Students impersonate Ohio State University president Ravi Bellamkonda, Athletic Director Ross Bjork, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu in a satirical mock panel highlighting the absurdity of Anduril's connection to the university on Friday Oct. 23 2026. Credit: Michael Goulet | Campus Photo Editor.
The Ohio Youth for Climate Justice group organized a protest Friday, gathering about 30 people outside the Ohio Union and marching between Dreese Labs and the Journalism Building before chalking messages against AI, defense contractor Anduril and climate issues.
Anduril is a U.S.-based defense technology company that entered a partnership with Ohio State in Aug. 2025, per prior Lantern reporting. This is the second protest organized by Ohio Youth for Climate Justice, with the first occurring on Sept. 19 in front of Thompson Library, according to previous Lantern reporting.?
The protest featured a mock panel, with speakers including students dressed as university president Ravi Bellamkonda, athletic director Ross Bjork, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.?
The panelists took questions from the crowd, poking fun at the university’s AI fluency initiative, the chalking ban, student feedback, former president Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. and finances related to the football team.?
The students portraying Bjork and Luckey went as far as to compete in a push-up contest to see which one was more passionate about supporting Israel.?
Bjork’s impersonator also spoke about how funding from Anduril was necessary to help the football team play better and defend the ‘Shoe with the help of military drones and missiles.?
After the mock panel, the group marched from the Union to outside Dreese Laboratory, mainly under the skywalk, one of the engineering buildings on campus. Organizers said they chose the location to advocate for Ohio State’s engineering students and their right to better opportunities after graduation, so they don’t have to work for unethical companies.
The students then began chalking both on the sidewalks and in the middle of Neil Avenue, with messages like “Don’t cry for AI,” “Choose peace” and “Engineers: Don’t work for Anduril.”
University employees approached students chalking and explained that chalking violates the university’s signage standards. The signage standards were updated on Aug. 14, 2025, to effectively ban chalking on campus, per previous Lantern reporting.
Police were also present throughout the movement, though no action was taken.?
University spokesperson Chris Booker said that the university is committed to respecting the rights of students, faculty and staff.?
“Ohio State has an unwavering commitment to free speech and freedom of expression,” Booker said in an email. “We respect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to express their views about issues that are important to them.”
By 7:15 p.m. Friday, the chalk had been hosed away.
Jonas Tornatzky, a first-year in environmental science, said that the protest was centered around advocating for student engineers, as well as the climate implications of large companies like Anduril.?
“We’re out here protesting against Anduril because they market towards people in our engineering schools, and we think that they deserve better coming out of college than to go work for somebody who is actively contributing towards genocide,” Tornatzky said. “It shouldn’t be happening at all, but we definitely don’t want it impacting our education. We just want better for students and better for future generations who go to OSU as well. We think that they deserve better.”
Ines Burgoyne, a third-year in moving image production, said the chalk was meant to spread the protest message and also go against the chalking ban.?
“We obviously don’t support that. We find that absolutely ridiculous,” Burgoyne said. “It’s chalk. It can’t hurt anybody. They’re really just trying to make students scared to express themselves, especially express themselves politically.”
Burgoyne also added that she hoped the chalking would send a message beyond anti-Anduril sentiment.?
“I just hope people feel like they can make their voices heard,” Burgoyne said. “They can join a political organization because our power comes in numbers. I just hope that people kind of see that and feel like they can do it too; they can participate because anyone can.”
Pranav Jani, an English professor and board member of Ohio State’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said that chalking is a harmless tradition on college campuses.?
“I’ve been faculty on this campus since 2004,” Jani said. “Chalking is an OSU tradition. These people have taken it away from students. It’s a simple expression of freedom of speech in a public space.”
Jani also added that he supported the students in speaking out and taking action against some university policies.?
“I’m proud of the students for taking a stand against the fear-mongering coming from the university,” Jani said. “But I’m also personally proud of the position they’re taking around militarism and the environment.”
The story was updated at 7:21 p.m. to add the information regarding the hosed chalk.
