Protests, DEI and more take center stage at President Ted Carter Jr.’s pre-Convocation press conference Monday

University President Ted Carter Jr. addressed class size, affordability, safety, campus protests and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — or DEI — before Ohio State’s 2024 Convocation Monday.

Notably, Carter said he estimates the freshman class to be the largest in the university’s 154-year history.

“I had a record-breaking 80,000 applications for this fall semester,” Carter said. “That was just for the incoming undergraduate freshman class — 40,000 out of state, 40,000 in state. So we’re estimating north of 9,000 undergraduate freshmen.”

Carter went on to say the university is “incredibly affordable, and it’s a great return on investment for those that choose Ohio State.”

According to previous Lantern reporting , the Board of Trustees approved a 3% increase in undergraduate tuition for this year’s freshmen Ohio state residents May 16. In-state students are protected under the Ohio State Tuition Guarantee, which holds tuition, fees, housing and dining costs at a flat rate for four academic years, according to the university registrar’s website . Ohio law limits tuition increases for in-state students to 3% or below.

“We locked [tuition] in for the entire four years,” Carter said. “That’s a big deal. That’s not the same in other states. So yes, we did have a 3% tuition [increase] approval by our Board of Trustees, but that’s really a 0.75%.”

Safety is the president’s “absolute top priority,” Carter said.

“We’ve looked at our police force, where we hired more police coming into this semester,” Carter said. “So, we have 75 Ohio State University Police. We’ve added more cameras, so 5,000 cameras are working across the campus. License plate reader patrols. We’ve done a lot here, doing everything we can.”

According to previous Lantern reporting , 36 students and community members were arrested at an on-campus pro-Palestine protest and encampment April 25. Carter said he wants students to have a voice when it comes to protests, but university policies are important to follow.

“We have some space rules, and we were very clear about that last spring semester,” Carter said. “We reviewed those space rules. They remain basically the same. In other words, no overnight encampments, because I just can’t provide the security force to protect our students to spend overnight.”

The university is also creating a new program to address and promote civil discourse this year called Listen. Learn. Discuss. , Carter said.

“It’s an academic program that’s designed to allow students to enter into dialogue and understand that there’s a lot of different opinions out there as part of the college campus experience,” Carter said. “We don’t expect them to agree with everybody — disagreeing is okay — but doing it respectfully.”

Divestment from Israel has been one of the key demands from pro-Palestine protesters on campus. Carter said the university cannot divest from Israel due to Ohio law .

The law states a state agency — which includes a state agency of higher education‚— “may not enter into or renew a contract with a company for the acquisition or provision of supplies, equipment, or services, or for construction services, unless the contract declares that the company is not boycotting any jurisdiction with whom this state can enjoy open trade, including Israel, and will not do so during the contract period.”

“We talk to our student leadership groups and make sure they understand that here in the state of Ohio, we have state laws that prevent us from [divesting from] the State of Israel,” Carter said. “So that’s not even a decision point within the university.”

On the subject of DEI, Carter said the university “embrace[s] diversity.”

“I think a lot of people, as soon as they hear DEI, they automatically go to ‘diversity is the color of someone’s skin,’ but it’s so much more than that,” Carter said.

Carter said first-generation students, single parents who are students, active-and-retired-veteran students and international students all contribute to the university’s diversity.

“Sometimes diversity can mean geographic diversity, economic diversity — but at the end of the day, it’s about diversity of thought, and we want our students to come here and have a wide range of ideas expressed to them,” Carter said.

Finally, Carter said he has been in “listener mode” for the last six months as he develops his 10-year-plan for the university at large, he said.

“We’re drafting strategy for the next 10 years,” Carter said. “So we’re really trying to take vision, turn it into strategy that will turn into action. And that’s what you’re going to be hearing about over the next couple months.”