Let\u2019s call this what it is: a calculated and politically motivated decision disguised as \u201cinstitutional restructuring.\u201d President Carter\u2019s move to \u201csunset\u201d the Office of Diversity and Inclusion , eliminate the Center for Belonging and Social Change, and rebrand the Office of Institutional Equity is not about making Ohio State better. It\u2019s about appeasing the right people, consolidating power, and ensuring the university stays in line with the growing national war on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.<\/p>\n
This is not about students. This is not about improving efficiency. This is about optics. It\u2019s about bowing to political and financial pressures from those who want to see higher education stripped of any commitment to progress. It\u2019s about making Ohio State palatable to those who see diversity as a threat and inclusion as an inconvenience. And if a few thousand students, many of whom relied on these offices for support, community, and opportunity, get left behind in the process? Well, that\u2019s just collateral damage.<\/p>\n
Our administration will try to spin this as a mere \u201crestructuring\u201d effort, insisting that Ohio State remains committed to \u201cexcellence\u201d and \u201cstudent success.\u201d But let\u2019s be real, removing dedicated resources for underrepresented students while throwing vague reassurances about modified scholarships and compliance offices is not a commitment to anything but the status quo. A status quo that ensures those in power stay in power, that funding pipelines remain uninterrupted, and that Ohio State remains on the good side of the people who would rather see universities scrubbed clean of DEI efforts altogether.<\/p>\n
Students are not blind to what\u2019s happening. We see through the empty justifications, the bureaucratic double-speak, and the performative concern for student wellbeing. This decision is not just disappointing, it is a betrayal of Ohio State\u2019s stated values and a blatant abandonment of students who have long relied on these resources for support, advocacy, and empowerment.<\/p>\n
To President Carter and the administration: If you truly believe in student success, then prove it. Reverse this decision. Listen to the students, faculty, and staff who are telling you, loudly, that this is wrong. Stand for something more than just political convenience. Because history will remember those who stood for progress, and those who stood in its way.<\/p>\n
We will not forget. We will not let this go. And we will not stop fighting.<\/p>\n
Senator Ryan Poor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let\u2019s call this what it is: a calculated and politically motivated decision disguised as \u201cinstitutional restructuring.\u201d President Carter\u2019s move to \u201csunset\u201d the Office of Diversity and Inclusion , eliminate the Center for Belonging and Social Change, and rebrand the Office of Institutional Equity is not about making Ohio State better. It\u2019s about appeasing the right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99682,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99682"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101,"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u.osu.edu\/senatorpoor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}