A Q&A with acting university President Peter Mohler

Josie Stewart, Kate Shields, Arianna Smith, Hosna Sadaqat, Nathan Mader
Tue, 07 Nov 2023 03:49:35 +0000
Campus, Instagram Page, News, acting university president, advanced degree, challenges, economic development, higher education challenges, Israel-Hamas war, Peter Mohler, Q&A, question and answer, statement, Ted Carter Jr, university president, Walter Carter Jr., Wexner Foundation

Questions and responses were edited for clarity and brevity. The full audio is available on YouTube.

This interview took place on Nov. 3 before acting President Peter Mohler sent out a statement regarding the Israel-Hamas war.

Q: What are the biggest challenges facing Ohio State right now??

I think Ohio State is a remarkable place. I think one of the great things about my job — my real day job — is working on research, innovation and economic development for the state. I had seen a very small slice of how great Ohio State is.

There are a lot of things happening in higher education — how things are moving. We think about access, we think about affordability, we want to make sure that campus is incredibly safe. Very early on in my acting presidency, we spent a lot of time listening to students and that has been really helpful for me in understanding what the pulse is of what’s happening on campus every day, and what I’ve learned is it matters where on campus you talk with students. What’s the level of stress? What are the needs? And so we’ve pulled the trigger and made some changes on some things in public safety. That’s always going to be a concern because the safety of our students is so important.

We want to make sure that again, the health of our students and our faculty and staff is in a good place coming out of COVID. Probably all of our students and a lot of our staff and our faculty know it was a tough time, and a lot of students, their normal classroom experience was not what students have had at Ohio State, or any other institution for the last 100 years. And so I think we all need to listen as administrators and respond appropriately.

How do we make sure that in addition to providing a great classroom experience that we also understand the importance of the nonacademic piece of our students’ lives? So things like behavioral health — the ability to access folks that — if you’re struggling or you need a tutor, those are the things that I’m hearing from our community that we’re really continuing to work on. These are things that Ohio State and every other college campus need to continue to work on. That doesn’t mean it’s okay where we are, and it needs to be continued accountability in that piece.?

Q: You mentioned that you have been making several changes regarding public safety, what initiatives have you implemented during your time as interim president of Ohio State??

So I think I’m going to keep going back to I think it’s important that we spend a lot of time listening, and I think the second piece would be the safety of our students is our number one priority. I think if you lead with those two things and really spend a lot of time understanding, what is it like for a student to leave the library at 8 p.m., and walk across campus? Or what is it like if you don’t live on campus, but you live two blocks east of High Street? Each of those scenarios has a different solution or a different outcome. It’s a different ecosystem.

And so, again, working with our team and public safety, student government, working with our teams and the faculty, understanding what each of those variables are, we’ve done some significant investments this semester.

So a significant advance, the investments have block by block, significant investment in patrols with the Columbus Division of Police with our officers here. Obviously, the University District is a separate piece of authority for Columbus police to run, but a lot of our students are living here. We’re spending a lot of time upping our security on campus. We’ve done a lot in terms of things like license plate readers, a lot in terms of things like Lyft. I think it’s never enough. Each time there might be a burglary or robbery or something that involves one of our students or faculty or staff. It’s never enough, but we have to continue to never be satisfied to keep getting better.

Q: What is the university’s response to students in support of Palestine and Israel as both groups have demanded that the university show more public support for either side?

I think you have done a really nice job covering what a difficult time it is right now and obviously with what’s happening in the Middle East, but this is a tough time for all of us in our community. I think we’ve done a number of things that have happened since Oct. 7. The safety and security of our students is the most important thing — and I spend a lot of time, as do many people in this building — on making sure that this is a campus community that is safe, that is healthy, and so we spent a lot of time listening.?

We believe in the First Amendment, and there are a lot of free speech questions happening these days, and we are a firm believer of this federal guideline of freedom of speech. We have, though, made some very specific statements to align with our actions of supporting students. One is a condemnation of terrorism and terrorists, including what happened on Oct. 7 with Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens, on American citizens and a number of others.

It is never and it has never been acceptable at Ohio State to be discriminatory or harassing. One of the things I’d like to make sure that you all recognize is that that will never be tolerated at Ohio State, and we will continue to make strong statements that that behavior will not be tolerated.

Q: The Wexner Foundation recently cut ties with Harvard when they failed to condemn Hamas. Do you fear a similar loss of donors in response to Ohio State’s stance on that conflict?

So I think I’m gonna go back to the principles right, and I think in terms of principles that are based here in Ohio State and here in Columbus, I’m going to go back to freedom of speech. We’ve talked a lot about that this morning, and that’s something that we will continue to hang our hat on that we want to make sure that we honor that again and again. It’s a federal law, and it’s something that’s important for all of our students and our faculty and staff.

I think the second piece is making sure that we have open conversations and we’re listening. Again, I’m not going to comment on what happens at another university or another foundation, because I think you should expect me as your acting president to be focusing on what’s happening here at Ohio State with our students on a daily basis, and that’s what we’re spending our time on.

Q: With the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action that I’m sure you’re familiar with, how does the university plan to define “merit” moving forward in regard to admissions that don’t involve a race-conscious process?

I think the first thing is that this is a federal law, and as a state institution, we will abide by the federal law. We’re spending a lot of time across our administration and understanding in each of our areas. And so when you think about the law school or the medical school or any of our graduate programs or undergraduate, they’re all a little bit different in their admissions. And so, again, when the ruling came out, we had been spinning, again across the whole institution, evaluating our processes and making sure that they are aligned with federal law. You will begin to see additional reports on that.

I will say in a general, overarching way, Ohio State has been great for many years. Because we represent Ohio, and we represent 88 counties of Ohio. We also represent 50 different states and a whole host of countries. We believe that group of folks makes Ohio better and makes Ohio State better, and we’re going to continue to do that.

Q: What responsibilities have you had to take on transitioning into your role as interim president and what do those response responsibilities look like? How well equipped do you feel Ted Carter Jr. is to take on those responsibilities once you hand over the position?

As you know, the second your day starts it’s completely different and just like your world in journalism, Ohio State evolves just about every second of every day and so for me, it was going in and thinking about this incredible role, but how quickly Ohio State moves and how fluid the dynamics of the institution is, but how important it is to be very flexible. I think one important thing is this job has really taught me how to listen, and I think be a more effective listener to the different voices across Ohio and Ohio State.?

I’m really excited for President Carter. I think he understands the importance of the academic mission. He understands the importance of the undergraduate experience and the importance of things like campus safety, the importance of shared governance, the importance of making sure that the students that come to Ohio State leave in a place where they’re going to be very successful, regardless of what area of their studies are. So I’m excited for him to get here. I’ve loved every minute of this job because I get to do fun things like this. But you know, I also have a day job to get back working on the great things happening in our research enterprise, and I’m so excited for Jan. 1 to get here.

How has your role as executive vice president for research, innovation and knowledge prepared you for the role of interim president and how have you been able to take those skills into this role??

I think what I’ve hopefully taken into this role is the importance of the people around you and the importance of the team that you put together to address really complicated tasks or complicated issues.?

I think some of the things that we’ve done, whether it’s from my own laboratory, which studies heart failure and heart disease in little kids, we get to solutions and science by getting the best ideas together. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re a senior faculty member or an undergraduate or even a high school student, every one of those opinions matter to be able to create a solution. And so, I think taking a lot of those very basic foundational processes and bringing them together and then really listening to a diversity of ideas before we just jump in and make a comment or create a solution to understand what stakeholders need and really be thoughtful about what that solution might look like not just for one group but for every group on campus.

How frequently do you communicate with incoming President Ted Carter Jr. and have you discussed his future plans??

He’s excited, and we speak regularly. He has a full-time job in Nebraska, and he’s very busy being the leader there. He has a lot of questions because he’s excited — he has questions about how this piece of the university works or how many students are there. What is the relationship between Columbus campus and Lima campus? What exciting things is Ohio State doing with Intel? So he brings such a diverse background, and I think each time you get an opportunity to bring in a leader to an organization — whether it’s a Lantern staff or a football program or senior administration for university — who’s going to find a leader that’s going to make it better? He’s someone that’s going to build on existing strengths, but really bring a very strong vision for a land grant university for the next 50 years. So he’s going to be great.