Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
Welcome to the start of autumn semester at The Ohio State University. I hope you are as excited as I am to begin another academic year of exceptional scholarship, discovery and service to our communities. “Education for Citizenship” is both our motto and our charge.
I want to extend a special welcome to our students, faculty and staff beginning their first semesters at Ohio State. I know you will come to love our traditions, our spirit and our community as much as I have. We are honored and grateful to have you here with us.
The start of a new academic year is a time of great excitement. Already, many of you have taken part in move-in, convocation, Buck-i-Frenzy and more. Tomorrow, I look forward to seeing students at Buckeye Kickoff in Ohio Stadium. If you don’t yet know where Baker, Bevis or Bradley Halls are located, all the words to “Carmen Ohio,” or what TBDBITL means, I have good news: There are thousands of your fellow Buckeyes on campus right at this moment who are willing to help. Ohio State is a community like no other.
I want to thank our faculty and staff who worked so hard all summer to prepare for this academic year. I had the pleasure of speaking at new faculty orientation last week and look forward to joining University Senate’s orientation and opening reception next week. I am immensely proud of Ohio State’s unique shared governance model that includes faculty, staff and student leaders who work collectively on some of our most complex problems.
With the start of classes, we are reminded not just of our founding academic mission, but also of how much this community has grown — from 24 registered students when the Ohio Agriculture and Mechanical College opened its doors in 1873 to more than 65,000 across all campuses of The Ohio State University today. Students in their last years with us, either at the undergraduate or graduate and professional levels, are working to join a worldwide network of more than 600,000 living alumni. These aren’t just numbers. They are colleagues, friends and connections waiting to be made. I encourage you to take full advantage of all that being a Buckeye offers.
As we all get to work over the coming days and months, I hope you’ll agree that we are incredibly fortunate to do what we do each day. There are few more worthy pursuits than learning, teaching and discovering. These journeys last a lifetime, and they begin anew today.
Finally, please see below for additional updates related to the start of the new academic year, including our latest initiative on the topic of civil discourse: Listen. Learn. Discuss. It is important to remember that each one of us has chosen to be a Buckeye, and we should have the highest standards for the way we treat one another. I am confident that, even as we contend with challenges great and small, we will make this an outstanding year together.
Have a wonderful start to your semester, and, as always, Go Bucks!
Health and safety
The health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, patients and visitors continues to be the university’s No. 1 priority. While Ohio State is located in the middle of a large city where crime does occur, the university provides many safety resources and is continually working to enhance them. These include Buckeye Block Watch, community ambassadors, security cameras, additional university police, license plate readers, and partnerships with local law enforcement for areas off campus. A full list of safety resources is available on the Department of Public Safety’s website.
Listen. Learn. Discuss.
At Ohio State, we value that our students, faculty and staff bring their own backgrounds, experiences and viewpoints. This is a strength we share — and an important part of our mission as an academic institution. To meet and learn from people with perspectives different from ours only deepens and expands our understanding of the world. To that end, the university has launched a new initiative: Listen. Learn. Discuss.
This effort, designed with input from faculty, staff and students, creates a centralized resource for Buckeyes to develop skills that promote respectful dialogue. At the same time, the initiative will provide opportunities for engagement to put those skills to use. Ohio State is committed to building an environment of trust — one that fosters productive discussions on challenging topics even, and especially, when we disagree. You can learn more at listen-learn-discuss.osu.edu.
Combating hate speech
Related to our Listen. Learn. Discuss. initiative, we are committed to finding ways to express even our most passionate opinions civilly and respectfully. Even if allowed under the First Amendment, hate speech is in direct opposition to our university values. When protected speech becomes something else entirely, when it threatens or incites violence or becomes harassment, we will continue to move quickly to enforce the law and university policy. We are committed to making Ohio State a place where we can disagree, not disparage or denigrate.
Laws and university standards
Each member of our community is expected to educate themselves on laws and university rules and standards that have been put in place to protect everyone on our campuses — and to ensure that we can continue to teach, learn, research and provide patient care without interruption. We have worked over the summer with input from faculty, staff and students to ensure these protocols and standards are clear and easy to find, and we appreciate your full participation in following them.
Sincerely,
Ted
Ted Carter
President