The tension in the room was palpable. A majority-minority crowd of Ohio State students, faculty, and staff packed the meeting space, faces tight with frustration, hands ready to clap in defiance. As President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. confirmed the news—the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) and the Center for Belonging and Social Change (CBSC) were being shut down—the response was immediate.

Students jeered. Faculty members sharpened their words like weapons. The air crackled with a mixture of anger, disbelief, and determination.

Carter attempted to soften the blow, offering reassurances that Ohio State was still a place for all. The room erupted into laughter. The Students and Faculty knew exactly what was happening: a university caving under pressure, preemptively complying with laws that weren’t even in effect yet.

The meeting, which was intended to be a structured update, quickly became a battleground; and when Carter tried to shut it down early, the students and faculty refused to let it go.

“This University Leadership Has Failed Us”

From the moment the floor opened, student leaders took control. They did not plead, they did not ask for understanding, they demanded action.

Sabrina Durso, President of the Council of Graduate Students, turned away from the administration and addressed her peers directly: “This university leadership has failed us, so now I’m turning to the rest of you in the room to talk about what we have to do.”

Bobby Mason, President of the Undergraduate Student Government, stood firm as he spoke about his faith in the university—faith that had now been shattered. But, he reminded the room, history had taught him one thing: “I know the history of students and what they do. They rise.”

Ashley Hope Perez, faculty Senator, cut straight to the heart of it, locking eyes with Carter:

“You had that send button ready to push on that email canceling DEI offices, but do you have the humility to reverse yourself?”

Ashley didn’t stop there, she called Carter out for citing laws that hadn’t even been passed, and executive orders that were already being challenged in court. The university was making drastic decisions based on fear, not on fact.

Associate professor of English and president of AAUP,  Pranav Jani recaptures his experience: "Even when Carter spoke, I was like, 'Oh man, why are we so quiet? Why aren't we, like, booing him and being like, 'Get out? But, you know, that wasn't the mood, right? Because people were listening and building their strength”

When Carter said “we still have our values” Jani said: “We laughed at him. We laughed at him, we actually took him off his game. He's Vice Admiral Carter, a very smooth-talking guy. We actually took him off his game.”

The closure of ODI and CBSC is just one piece of a larger, orchestrated effort to gut diversity, equity, and inclusion from higher education.

Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) and House Bill 6 (HB 6) are designed to erase protections, dismantle diversity initiatives, and suppress academic freedom. SB 1, which has already passed the Ohio Senate and is moving quickly through the House, would ban DEI offices at all public universities, eliminate DEI-related training and scholarships, prohibit DEI-based hiring or admissions practices, and redefine ‘equality of opportunity’ to explicitly exclude race, gender, and identity considerations.

HB 6 goes even further. If passed, it would silence faculty discussions on race and gender, limit student-led activism, and strip funding from research on systemic inequalities. The message is clear: Ohio lawmakers do not want higher education to be a space for critical thought, diversity, or activism.

And Ohio State is complying before the ink is even dry.

Among the most devastating testimony of the night came from Angel Marie Rivera Sanchez, a first-year law student speaking on behalf of the Interprofessional Council.

“We are here to learn how to serve our communities,” she said. “But how can we do that if we are not even allowed to learn about them? How are we expected to bring our own lived experiences into these conversations if we are afraid of the repercussions?”

She warned that the elimination of DEI spaces and the passage of SB 1 and HB 6 would do irreversible harm—not just to students, but to the future of Ohio’s justice and healthcare systems.

And she’s not alone in her fears.

According to a recent survey of 617 graduate students at Ohio State:

• 87 percent said they would not feel safe expressing their political views on campus if HB 6 becomes law.
• 82 percent said the law would prevent them from conducting their research.
• 83 percent said they would no longer be able to fully engage with student advocacy and service.

These numbers paint a staggering picture of fear, suppression, and silencing.

As the meeting wrapped up, the fight did not end in that room.

Students flooded into the hallways and outside the building, rallying together, handing out flyers for the March 4 protest, and making it clear: this wasn’t over.

But something felt off.

Students noticed Ohio State University Police gathering nearby. Their presence loomed over a protest that was overwhelmingly Black and Brown.

Why?

This was not an unruly riot. This was not a security threat. This was a group of students—many of them Black—expressing their right to protest. And yet, law enforcement was already being prepped.

Then came the media blackout.

ABC-6 had been covering the meeting—until Bobby Mason, the Black president of Undergraduate Student Government, began speaking.

Then they left the building.

Later, they filmed the protest outside, but they had already chosen to walk away from the voice of a Black student leader. The decision did not go unnoticed. It reinforced what many in the room already knew—when it comes to student activism, Black voices are often ignored, erased, or sidelined.

But the students would not be erased.

As students gathered outside, one organizer turned to the crowd and spoke with conviction.

“They think they can just push this through quietly. They’re wrong. We’re ready to fight.”

And fight they will.

The March 4 protest is expected to be a major moment of resistance, but students have already hinted at more immediate action.

The university wants this to go away. The state wants students to stay quiet.

But students are done being quiet.

They are ready.

They are rising.

To stay up to date on SB 1 and HB 6, follow the Ohio Student Association on social media and check out this document on next steps:
https://bit.ly/OhioSB1Testimony

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Jawhara Qutiefan is a mother and fourth year psychology major at Ohio State University.