University president Ted Carter Jr. speaks to The Lantern Tuesday. Credit: Sandra Fu | Managing Photo Editor
On Tuesday, The Lantern sat down with Ohio State President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. to discuss this upcoming school year.
Here were the top takeaways.
Senate Bill 1
By June 27, Ohio State had to comply with Senate Bill 1, Carter said. The majority of the work that needed to be changed was finished after Spring commencement, where most students leave campus.
The new law, commonly referred to as SB 1, bans diversity, equity and inclusion programming as well as faculty striking, per prior Lantern reporting. The bill also limits the teaching of controversial subjects and for course syllabi to be published online.
“I just want to make a statement that, you know, academic freedom in the classroom really is our bedrock of how this institution was founded, it’s still there,” Carter said. “What I mean by that is faculty members are not being restricted on the courses that they teach, or the material that they teach in that particular coursework or the discussion that could be had in the classroom.”
Carter went on to explain that faculty has to comply with the law, which is telling them that they can’t force an opinion on a student or tell them what to think. Carter said that he strongly supports everything he has said about academic freedom.
“I’ll stand behind my background, wearing [a] uniform for 38 years and understanding what freedom of speech means and how we try to make sure that we continue to support that here,” Carter said.
He discussed how they “sunsetted” the Center for Belonging and Social Change into the Buckeye Commons and explained misconceptions with the university’s SB 1 compliance.
“No students lost any employment,” Carter said. “Scholarships were sunsetted because they might have been associated with something that might have been thought of as being diversity, equity, inclusion. No student scholarships have been affected at all.”
Carter also emphasized that all 1,400 clubs and activities at the university, specifically the student run ones, are still intact. He said that while there are going to be some changes and students and faculty will feel that, the university administration is continuing to work on SB 1 compliance.
“There’s some elements of it that we have a little bit more time before they do become implemented, such as the forward-facing syllabi online, there’s a period of about a year to implement that,” Carter said. “There’s some other pieces as to how we’re doing faculty reviews. We’ve already had that process in place before, so that’s not new, but administratively, it will be a little bit different.”
The AI Fluency Initiative
On June 4, Ohio State announced beginning with the class of 2029, the university will integrate an AI Fluency program meant to help students responsibly use AI as a tool for innovation and learning, per prior Lantern reporting.
Carter said he hopes by the time students graduate, they will be prepared to use AI in their jobs.
“When they go into the workforce, they’re already fluent in AI in whatever discipline they’re in,” Carter said.
Carter said Ohio State is at the forefront of incorporating AI into its curriculum while still complying with national and local government changes.
“Nobody else in the nation has done this yet, and this is what I mean when we say we’re playing offense as well as having to deal with some of the defensive things that are coming out of the federal and state government,” Carter said.
In addition, Carter said he wants the university’s faculty to understand AI to better integrate into their classes. The university is adding 100 more AI experts to research how best to implement the tool into classrooms, he said.
Ohio State hired Rob Lowden to oversee the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation (OTDI) department for his experience in adapting to changing technologies, per prior Lantern reporting.
When asked why Lowden was hired, Carter said Lowden was interested in working with a university “on a higher trajectory” to help improve the universities IT networks, digital tools, software packages, network safety and using AI.
As the university is implementing AI programs, Carter said academic misconduct from using the tool will be determined based on what the faculty decides. For tests, Carter said some professors may decide to administer blue books for students to hand-write their answers, but others may choose open-book style tests where ChatGPT, an AI chat program, could be allowed.
Carter said it allows for students and faculty to agree on the correct use and time for AI tools.
“It takes a little bit of the mystery out here,” Carter said.
Some critics may believe Ohio State is “going to dumb down our students” by implementing AI fluency, but Carter said they will actually be better off.
“We’re going to actually embrace this, get smarter as how to use it, and now be able to be honest with each other when to use it, when
E. Gordon Gee
Carter also discussed what made E. Gordon Gee — a former two-time Ohio State president — a top candidate for a part-time consulting role, Carter said that “nobody in the United States in modern history has had more experience being a university president” than Gee.
Gee has also served as president to Vanderbilt University, Brown University, the University of Colorado and most recently at West Virginia University, Carter said.
“He’s been all over the country for 30-plus years as a university president,” Carter said. “So that type of experience and maturity in almost every different environment, from blue states to red states, makes him valuable to me.”
Gee was also a mentor to Carter when he was president of the University of Nebraska. Carter said he communicated with Gee regularly.
Carter said that the university has a “big strategy” rolling out — speaking of Education for Citizenship 2035 — and that Gordon will have a helpful perspective due to fitting in three different classroom spaces, the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the Moritz College of Law.
“He had choices at many other schools, to include that school up North for the exact same offer, and I know how loyal he is to the Ohio State University,” Carter said. “It was an easy choice for Gordon, and we’re excited to get him on campus.
When Carter was asked about Gee’s past controversial statements and financial disclosures, he said, “First of all, he won’t be doing any public speaking.”
In past statements, Gee once insulted Catholics in relation to Notre Dame University. He was also criticized for lavish spending while Ohio State president, per prior Lantern reporting.
Carter went on to emphasize that Gee is going to be his specific wingman, and said that with Gee’s experience, he has been through tough times.
“Let’s face it, if you’ve been a university president in as many places as he has been, he’s lived through some really good times and some really bad times,” Carter said.
The Lantern specifically brought up Gee’s vote of no-confidence from his recent presidency at West Virginia University after faculty was disappointed with the administration’s cuts and layoffs, per prior Lantern reporting.
Carter said that this experience was similar to one he experienced when he was president of the University of Nebraska, where population growth stagnated.
“They were really troubled with student enrollment, and that’s what caused a lot of their deficits, and they had to go through some tough decisions,” Carter said. “And when tough decisions are made, a lot of times, faculty just don’t like those hard decisions. I think Gordon was probably at a point in his career where he knew some hard decisions had to be made and he was willing to make them.”
Carter went on to explain that he believes Gee did not leave the university with a damaged reputation and said that “he won’t have to be going through any of those decisions here.”
Carter also confirmed that Gee’s one-year, part-time consulting contract is not a special contract made specifically for Gee, but rather one that they’ve done before.
“We actually do this,” Carter said. “We just don’t do it with people as of note as E. Gordon Gee.”
On-campus housing
New this year, Ohio State has signed a master lease agreement for the properties of Statehouse Lane — 150 W. Lane Ave. — and Statehouse Norwich — 250 W. Norwich Ave. — to accommodate the growing underclassmen population, Dave Isaacs, university spokesperson, said in an email back in April.
As the university continues to grow, The Lantern asked what the long-term plans are for dorms on campus.
Carter said that the university is actively looking into that. He acknowledged that some dorms are aging, specifically those that still don’t have air conditioning.
“I want the student experience here to be the very best that we can offer,” Carter said.
Eventually, Carter said the university will need to decide the outcomes for Morrill and Lincoln Towers over the next five to 10 years, due to their age. Both towers were built in 1967.
