Ohio State hires conservative scholar to head up new intellectual diversity center

On the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for the Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.)

Ohio State University hired a conservative law professor who was the driving force behind bringing “intellectual diversity centers” to a handful of Ohio universities.

Lee Strang was recently hired as the executive director of the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs. This is one of five intellectual diversity centers that were propped up after Gov. Mike DeWine signed the state budget into law last summer.

“Leading the Chase Center is an opportunity to be part of the solution to how Americans of all backgrounds and viewpoints, together, will renew our common civic life,” Strang wrote in an email to the Capital Journal. “The Chase Center will do so by focusing on what unites us—”the historical ideas, traditions, and texts” of our common constitutional heritage—and do so in a way—“free, open, and rigorous intellectual inquiry”—that guides Americans to see each other as civic friends, united in the collaborative project of securing the common good for us all.”

President of the Ohio State chapter of the American Association of University Professors Pranav Jani is critical of the decision to hire Strang.

“I think it does very little to inspire confidence that the center is going to be a space for intellectual diversity and free inquiry on campus,” he said. “I would say that Strang’s appointment confirms that S.B. 117 is going to produce the centers exactly as intended, which is a center for partisan thought and conservative thought.”

Strang will oversee the hiring and appointment of the center’s faculty, develop curriculum, and deliver academic programing, Ohio State Spokesman Chris Booker said in an email.

Senate Bill 117

The centers started in Senate Bill 117 and initially only included Ohio State and the University of Toledo. Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, and Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, introduced the bill in May 2023 and then Miami University, Cleveland State University and the University of Cincinnati were later added to the bill as well.

The bill was eventually woven into the state’s budget and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the budget into law last summer . Cincinnati was later removed from the legislation and the money was appropriated to Wright State University.

Ohio’s budget allocates $24 million for the centers — $5 million each fiscal year to Ohio State, $1 million each fiscal year to Toledo and $2 million each fiscal year for each center at Miami, Cleveland State and Wright State.

Lee Strang

Strang worked with McColley on creating the bill and Strang was first director of Toledo’s intellectual diversity center — the Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership located in the college of law.

He first had the idea for the center back in 2019 after visiting the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and Princeton University’s James Madison Program.

Strang helped back the failed effort to raise the minimum threshold for constitutional amendments that was voted down last summer during Ohio’s special election. He has previously supported banning abortion care.

“(Strang) kind of hides his political motivations for taking these undemocratic legal positions, and that doesn’t really inspire confidence for someone who’s going to be open minded and interested in intellectual diversity,” Jani said.

Strang also helped found and serves as the board president of the Toledo charter school Northwest Ohio Classical Academy — which offers “classical” education for K-12 students.

Ohio State

The tentative plan is for the Chase Center to start offering classes next fall, Strang said in an email.

The Chase Center will offer courses that will help students in two different ways, Strang said.

“They will provide students with knowledge of Americans’ common civic heritage,” he said in an email. “For example, a course on the American Civic Tradition would cover the important people, history, documents, and institutions that all American citizens should know. Second, courses will help students hone the skills they need to flourish as citizens in our pluralistic Republic. For instance, a course on civil discourse would expose students to the arguments and ideas surrounding important issues of law and policy, while equipping students with the habits of productively arguing across differences with fellow citizen.”

The Chase Center will have at least 15 tenure-track faculty members.

University of Toledo

Toledo’s Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership began offering classes last summer and will offer a mix of undergraduate and law classes to students this fall —  including American Liberalism, Democracy in America, Lincoln’s Statesmanship, the Ohio Constitutional Law and the death penalty.

The center will add a major and a minor in the next couple of years, Strang said.

In Strang’s absence, the executive director of the institute Michael Gonzalez will be the interim director while a nationwide search is conducted for a new director.

The institute’s seven-member academic council will conduct the search and submit a list of finalists to the university president, who will appoint the new director.

Cleveland State University

Since Cleveland State is still in the early stages of creating the center, they do not know when or what kind of classes will be offered, university spokesperson Reena Arora said in an email.

The center will be in the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education and the legislation calls for having at least ten faculty members.

The Ohio Senate recently approved seven members of their Academic Council in June who will make recommendations for an executive director to their President Laura Bloomberg. However, t hree of the members are from out-of-state and one wrote a 2011 article titled “Straight Is Better: Why Law And Society May Justly Prefer Heterosexuality.”

Miami University

No director has been named yet for Miami’s intellectual diversity center which will be housed in the College of Arts and Science.

Whoever is the director will be able to hire faculty for the center and come up with classes that will be offered, university spokesman Seth Bauguess said in an email.

Wright State

Wright State’s Board of Trustees appointed six members to the center’s Academic Council in June.

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

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