Students rally in front of Bricker Hall in 1970. Credit: Ohio State Archives
Nearly two months after Ohio State discontinued its Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Center for Belonging and Social Change, many members of the university community are still voicing their discontent.
The Black Student Union Legacy Group sent a letter addressed to university President Ted Carter Jr. Friday, calling on the university to defend diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives following February’s major cutbacks.
Michael Williams, a former Ohio State student who co-founded BSU in 1967, said the group felt a sense of responsibility to speak out because the demonstrations it organized in 1968 — which led to the arrests of 34 students and the expulsion of seven following an occupation of the Administrative Building, now known as Bricker Hall — laid the groundwork for multiple diversity-focused initiatives on campus, per prior Lantern reporting.
“DEI is a framework for creating opportunity, and they have made it appear to be a framework for unfairness, and that’s just mischaracterization flat out of what we would like,” Williams said. “But to act like the responsibilities that were undertaken to achieve those things that DEI was about are somehow less legitimate now, or they were — in fact, they’re suggesting they were never legitimate.”
The letter was drafted and signed by 13 BSU alumni who make up the Legacy Group, which was founded in 2018 — around the time of the demonstrations’ 50th anniversary. It outlines six steps for the university to take in order to have the group’s efforts and the importance of DEI recognized.
These steps include:
- Make public commitments to DEI and reassure students of color that Ohio State will “protect their right to belong”
- Use policy, funding and legal support to safeguard programs and resources like cultural centers and mental health support systems that serve underrepresented students
- Issue a public apology to the 34 students — known as the OSU34 — that were arrested and/or expelled following the 1968 occupation of Bricker Hall
- Fulfill BSU’s 2018 effort to “formally recognize and memorialize the role of the Black Student Union in shaping the university’s progress”
- Leverage Ohio State’s status to lead conversations about equity’s “inseparable” role in public American education.
“[We’re] not necessarily asking the university to break laws,” Williams said. “We’re saying that in the framework of what the university’s mission is, there’s room for the university to be who it says it is, period, and that’s what we want to do.”
Herbert Scott, a BSU Legacy Group member, said the group’s past failed attempts to collaborate on plans and initiatives with the university — such as installing a physical marker acknowledging the 1968 demonstrations in Bricker Hall with assistance from ODI, as confirmed by ODI spokesperson Aaron Marshall — put the group into action.
“We certainly had some initiatives long before this present situation began at the start of the year,” Scott said. “There were some things that we wanted the university to do to memorialize and honor those Black students. The Office of Diversity [and Inclusion] had been actively helping us with that ongoing initiative. But then, when it came to the actual decision that they were going to disband DEI, our group kind of went on high alert that we needed to try to push back on that as much as we could, as aggressively as possible.”
The closure of ODI and CBSC Feb. 28 was preceded by the official passage of Ohio Senate Bill 1, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine March 28. The bill eliminates DEI initiatives in Ohio’s public higher education institutions, bans faculty strikes, limits the teaching of controversial subjects and more, per prior Lantern reporting.
Ohio State spokesperson Chris Booker said Carter responded to BSU via a Thursday email, stating the university’s goal is to ensure all students are welcomed and included on campus.
“The current state and federal landscape made it a near certainty that we would need to make changes to the ways we have historically gone about our DEI efforts,” Carter said in his email to BSU. “While we had hoped for more changes in Senate Bill 1 before it became law, we now have a duty to follow the law as a public institution. We will do so, however, in a way that continues to reflect our values of access and opportunity for every student.”
Carter also said the university is “currently engaged in a productive dialogue with students, faculty and staff about [their] path forward.”
Scott, who received his master’s and doctorate degrees at Ohio State, said he feels the difference in reactions from other higher education institutions nationwide made Carter’s especially disappointing.
“I had gone to [University of California, Los Angeles] as an undergrad, and they had a very vigorous response saying no, they were not going to yield in terms of their commitment to DEI, so I kind of felt let down by Ohio State,” Scott said. “And after I got my doctorate at Ohio State, I did a year of post-graduate work at Harvard, and I was heartened that on Monday, Harvard came out very aggressively in defense of DEI.”
Harvard University announced Monday it was suing the Trump administration after $2.2 billion in grant funding was cut after the institution said it would not cave to the administration’s demand to limit campus activism, according to the Associated Press.
BSU began as a way to demand equality and visibility at Ohio State for Black students, Williams said. In addition, he said he distinctly remembers announcing the group at a Black sorority dance in August 1967.
“I remember seeing how people were seeing us, and we were kind of declaring ourselves no longer being invisible,” Williams said. “And that was a dramatic statement at the time, to be. Black students were [in the] background, we were in the draperies. We were not to be in the forefront, except of sports — football, basketball. So, to have a visibility, a presence, a notable presence on campus was what, I think, we sort of thought of as no longer invisible. We were going to sort of declare ourselves to be here — we’re here, and we got issues, right?”
When considering the tangible department changes BSU made possible — like the creation of the Black Studies Department and the hiring of more Black faculty — Williams said the group’s campus legacy is ultimately one of acceptance.
“There were sort of administrative things that happened,” Williams said. “You know, certain positions were created. But to me, the dynamic that I could see — and I see when I go back in later years, like visiting — I just knew that it created a wedge to sort of an openness on the campus community.”
