To stream 10TV on your phone, you need the 10TV app.
Next up in 5
Example video title will go here for this video
Next up in 5
Example video title will go here for this video
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs led Ohio State students to protest at the student union less than 24 hours after President Ted Carter announced the changes.
Students organized a sit-in outside the Office of Student Life’s Center for Belonging and Social Change on Friday, which the university closed, along with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
As a result of the changes, the university confirmed 16 people will lose their jobs.
“No employee will lose their job for at least 60 days, and we will follow our standard practice of working with individuals to find other opportunities at Ohio State where possible. Regarding student employees: All student employees impacted by the program changes will be offered alternative jobs at the university,” said Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson in an email to 10TV.
Christopher Cade, a freshman, learned Thursday afternoon that he would lose his student assistant position within the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, working for the Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male.
Cade said his work supported increasing retention and graduation rates for African American male students.
“I know the impact that our work has, you know. I really wanted to see the experience of Black men on campus who have succeeded and that is why I chose this job,” Cade said. “By losing the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, students are missing out on the academic and social support that gets them through their undergraduate career.”
Michael Ward, a junior, felt the action was rushed.
“It is going to undercut a bunch of beautiful programs that have served these underprivileged communities for so long and gave them access to resources that they would not have access to without these programs,” Ward said.
In a letter to students on Thursday, Carter explained the university was complying with federal guidelines to end DEI programs by March 1 or risk losing federal funding.
The letter read in part: “This is a complex and rapidly changing environment, involving multiple court cases at various stages in the legal process. We can’t predict the outcome of any one legal case, but what we do know is this: Taken together, the actions at the state and federal levels and the guidance we’ve received from our state and federal leaders provide a clear signal that we will need to make changes now in the way we have historically gone about our work in DEI.”
Read the full letter here.
The university will also continue scholarship programs, including the Morrill Scholarship Program and the Young Scholars Program, with “modified eligibility criteria.” The changes do not impact students who have already received scholarships.
“My life would not be what it is today had it not been for that program,” said Tamieka Cobb, who graduated in the class of 2003.
Cobb was accepted into the Young Scholars Program when she was just a middle school student in Youngstown.
The program, according to the Ohio State website, provides opportunities for “academically talented, first-generation students with high financial need to advance their goal of pursuing higher education” for students in Ohio’s nine largest urban public school systems.
“You have to be able to give people the chance to compete. I graduated with a 4.00 plus GPA, but there is a very good chance without the tools I had in the Young Scholars program and other opportunities like it, I wouldn’t be able to get in, even though we are well over qualified,” Cobb said.
Cobb runs her own catering business and credits the Young Scholars program for the success she has found in life. She is worried about what changes to the scholarship could mean for current and future Buckeyes.
“It is not an unqualified person going for a position or a job. It is somebody who is very qualified and just needs a leg up,” she said.
