LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

Without fear or favor
Since 2004

Tag: Cleveland State University

  • 12 race-based scholarships worth $46,000 weren’t awarded to Ohio University journalism students

    12 race-based scholarships worth $46,000 weren’t awarded to Ohio University journalism students

    That’s only a fraction of $450,000 worth of scholarship money at OU that’s under review after advice from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

    BY:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    Twelve race-based scholarships totaling $46,000 weren’t given out at Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism’s awards banquet this week, said Journalism School Director Eddith Dashiell.

    And that’s only a fraction of the 130 gift agreements that represent $450,000 worth of scholarship money under review by the university after comments Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost made about race-based scholarships after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against race-conscious admissions.

    “I’m disappointed that the university chose this route,” Dashiell said to the Ohio Capital Journal. “It would have been a clear, very easy way to demonstrate their true commitment to diversity and by cowardly cowering to one person’s opinion about how to interpret the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision has resulted in at least 12 of our students not getting scholarships they need.”

    Ohio University’s scholarship review is ongoing, university spokesperson Dan Pittman said in an email.

    “It would be premature for us to speculate on any potential outcomes, including the scope of impacted scholarships and/or gift agreements,” Pittman said.

    Dashiell said it’s misleading for a university to say the scholarships are still under review at the tail end of spring semester.

    “To me, when the university says their official position is the scholarships are still under review, that is code for they haven’t been given out,” she said. “Scholarship season is over. … The decision has already been made.”

    The Capital Journal reported in March that at least seven Ohio public universities — including OU — are reviewing scholarships. The other universities include Cleveland State University, Kent State University, the University of Akron, the University of Toledo, Youngstown State University and Ohio State University. Bowling Green State University is also reviewing race-based scholarships.

    Cleveland State University said the scholarships in questions remain under review and Bowling Green said it “continues to evaluate next steps.” The rest of the universities did not respond by the Capital Journal’s deadline.

    Dave Yost’s remarks

     Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. (Photo by Morgan Trau, WEWS.) 

    The day after the Supreme Court decision, Yost sent a letter to Ohio colleges and universities saying his office won’t legally protect someone at a college or university who uses race as a factor.

    Race-based scholarships came up on a January call Yost had with universities — even though scholarships were not mentioned in the Supreme Court decision.

    “What was said in response to a question was after the recent Supreme Court decision, scholarships will need to be looked at to ensure compliance with the law,” Yost’s spokesperson Bethany McCorkle said in a Febuary email. “… Race-based scholarships discriminate on the basis of race in awarding benefits. Therefore, it would follow that such programs are unconstitutional.”

    Not long after that phone call, university faculty and staff across the state got wind that diversity scholarships were under review.

    “A public institution of higher education is … supposed to follow the law,” Dashiell said. “(OU is) following one man’s opinion of what the law is.”

    12 missing scholarships

    Dashiell compared this year’s list of journalism scholarships to last year’s list and noticed 12 scholarships were missing.

    “They aren’t there,” she said. “That’s more than under review. They made a decision. They deleted them.”

    OU’s journalism school is made up of 84% white students, Dashiell said.

    “The diversity scholarships weren’t created to keep white students from getting any money,” she said. “They were designed to help encourage African American students to come to a little bitty town called Athens, Ohio. … To say that these 12 scholarships somehow according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, somehow that these scholarships discriminate against whites, is so blatantly racist, I don’t even know how to explain that.”

    Dashiell apologized to the donors whose scholarships weren’t awarded in her speech during Tuesday’s awards banquet.

    “On behalf of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism: To our donors, please accept our deepest apology for our inability to share your generosity with our students for next academic year,” she said.

    Some of the donors whose scholarships weren’t awarded include Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and columnist Clarence Page and former Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander.

    Dashiell is worried how else the Supreme Court decision is going to be interpreted.

    “If it’s diversity scholarships this year, what are they going to pause next year?” she asked. How are they going to stretch the U.S. Supreme Court decision again?”

    Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.

    Megan Henry
    MEGAN HENRY

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

    Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR

  • At least seven Ohio universities are reviewing race-based scholarships after Supreme Court ruling

    At least seven Ohio universities are reviewing race-based scholarships after Supreme Court ruling

    College students walk on campus. (Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images)

    The University of Akron, the University of Toledo, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Ohio University, Ohio State University and Youngstown State University all said they are in the process of reviewing their scholarships.

    BY:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    At least seven Ohio public universities are reviewing scholarships in the wake of comments Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost made about race-based scholarships after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against race-conscious admissions.

    Cleveland State University, Kent State University, the University of Akron, the University of Toledo and Youngstown State University all said they are in the process of reviewing their scholarships. This is in addition to Ohio University and Ohio State University, as previously reported by the Capital Journal.

    “The University of Toledo has paused the distribution of scholarships that consider race as a part of their award criteria following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the use of affirmative action in higher education admissions,” university spokesperson Tyrel Linkhorn said in email.

    This affects 6% of Toledo’s nearly 1,200 donor-supported scholarships, which is worth $500,000, he said in an email.

    “The University and The University of Toledo Foundation are actively working with donors to explore potential revisions to scholarship agreements so we can continue to support our donors’ goals in a way that fully complies with the Supreme Court decision,” Linkhorn said in an email.

    Kent State and Youngstown State mentioned the Supreme Court case and “guidance from the state of Ohio” as reasons for their review. Cleveland State just mentioned the Supreme Court case and Akron didn’t give a specific reason.

    The Capital Journal previously reported that Ohio University is “temporarily pausing” awarding race-based diversity scholarships and that Ohio State University is in the “process of updating scholarship criteria to ensure compliance with the law,” according to the university’s website.

    Ohio University has 130 gift agreements that are currently under review that represent $450,000 in potential scholarship awards, university spokesperson Dan Pittman said in an email.

    “The review is to ensure language in the gift agreements remains lawful,” Pittman said. “If deemed necessary, the University will work with donors to make revisions to language in the agreements.”

    Ohio State University expects to give away approximately $448 million dollars in financial aid this fiscal year, university spokesperson Ben Johnson said in an email.

    Bowling Green State University, Miami University, Northeast Ohio Medical Center, Shawnee State University, the University of Cincinnati and Wright State University did not answer questions about the status of their race-based scholarships.

    A university spokesperson for Central State University, Ohio’s only public historically Black university, said in email they don’t have race based scholarships.

    Supreme Court decision

    The U.S. Supreme Court. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
     The U.S. Supreme Court. (Al Drago/Getty Images) 

    Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the equal protections clause of the 14th Amendment by using race as a factor in applications.

    The next day, Yost sent a letter to Ohio colleges and universities saying “employees must immediately cease considering race when making admissions decisions,” according to the letter. It also said his office won’t legally protect someone at a college or university who uses race as a factor.

    The topic of race-based scholarships came up on a Jan. 26 call with universities, said Yost’s spokesperson Bethany McCorkle.

    “What was said in response to a question was after the recent Supreme Court decision, scholarships will need to be looked at to ensure compliance with the law,” McCorkle said in an email. “Although the Court did not expressly prohibit race-based scholarships, it indicated that ‘eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.’ Race-based scholarships discriminate on the basis of race in awarding benefits. Therefore, it would follow that such programs are unconstitutional.”

    The Harvard Supreme Court decision is being “weaponized to intimidate and create fear,” said Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors.

    “We obviously disagree with the Harvard decision, and we also disagree with how the Attorney General is trying to extrapolate it to apply to virtually anything that touches race,” she said. “We hope that institutions are not being pushed into a direction that ultimately will harm students.”

    If race-based scholarships are removed from universities, Kilpatrick said it could prevent Ohio students from earning degrees.

    “This is a dangerous slippery slope, and they should be cautious about how far they’re trying to push this,” she said. “This will undoubtedly dry up desperately needed revenue streams for institutions.”

    Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.

    Megan Henry
    MEGAN HENRY

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR

  • More Ohio universities added to Senate bill that would create ‘intellectual diversity’ centers

    More Ohio universities added to Senate bill that would create ‘intellectual diversity’ centers

    Miami University, Cleveland State University, and the University of Cincinnati were added to Senate Bill 117, which was voted out of the Senate

    BY:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    The Ohio Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would create “intellectual diversity” centers at Ohio State University, the University of Toledo, Miami University, Cleveland State University, and the University of Cincinnati.

    The party line vote came after an amendment was added during the Senate session that tacks on Miami, Cleveland State, and Cincinnati to Senate Bill 117. The bill now moves to the House for committee consideration.

    SB 117 would create the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at Ohio State University’s College of Public Affairs and the Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership at the University of Toledo’s College of Law. It would also now create centers for civics, culture and society at Miami, Cleveland State and Cincinnati.

    “The (Ohio State) center will educate students by means of free, open and rigorous intellectual inquiry, to seek truth, equip students with the skills they need to reach their own informed conclusions in matters of social and political importance,” said Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, one of the bill’s sponsors.

    SB 117 amendment

    Many Senate Democrats slammed SB 117 and the amendment during Wednesday’s session.

    “SB 117 is forcing the installation of conservative think-tanks at our public universities across the state of Ohio and they are using taxpayer money to do it,” said state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus.

    “The amendment is atrocious,” said Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati.

    Miami and Cleveland State were not aware of the potential amendment adding them to the bill before Wednesday afternoon’s Senate Session.

    “They had absolutely no idea,” Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, told reporters when she reached out to her alma mater Cleveland State. “They did not ask for it … and are very concerned about this being imposed on them.”

    State Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, did something similar with his alma maters Miami and Cleveland State, and both institutions of higher education said this was the first time they were hearing about the amendment.

    “Committees are the best forums for thoroughly studying bills,” he said.

    Senate President Matt Huffman said making the amendment on the Senate floor was not ideal.

    “Certainly that’s not the best way to do these things,” he said to reporters. “I don’t like substantive floor amendments. We’re at a lengthy legislative break. Secondly, the House in their negotiations of essentially, at least for the moment, have rejected the concept of this higher education reform that we want to have. And so what we really want to do is tee these things up.”

    The amendments also clarified that both these centers are “independent academic units in their respective universities,” Cirino said.

     COLUMBUS, Ohio — JUNE 15: Senate Majority Floor Leader Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, speaks during the Ohio Senate session, June 15, 2023, at the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal) 

    He introduced the bill in May along with Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon — arguing that university faculty are predominantly liberal.

    But McColley insisted Wednesday that SB 117 is not a conservative takeover of higher education.

    “There is not a single letter, there is not a single word, there is not a single phrase that requires this to teach conservative principles,” he said. “The University of Toledo Law is supportive of this. The Ohio State University does not oppose this either.”

    But Ohio State already has more than 70 centers, and many students and professors at both universities have spoken out against SB 117.

    State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, said college students do want these centers, but are afraid to speak out.

    “If they speak out, they are afraid it might impact their academic career,” he claimed.

    The bill would give UT $1 million in fiscal year 2024 and $2 million in fiscal year 2025 for the Institute, and Ohio State $5 million in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 for the Center.

    The bill’s amendment would each give Miami, Cleveland, and Cincinnati $2 million each fiscal year to support the centers, Cirino said.

    State budget

    SB 117 is one of the bills that the Senate added to their version of the state budget, which is currently in conference committee.

    McColley clarified that what’s in the proposed budget when it comes to SB 117 doesn’t include the three new universities that were added to the bill through Wednesday’s amendment.

    The Ohio House has pushed back on the higher education bills being added to the budget.

    “We’re maybe not going to get 117 in the budget,” Huffman said. “You don’t know what the deal is until there’s a deal. So we’re just putting 117 forward as a bill.”

    Senate Bill 83, also introduced by Cirino and which would overhaul higher education, was added to the budget by the Senate.

    Among other things, SB 83 would ban university staff and employees from striking, college students would be forced to take certain American history courses, professor tenure would be based around “bias,” and mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training would be prohibited, with only specific exemptions.

    “The House are not fans of 83,” Huffman said. “I think we’ve offered a pretty good higher education package that they rejected.”

    While the constitutional deadline for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to sign the budget is Friday, it seems unclear at this point if that is actually going to happen.

    “I’m optimistic and I think we’ll see what happens on Friday,” Huffmann said.

    Lee Strang

     Professor Lee Strang is the John W. Stoepler Professor of Law & Values at the University of Toledo Law School. (Photo from University of Toledo website.) 

    UT Law Professor Lee Strang first got the idea for the Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership in 2019 after visiting the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and Princeton University’s James Madison Program.

    He has also helped lawmakers get Issue 1 on the ballot in a special Aug. 8 election, which would make it harder for voters to amend the state constitution.

    Lawmakers have insisted Issue 1 is not about abortion, but Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently said it is “100%” because of efforts to legalize abortion.

    Strang has closely aligned himself with groups trying to stop an abortion rights amendment and has shown support for banning abortion care.

    Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

    Megan Henry
    MEGAN HENRY

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the last five years reporting on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR

  • 11 Loveland High School Student-Athletes to be Recognized next Wednesday

    Loveland, Ohio – Attention Loveland Community! Loveland High School is inviting you to join us and the rest of the Loveland Tigers for National Signing Day on Wednesday, November 13th, in the main gym at Loveland High School, at 2:30 PM. 11 Loveland High School Student-Athletes will be recognized during this special ceremony.

    Loveland Magazine congratulates the following, on committing to play their sport at the collegiate level:

    Kate Garry – Basketball – University of Akron
    Jillian Hayes – Basketball – University of Cincinnati
    Brandon Day – Swim – University of Utah
    Kristin Thomas – XC/Track – Georgetown
    Kaitlyn Andrews – Soccer – University of Cincinnati
    Claire Massey – Soccer – Taylor University
    Maria Bashardoust – Soccer – Cleveland State University
    Caitlin Elam – Soccer – University of Louisville
    Carson Deer – Baseball – University of Tennessee-Martin
    Allison Rountree – Golf – Ohio Northern University
    Riley Bullock – Dive – Ball State University

     

  • [Exclusive Video] Loveland High School Spring Signing Day

    [Exclusive Video] Loveland High School Spring Signing Day

    Cade Spike • Paige Naber • Lindy Walker • Morgan Naber • Abbie Puchta • Tanner Miller • Adam Clark

    “It is an emotional experience for all involved,” said Loveland Interim Athletic Director Brian Conatser.

    Loveland, Ohio – In this LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV VIDEO Loveland High School Interim Athletic Director, Brian Conatser honored seven student-athletes on April  11 who committed to advance their educational and athletic careers to the next level during the LHS Athletic Spring Signing Day in the LHS Gym. Students were surrounded by family members, coaches, and friends as they announced their intentions and signed papers formalizing their intent.

    “It is an emotional experience for all involved,” said Loveland Interim Athletic Director Brian Conatser. “This is a moment many of these students have been working toward nearly their entire tenure as students, and these are the people who have cheered them on each step of the way. We are incredibly proud of what they have accomplished, and we wish them all the best.”

    The student-athletes who signed at the event included:

    • Adam Clark – Men’s Lacrosse,Cleveland State University
    • Tanner Miller – Volleyball, Thomas More College
    • Morgan Naber – Women’s Lacrosse, Kent State University
    • Paige Naber – Women’s Lacrosse, Mount St. Joseph University
    • Abbie Puchta – Women’s Lacrosse, Marietta College
    • Cade Spikes – Baseball, North Greenville University
    • Lindy Walker – Women’s Lacrosse, Transylvania University

    Jarvis Global Investments, LLC

    Jarvis Global is an investment advisory firm in Symmes Township, Ohio which offers private portfolio management and retirement services to high net worth individuals,…