Good afternoon.
Our University Senate is a very special and important body, and it's my honor to preside over our proceedings as your 18th president.
If I may have a few minutes before we get started with our agenda… Over the past 14 months or so, one of the joys of serving as your chief academic officer has been to have the opportunity to experience the full breadth and wonder of our university: Our strengths, in narrative studies with project narrative, and I'm not saying this because we have an English professor here, to ACAD, from the Pelotonia Research Center, to the Multispecies Animal Learning Center, from our regional campuses to having the best public nursing school in the country, from our excellent business school, and engineering school and vet school and a whole bunch of others, to our Innovation District on the West Campus.
I've had the pleasure of meeting with department chairs, with graduate students, with our professional students, our undergraduate students from student government and elsewhere, as well as our professional students and our undergraduate students from student government, our ROTC students, and students from the Keener Center for Entrepreneurship, as an example.
And I've had the pleasure of having small group lunches, if you will, groups of faculty from across our university. And I've traveled across the country to meet our incredible alumni, who, as I said in my opening remarks, cheer for us, not just on Saturdays, but all year long.
And many of you, I also want to especially thank, as a part of this august body, have personally made, us, me and Lalita, feel at home. You've connected us to civic organizations, to restaurants, and such, to the arts in Columbus. And I'm personally grateful to one of you who connected me to the reflective Indian music that I enjoy on the side when I have a little bit of time. I'm deeply grateful.
The events of the last two weeks were not what I or any of you would have preferred. I’m grateful for President Carter's leadership. He recruited me here, and I was inspired to come, honestly, by his own leadership and history and the case he made for our university. And I'm still processing what happened, as are you, our students, our staff, and our faculty.
And even as I take a bit of time to process, if I may reflect a little bit, I cannot help but remind myself of the responsibility that all of us have as citizens of this community.
As we meet here today, there is a student somewhere on our campus grappling with a challenging assignment. Perhaps one of you assigned it to him or her. And they're looking for a glimpse, a path forward, as they're grappling with this challenge, and somewhere along the way, they will say, “I wonder…” as they make their way forward with the assignment.
And somewhere else, I am sure we have a student who's pausing to help another fellow student who's struggling, or trying to make friends, or find their way. We have a scholar, I'm sure, who's delving deep into our archives or the literature, having a hunch, probing and asking something that we don't yet know. And we have physicians in the ER, in the OR, in our behavioral health clinics, and The James, saving lives, assisted by fantastic physician assistants, nurses, and other dedicated staff who put patient lives over family sometimes.
And we have incredible staff who make our mission possible through their expertise and leadership. And many times, far too many times, their work is not seen or does not get as much attention or credit that our staff deserve.
I personally remember when I was a graduate student in 1989, in a new country, and I was not feeling fully confident in my abilities as a scientist, being inspired by a faculty member – a very famous one, by the way, who had two assistants, he was that famous – personally taking the time to photocopy a research article that he thought I would be interested in, and putting it in my mailbox. And I remember feeling lonely during the holidays, and I remember how impactful staff in my department were, staff who welcomed me to their homes when I didn't have the resources to fly home myself.
As we speak, countless such acts of kindness, countless moments of insight and inspiration are occurring right here on our campus. And I can't help but feel that all these acts of kindness, of quite courage, of determination, of resilience, of brilliance and insight, define who we are as a community much more so than any single incidence of challenge that we've experienced in the past year, past few weeks. I firmly believe this. These things define more who we are than any of the challenges we faced in the last two weeks.
So, as you know, I've been here a little over 400 years (laughter)… 400 days. I've tried my best to get to know the DNA of Ohio State by immersing myself fully in as many aspects of our wonderful university as possible. And I have come to love, love, love this place, and its people, and its mission. And so when I was asked to serve, at a moment when sudden uncertainty was thrust upon us, I felt a sense of duty to step up and serve.
I fully understand those who say that the process was not typical for a university of our stature. And they would be right. This is not typical or usual. And some would say that our Board acted hastily in naming a president. Others have said that the Board has shown great courage in acting quickly in the best interest of the university.
What I can say is this. Every single member of the board that I've interacted with, and I've interacted with all of them, loves Ohio State and wants us to thrive. There is no hidden agenda that I have found. They’re deeply committed to the academic mission, and this has always been true, and in fact, this was part of the interview process when I was interviewing to be provost, and it was part of the reason I came here. They are committed to our mission. And I also know that the Board recognizes and is proud of the incredible work that we, our faculty, staff, and students do at The Ohio State University, from our healthcare mission to our academics, to our athletics and beyond.
Over the next few weeks and months, I hope to spend time with many of you in small groups and larger settings, hearing about your aspirations and seeking your counsel as I learn to be as decent a president for you as I can be. And I can promise you that I will give it my fullest effort and energy to this great institution. And to our community, so that I can play my part in helping us realize the full potential that we have as a university.
I know we will have differences of opinion amongst our faculty, amongst our staff, our students, and of course, between some of this body and the administration. I view such differences to be healthy. Differences of opinion, debate, deliberation are, in my opinion, a feature of deliberative bodies, not a bug of great universities. In fact, deliberative bodies like this work best when there's a plurality of ideas, experiences and perspectives represented, and we're fortunate to have that in this body.
For example, I see the freedom of expression features later on our agenda today. And certainly, freedom and free open exchange of ideas is a hallmark of any great university. And I know there's going to be ongoing conversation in our community about particular policies, such as chalking policy in particular.
From my current understanding, we have a robust culture of expressing ourselves on all matters of importance, including presidential appointments.
Seriously, though, I believe that just this academic year, we've had at least 24 different events and demonstrations on our Columbus campus. And these events were held all across campus, including our Oval, the Ohio Union, the Longaberger Alumni House, and ranged from small numbers of individuals for short periods of time to long, multi-hour demonstrations with several hundred people. They included people from within our community and from the general public. And these events include everything from protests about university policy, building namings, foreign affairs, state laws and more.
So the question is not whether we are friendly to expression or not. We are. To me, the real question is to recognize that there always will be a line that marks what we permit in time, place and manner, and what we don't. And there will always be disagreement about where that line should be. Beyond a legal obligation to provide a learning environment where all our students, faculty, and staff can go to class, to work, to safely participate in the life of the university without feeling unwelcome, or worse, feeling targeted or threatened. We care about this line because we care about all our people.
At the same time, we have the right to protest. To hold each other accountable, to do so with our fear and exercise our full rights as the citizens of this community. And so there is a dynamic tension between these two goals that ultimately requires us to make some judgment calls. I'm not a legal scholar, but I know this – that there is a tension inherent in our rights in the First Amendment, and the Title VI of our civil rights law.
At Ohio State, the line is where it is today, and we can always have a dialogue about where it should be. But I do believe that the dialogue needs to take into account the full complexity of the situation, all the members of our community, and their thoughts. As your president, I promise to try to be transparent, open, and work in the spirit of shared governance, and to have this important discussion.
The reason we care about rules and norms by which we organize ourselves as a community of learners and scholars is because ultimately we care deeply about our academic mission. It is this mission that brought us together here in this place in the first place. Our mission of research, healthcare, education, and being an engine for good that powers our communities, our state and the world. And that is why we are here.
And on this important aspect, I would like to ask for your help. I'd like to ask for your help to interpret what it means to pursue excellence. To expect that at Ohio State, we should, as a matter of course, have highly reputed departments and programs. We should expect, as a matter of course, to have faculty scholars who are known across the land and who are committed to our teaching and mentoring missions. That we should expect, as a normal course, to be able to attract and be accessible to the best students in Ohio and beyond. To have industry and community leaders to look to us for source of insight and solutions and talent. And to expect that we will tackle the administrative red tape we have for our faculty and staff, and do better by that. And you know that I've been committed to that since my first year here.
And yes, the biggest gift we can give each other is to have high expectations of each other – as people, as scholars, as citizens. And we will do this, I hope, together, like we do when we sing Carmen, Ohio.
We, each of us, have the agency to create the Ohio State we want. And I would like The Ohio State University to be the finest public university in the world. Nothing less. I truly believe that great universities of today did not fall out of the sky. They are a creation of deliberate work over many years by a community of citizens just like us. And perhaps some luck.
But I often say this, while we cannot guarantee success, we can bias the probabilities to ensure the likelihood of success through our intentional actions. And with your blessing, I would like us to choose this noble project. To collectively build a truly exceptional university on the foundations of being an academic powerhouse that we already are. A university where I'd like it to be true that each of our students at this great university, each undergraduate student, graduate student, professional student, feels and knows that all of Ohio State is rooting for their success.
So what does excellence exactly look like, and how will we get there? We will figure this out together, I hope. And whatever we design, design through the academic excellence plan, or something that sits alongside, or what follows after, I know it will require the following.
It'll require us to recruit, retain and reward our great faculty and staff. It'll require us to be accessible to the best students, independent of their family income. It'll require us to be recognized as THE place in the country for specific colleges, disciplines, programs and people. In my experience, reputations are built by things that stand out, and not by the average… Although a high average helps us create things that stand out.
Our Academic Excellence Plan is anchored on this principle. And I would like for you to please join me in welcoming our interim provost, Trevor Brown, and thanking him for stepping up to serve us at this time. I've gotten to know Trevor well as a colleague, as a confidant, as an advisor, and mostly as a deeply committed citizen of this great institution. And he's committed to this very vision, and we're fortunate to have a scholar of his stature, wisdom, and dedication step up to lead this academic community. As I said in the announcement, we will, within the next two years, conduct a national search for a permanent provost with representation, from this body and more.
So, in conclusion, I want to thank you for all that you do. It is my true honor to serve as your 18th president, and I take this responsibility on with humility, respect, and with great optimism for our future.
With your permission and active input, I'd like for us to go on a journey together, so that yes, we can do hard things that are worth doing to make Ohio the center of knowledge-driven success for our country.
And I thank you for all that you do, and I'm proud to be a Buckeye and one of your fellow community members. Thank you for this honor.