) "sunset" its Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Center for Belonging and Social Change on Friday.
The office closures reportedly impacted 16 professional staff positions. The school said no worker will lose their position for at least 60 days and that it will help find impacted employees internal jobs where available, WBNS reported.
OSU President Ted Carter announced the closures on Thursday, citing federal law that enforces universities to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures on campus.
"The federal government has signaled its intent to enforce guidance invalidating the use of race in a broad range of educational activities, including by withdrawing federal dollars that are so important to our student, academic and operational success," Carter wrote in a message posted to the OSU website.
"Here in Ohio, a bill barring DEI is also making its way through the legislature, and the Attorney General of Ohio — our statutory counsel — has advised us that his office concurs with the federal government's position regarding the use of race in educational activities," he said.
Scholarships administered by the Office of Academic Affairs will adjust their eligibility criteria. The programming and services offered by Student Life's Center for Belonging and Social Change were set to end Friday.
"We will sunset the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) along with some of its services, effective February 28, 2025. Scholarships administered by the Office of Academic Affairs, including the Morrill Scholarship Program and the Young Scholars Program will be maintained with modified eligibility criteria going forward," Carter added.
OSU's Hale Black Cultural Center, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and "other DEI-related units at the university are currently under the president's review," according to OSU's student newspaper, The Lantern.
Carter's announcement comes after the Trump administration released a memo Feb. 14 with guidance that colleges and universities end DEI-related mandates, policies and programs. If the institutions fail to comply, they could face the loss of federal funding, per the civil rights office of the Department of Education.
Trump in January signed an executive order terminating DEI "discrimination" in the federal workforce, and in federal contracting and spending.
The executive order directed every department and agency to end "private sector DEI discrimination," including civil compliance investigations.
In December, the University of Michigan announced it would no longer "solicit diversity statements as part of faculty hiring, promotion and tenure."
Other universities that nixed DEI include Northeastern University, Missouri State University and West Virginia University.
Many proponents of DEI argue that the effort corrects historical injustices and systemic inequities.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
15 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump warns ‘everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran' in ominous Truth Social post
President Trump warned that 'everyone' in Tehran should 'immediately evacuate' in a Monday night Truth Social post that also criticized Iran's decision not to enter into a nuclear deal. 'Iran should have signed the 'deal' I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!' Trump wrote in the post. Israeli officials also called for those in Tehran to evacuate earlier Monday ahead of its continued military campaign against Iran, which has included slews of missile exchanges between the conflicting countries. Monday marked the fourth day of military action after Israel originally launched multiple missiles aimed at Iran's nuclear facilities and military leadership last Friday. On Sunday, Trump said that it is 'possible' the US could get involved in the conflict. There are roughly 9.5 million people in Tehran. This is a breaking story. Please check back for more information.
Hamilton Spectator
15 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Judge rules some NIH grant cuts illegal, saying he's never seen such discrimination in 40 years
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled Monday it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred research grants, adding that the cuts raise serious questions about racial discrimination. U.S. District Judge William Young in Massachusetts said the administration's process was 'arbitrary and capricious' and that it did not follow long-held government rules and standards when it abruptly canceled grants deemed to focus on gender identity or diversity, equity and inclusion. In a hearing Monday on two cases calling for the grants to be restored, the judge pushed government lawyers to offer a formal definition of DEI, questioning how grants could be canceled for that reason when some were designed to study health disparities as Congress had directed. Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, went on to address what he called 'a darker aspect' to the cases, calling it 'palpably clear' that what was behind the government actions was 'racial discrimination and discrimination against America's LGBTQ community.' After 40 years on the bench, 'I've never seen government racial discrimination like this,' Young added. He ended Monday's hearing saying, 'Have we no shame.' During his remarks ending the hearing, the judge said he would issue his written order soon. Young's decision addresses only a fraction of the hundreds of NIH research projects the Trump administration has cut — those specifically addressed in two lawsuits filed separately this spring by 16 attorneys general, public health advocacy groups and some affected scientists. A full count wasn't immediately available. While Young said the funding must be restored, Monday's action was an interim step. The ruling, when formally issued, is expected to be appealed. The Trump administration didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. While the original lawsuits didn't specifically claim racial discrimination, they said the new NIH policies prohibited 'research into certain politically disfavored subjects.' In a filing this month after the lawsuits were consolidated, lawyers said the NIH did not highlight genuine concerns with the hundreds of canceled research projects studies, but instead sent 'boilerplate termination letters' to universities. The topics of research ranged widely, including cardiovascular health, sexually transmitted infections, depression, Alzheimer's and alcohol abuse in minors, among other things. Attorneys cited projects such as one tracking how medicines may work differently in people of ancestrally diverse backgrounds, and said the cuts affected more than scientists — such as potential harm to patients in a closed study of suicide treatment. Lawyers for the federal government said in a court filing earlier this month that NIH grant terminations for DEI studies were 'sufficiently reasoned,' adding later that 'plaintiffs may disagree with NIH's basis, but that does not make the basis arbitrary and capricious.' The NIH, lawyers argued, has 'broad discretion' to decide on and provide grants 'in alignment with its priorities' — which includes ending grants. Monday, Justice Department lawyer Thomas Ports Jr. pointed to 13 examples of grants related to minority health that NIH either hadn't cut or had renewed in the same time period — and said some of the cancellations were justified by the agency's judgement that the research wasn't scientifically valuable. The NIH has long been the world's largest public funder of biomedical research. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
San Francisco Chronicle
15 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Jury finds MyPillow founder defamed former employee for a leading voting equipment company
DENVER (AP) — A federal jury in Colorado on Monday found that one of the nation's most prominent election conspiracy theorists, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, defamed a former employee for a leading voting equipment company after the 2020 presidential election. The employee, Eric Coomer, was awarded $2.3 million in damages. He had sued after Lindell called him a traitor and accusations about him stealing the election were streamed on Lindell's online media platform. Coomer was the security and product strategy director at Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, whose voting machines became the target of elaborate conspiracy theories among allies of President Donald Trump, who continues to falsely claim that his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 was due to widespread fraud. Dominion won a $787 million settlement in a defamation lawsuit it filed against Fox News over its airing of false claims against the company and has another lawsuit against the conservative network Newsmax. Newsmax apologized to Coomer in 2021 for airing false allegations against him. Coomer said during the two-week Lindell trial that his career and life were destroyed by the statements. His lawyers said Lindell either knew the statements were lies, or conveyed them recklessly without knowing if they were true. Lindell's lawyers denied the claims and said his online platform, formerly known as Frankspeech, is not liable for statements made by others. Lindell said he went to trial to draw attention to the need to get rid of electronic voting machines that have been targeted in a web of conspiracy theories. He said he used to be worth about $60 million before he started speaking out about the 2020 election and is now $10 million in debt. Reviews, recounts and audits in the battleground states where Trump contested his loss in 2020 all affirmed Democrat Joe Biden's victory. Trump's attorney general at the time said there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and Trump and his allies lost dozens of court cases seeking to overturn the result. Lindell stuck by his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen during the trial, but did not call any experts to present evidence of his claims. Lindell said his beliefs that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud were influenced by watching the 2020 HBO documentary 'Kill Chain' and by the views of Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. In an interview for a documentary Lindell made in 2021, Flynn said foreign interference was going to happen in U.S. elections, and Lindell said he had no reason to doubt the claim since Flynn had worked for both political parties in intelligence. Lindell distanced himself from an account by a Colorado podcaster who claimed to have heard a conference call from the anti-fascist group Antifa before the 2020 election. The podcast claimed that on the call someone named Eric from Dominion said he would make sure that Trump would not win, a story that was recounted on Frankspeech during a 2021 event. Lindell said he only learned about that during the trial. Lindell said he never accused Coomer of rigging the election, but he did say he was upset because he said Newsmax blocked him from being able to go on air to talk about voting machines after it apologized to Coomer. Coomer denied there was any such deal to block Lindell under his agreement with the network. Coomer's lawyers tried to show how their client's life was devastated by the conspiracy theories spreading about him. Lindell was comparatively late to seize on Coomer, not mentioning him until February 2021, well after his name had been circulated by other Trump partisans. Coomer said the conspiracy theories cost him his job, his mental health and the life he'd built and said Lindell's statements were the most distressing of all. He specifically pointed to a statement on May 9, 2021, when Lindell described what he believed Coomer had done as 'treason.' Lindell's attorneys argued that Coomer's reputation was already in tatters by the time Lindell mentioned him. They said that was partly because of Coomer's own Facebook posts disparaging Trump, which the former Dominion employee acknowledged were 'hyperbolic' and had been a mistake. Lindell denied making any statements he knew to be false about Coomer and testified that he has called many people traitors. His lawyers argued the statements were about a matter of public concern — elections — and therefore protected by the First Amendment.
