COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kieran Duhl used to be a recruitment specialist for The Ohio State University.
But after the school announced last month that it will close both its Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Center for Belonging and Social Change, she decided to resign.
“It was a moral dilemma because I didn’t feel like in good faith I could tell people, ‘Yes, come to this university. It’s going to be a great experience for you.’ When we don’t even know what the next couple of months are going to look like,” said Duhl.
The university president Ted Carter made the announcement on February 27th, saying the school chose to eliminate its DEI programs so it could continue to receive federal funding. Hours later, Duhl was scheduled to work for a recruiting event, which, in the end, helped solidify her decision.
“Do a presentation with an audience of over 200 people and convince them to pay acceptance fees and come to Ohio State in the fall. And I was really thinking about it afterwards, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do that,’” said Duhl.
Republican state Sen. Jerry Cirino has been an advocate for eliminating DEI in Ohio’s education system. He believes eliminating will push schools to choose the most qualified candidate, regardless of demographics.
“This is a needed reform to enhance and make higher education in Ohio better. We have to constantly be moving the goal line here for us to be better, to respond to the changes demographically in the workforce, demands for jobs and that our graduates are taking,” said Cirino.
But groups like “Honesty for Ohio Education,” which pushes for diverse perspectives in schools, disagree, saying DEI is necessary for more reasons than people may realize.
“DEI does not just include race and ethnicity, which that’s what most people think of. It also includes veterans services. It also includes accessibility for students with disabilities. It includes women, it includes anyone who may have had trouble getting to college or getting through college previously,” said Rachel Coyle, the policy director for Honesty for Ohio Education.
As far as the future for Duhl, she plans on staying at The Ohio State University, but in a different capacity. She’s starting her PhD program in the fall.
“To me, it felt like, you know, maybe my work at Ohio State is done in the sense of recruiting. But I don’t think that, you know, my journey at Ohio State is over yet,” said Duhl.
As for the students she used to work with as a recruiter, she said she’s going to continue that relationship because she believes her work on campus is more pertinent now than ever.
“I know I’ll see them around campus. It’s going to be nice to kind of honestly be a little bit more on their level as like a student rather than staff,” said Duhl.
