Ohio State President Ted Carter talks AI, free speech at university

Ohio State University President Ted Carter expressed optimism about the university’s position despite challenges facing higher education.Carter’s 10-year strategic plan — focusing on education, culture, and research — will roll out in detail during a State of the University address in September.A new AI Fluency initiative will integrate AI education into every undergraduate’s core curriculum.

Make no mistake, Ted Carter sees the challenges facing higher education.

Carter’s first full academic year as president of Ohio State University was rife with challenging moments. Campuses nationwide were reeling during spring semester as the Trump administration threatened to pull millions in federal funding from schools that didn’t comply with Education Department mandates and executive orders. Hundreds of international students had their visas and immigration statuses revoked, at least temporarily, including a dozen Ohio State students. Ohio Senate Bill 1, regulating higher education, passed swiftly and was signed into law.

Despite the changes across higher education right now, Carter seems steadfast. He said he’s confident about where Ohio State stands amidst it all.

“We’re coming into this (academic year) in a position of strength,” Carter said in a recent sit-down interview with The Dispatch before classes resume next week.

There is a lot to be excited about right now at Ohio State, Carter said.

More than 15,500 students will soon start moving into residence halls across the university’s main campus and five regional campuses — that’s about three aircraft carriers full of people, said Carter, a retired vice admiral with 38 years of service in the U.S. Navy. The university is also expecting another strong year for new student enrollment with an estimated 8,200 freshmen.

Even when Ohio State is facing headwinds, Carter said, it’s still faring better than some of its peers.

While there is some expected decline in international student enrollment — Carter estimates about 5 to 7% — he said that’s better than the 15% drop some schools are anticipating.

It’s a similar story with research funding, he said.

“We’re (impacted) in the tens of millions of dollars, not hundreds of millions of dollars,” Carter said. “We’ve had some researchers impacted, and that’s always difficult. But because of our size and strength… we haven’t laid off a single researcher since we’ve gone through all this, and that’s not true at many other places.”

Carter’s strategic plan officially rolling out this fall

Carter introduced his 10-year strategic plan, Education for Citizenship 2035, during his investiture ceremony in November. The plan launched on July 1, but Carter said a more-detailed rollout will be announced during a State of the University address in September.

Part of the wait is because of Ohio’s biennial budget process, which impacted Ohio State’s own budgeting process.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted, but nobody ever does,” Carter said.

The framework, according to Carter’s investiture address, will focus on a three-part mission: educate the next generation, build a top-tier culture, and advance research and creativity. Every aspect will be guided by Ohio State’s land grant mission.

AI Fluency initiative is taking shape

One facet of Carter’s strategic plan already in motion is the AI Fluency initiative, which will embed artificial intelligence education into every undergraduate’s core curriculum. The goal is for all students to be comfortable and competent with AI tools regardless of their majors, Carter said.

AI education is one of the reasons he hired Ravi V. Bellamkonda to be Ohio State’s next provost. Bellamkonda helped launch Emory University’s AI.Humanity initiative in 2022.

While AI is already being integrated into curriculums campuswide, mostly in the STEM and medical fields, Carter said this initiative will equip all students with the tools needed for the next generation of careers.

“The misnomer is that ChatGPT is AI, and you’re hearing a lot about that in higher ed and how every student that’s coming into classes has been using it for three years,” Carter said.

“This is so much more than ChatGPT. It’s so much more than even generative AI. This is really about understanding the tools that are there.”

Carter said the initiative will also delve into the ethics and environmental impacts of AI.

Whether folks like it or not, AI is here to stay, Carter said, likening the AI boom to when home computers and the internet became more widely accessible in the mid-1990s. If you thought that was big, he said, AI will be 10 times more transformative.

“It’s only going to get bigger and better. Some institutions will just say, ‘We’re going to dabble in it, we’re going to learn a little bit more before we offer it in a larger scale.’ I think those institutions will find themselves working behind the power curve,” he said.

Carter said taking a “bold approach” to AI education now will help Ohio State students both while they’re in school and after graduation.

“This is not about the dumbing down of our students. They’re still going to get a world-class education,” he said.

‘We’ve always been a campus that welcomes everybody’

Carter also responded to criticism from students and faculty over a new campuswide ban on chalking.

Chalking — a popular practice in which students write slogans, announcements and political commentary in chalk on the sidewalks around campus — is now banned under Ohio State’s University Signage Standards, which were revised on Aug. 14. It’s a move that one faculty group have called an “assault on free speech.”

Carter said the decision to ban chalking was less about free speech and more about cleanup.

“It wasn’t an attempt to take anybody’s speech away,” he said. “Almost 90% of everything that was getting chalked we had to erase. It became a huge administrative burden.”

He added that Ohio State is not the first university to make such changes.

“Harvard’s done it, Maryland’s done it, Louisville’s done it. We’re now in that space,” he said.

Ohio State’s updated policy is part of a trend of colleges and universities putting restrictions on expressive activities over the last year in the wake of pro-Palestinian encampments popping up on campuses nationwide during spring semester 2024. 

Although chalking is out, Carter said there are “multitudes of ways for students to have their voices heard and to have their First Amendment rights expressed.”

“We’ve always been a campus that welcomes everybody and welcomes their voices, and we’ll continue to do that,” Carter said.

Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.