Ohio State University announced it is closing its DEI office and the University of Cincinnati declared that it has wiped mentions of DEI from its programs.
This is the result of not only President Donald Trump’s directives to ban DEI but also a bill progressing through the Ohio state legislature that would forbid it.
The Education Department late last month declared through a “Dear Colleague letter” that DEI efforts are essentially discriminatory and colleges and universities could lose federal funding if they employ them.
As for Ohio’s Senate Bill 1, it would ban DEI programs at public institutions. It would also require Ohio colleges and universities adopt institutional neutrality. It would also force campus leaders to support free speech and intellectual diversity and enact post-tenure review. And it would create a mandatory patriotic U.S. civics course.
One of its more controversial provisions would prohibit faculty striking, but state legislators may strike that part. The bill passed the Senate and is before the state House.
Critics argue SB 1 might compel students to obtain their degrees outside Ohio, if approved. The Ohio Counseling Association, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Kent State Faculty Association and the Ohio Faculty Council have all condemned the bill.
The bill has prompted recent protests at campuses across Ohio among students and scholars.
But the presidents of Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati state that between Trump’s directives and state lawmakers, the writing is on the wall for DEI.
“Given this new landscape, Ohio public and federally supported institutions like ours have little choice but to follow the laws that govern us,” UC President Neville Pinto stated in a memo to the campus community.
“…Our leaders have begun evaluating jobs and duties related to DEI and examining our DEI programming, initiatives and projects to bring all areas into compliance. In addition, we have begun removing references to DEI principles across university websites, social media and collateral materials,” he wrote.
Similar changes are afoot at Ohio State University.
“We will sunset the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) along with some of its services, effective February 28,” President Ted Carter said in a memo to the campus community, adding that the programming and services offered by Student Life’s Center for Belonging and Social Change will be discontinued as well.
“The Office of Institutional Equity will be renamed the Office of Civil Rights Compliance to more accurately reflect its work and will report solely to the Office of University Compliance and Integrity,” he added.
Several news reports have also reported the Ohio State changes will require at least a dozen layoffs and many more staff transfers.
MORE: Ohio university installs ‘biological’ sex bathroom signs to comply with new state law
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