The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Ohio University will close the Pride Center, the Women’s Center and the Multicultural Center in response to a new higher education law banning diversity efforts that takes effect this summer, the university president announced Tuesday.
OU will sunset the Division of Diversity and Inclusion — which includes those three centers — “over the next several weeks,” Ohio University President Lori Stewart Gonzalez said in a statement.
There is no definitive date for when the division or the centers will close, but the centers will not be open beyond when the law takes effect on June 23, according to university spokesperson Dan Pittman.
“Work managed by the division that remains within the law will be moved to other areas of the university,” the university said.
State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced Senate Bill 1 at the end of January, it quickly passed both chambers andGov. Mike DeWine signed it into law on March 28.
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Youngstown State University faculty are trying to get a referendum on the November ballot to block S.B. 1. The law affects Ohio’s public universities and community colleges.
The new law will also prohibit faculty strikes, regulate classroom discussion of “controversial” topics, create post-tenure reviews, put diversity scholarships at risk, create a retrenchment provision that blocks unions from negotiating on tenure, shorten university board of trustees terms from nine years down to six years, and require students take an American history course, among other things.
“We must continue to ensure every person we invite to be a part of our university community finds their place here and develops connections,” Gonzalez said in her letter to the university. “Without forgetting that essential commitment, we must also follow the law.”
All employee positions within the Division of Diversity and Inclusion will be eliminated. The three centers have eight full-time staffers, according to their websites. The centers also have student workers.
“Employees will continue in their current roles for the next several weeks and will be given the opportunity to interview for any open university position for which they apply and meet minimum qualifications,” Gonzalez said.
Employees who don’t continue to work at OU will receive full separation benefits, according to the university.
Support for the university’s Templeton, Urban, Appalachian, and Margaret Boyd Scholars programs will move under the Honors Tutorial College.
Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Office of Inclusion will also close because of the new law.
The university said it will be reaching out to students, faculty and staff for their input on inclusion and belonging moving forward.
“I want to be clear that the task ahead for all of us is not to look for ways to recreate the same approaches under a different name,” Gonzalez said. “Rather, the charge is to invent something new that meets the moment and delivers results for our students.”
The Capital Journal previously reported on how OU student Audrey Ansel has been preparing for Ohio University’s Pride Center to likely closeas a result of the law.
This comes as Ohio’s public universities are in the midst of figuring out how the controversial law affects them. The University of Toledo recently announced they are suspending nine undergraduate programs in response to S.B. 1.
