COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is assuring public universities that a proposal to shut down "subpar" institutions, as suggested by candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, will not happen.
In a crowded auditorium at The Ohio State University, DeWine gave a speech to community college leaders as well as four-year program presidents and trustees. Kent State University President Todd Diacon listened near the back of the theatre.
"We're an access institution that takes people that don't always come from wealthy families, and we prepare them to succeed after they graduate," Diacon said in an interview following the event.
Kent State’s fall semester is in full swing. Although college enrollment has declined, Diacon said he's proud to be on the upturn when it comes to their priority programs.
"We just enrolled our largest freshman class of nursing students at Kent in 10 years," he said.
But Diacon raised concerns about a proposal made by Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy.
"We have too many of them," Ramaswamy said in a video posted to his Threads account in March. "They need to be consolidated."
In an opinion article he wrote for The Columbus Dispatch, Ramaswamy encouraged shutting down what he called struggling universities. He referred to Kent, Cleveland State, the University of Akron, and Central State University as having previous challenges.
He tripled down on that idea in April.
"I don't think you should be funding subpar universities," Ramaswamy said to a student asking a question at a Turning Point USA event.
RELATED: Vivek Ramaswamy still focused on shutting down 'subpar' Ohio universities
Colleges shouldn’t replicate each other, he said, and the strongest programs should be the ones to survive.
DeWine is now trying to assuage universities' fears. In his speech, he sent a message to Ramaswamy.
"The idea that we would get rid of any of our state universities, I think, would infringe upon our efforts to continue to broaden our access," he said.
It is "not a good idea," the governor continued, to applause.
College consolidation “can’t and won’t happen,” he added. But DeWine only runs the state for a few more months.
"What happens when the legislature agrees — in that they say, 'You know what? We will go with Vivek Ramaswamy’s idea, and we will consolidate colleges.' What happens to students then?" I asked DeWine.
"Well, that's the speculation," the governor responded. "We don't know, first of all, who's going to be elected governor."
Although DeWine endorsed Ramaswamy, he has shown disapproval of some of his policies on education and taxes.
"Second, we don't know if they will embrace that at all," DeWine said. "I think that it's unlikely that anyone would really make that proposal."
Since the summer, Ramaswamy has tried to backtrack on his earlier statements. He is now saying that he never wanted to shut down the colleges, but rather shut down programs within the colleges.
RELATED: Vivek Ramaswamy said Ohio should shut down 'subpar' universities. Then came the backlash.
"I think that we have too many duplicative programs in our universities," Ramaswamy said in July. "When I look at a region, I want to look at Ohio in terms of regions like regional governance; I want every region to have the best higher education institutions available for people in that region. But not every university needs to offer every program."
The candidate has previously noted that university leaders probably don't like his idea.
Diacon noted that Kent’s eight separate campuses serve vastly different populations — from up in Ashtabula to two hours south in Tuscarawas County.
"They are important members of their communities, and it's not just in terms of 'We employ people in those communities,' but the tax bases of those communities," the university president said.
I asked Diacon how it felt to be called out by Ramaswamy, to which he responded that the candidate just doesn't know much about Kent.
"We don't spend a lot of time calling attention to ourselves. We just go about doing our work. We tend not to brag about our strengths and successes. We just go about doing our work," he responded. "I think the downside of that approach is that people in the general public and in other areas may not appreciate the impact that our university has on the region and on the nation."
Follow Statehouse and Columbus bureau reporter Morgan Trau on X, Instagram and Facebook. Email her at Morgan.Trau@wews.com.
