As higher ed faces attack, Ohio State, Johns Hopkins presidents address role in democracy
What is the role of the American research university? How should they educate and prepare students to be engaged citizens? And how should universities leaders engage in this moment when many say that higher education is under attack?
Ohio State President Ted Carter and Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels aimed to answer those questions during a public discussion at the Ohio Union Tuesday afternoon.
The discussion, called "Citizenship Education at America's Leading Research Universities," was the first public event held by Ohio State's Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture & Society and was co-sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Human Values, the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.
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Though the Ohio General Assembly mandated the creation of five independent academic centers promoting intellectual diversity at Ohio State and four other state public universities in 2023, and the center has been active since this past fall, Tuesday's event was in some ways a public introduction to the Chase Center and its offerings.
Chase Center Executive Director Lee J. Strang moderated the hourlong event. Strang said the purpose of the event was two-fold: to provide information about citizenship education at the university level and to model civil debate.
Carter and Daniels both shared their perspectives as leaders of public and private universities, respectively, on how what they see as the role of a research university in promoting civic education. It is a question that Strang was particularly interested in hearing from Daniels.
Daniels, who has served as president of Johns Hopkins since 2009, wrote a book titled "What Universities Owe Democracy" in 2021. Strang read the book three years ago, about the same time that discussions started at the Statehouse related to creating the Chase Center and other like it. He thought it was interesting why the president of the country's leading research institution would write a book about citizenship education.
The two concepts are more intertwined than one might think, Daniels said during Tuesday's discussion.
He took attendees back to post-WW2 America, when inventor and science administrator Vannevar Bush led the movement responsible for creating the National Science Foundation. His push to promote national security and economic growth by financing higher education research through federal funds, Daniels said, was "true genius."
That relationship between the university and the federal government is crucial to the growth and existence of not only high-level research but also democracy itself, both presidents said. Ohio State, Carter said, wouldn't exist without its research arm.
"As a public (university), we are beholden to those dollars for us to be able to do this work for the nation," Carter said. "The United States has a gift for the future and the current work of research."
Both presidents submitted, however, that universities need to do a better job communicating all of the work they do and why it is crucial to civic engagement. A Gallup poll published in July 2024 found that Americans are nearly equally divided on their confidence levels in higher education. Those who have a lot of confidence in higher education, about 36%, just barely outweighs those who have some confidence (32%) and those with little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. That is in stark contrast to when Gallup first measured confidence in higher education in 2015, when 57% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and only 10% had little or none.
"It's a little bit under attack, to be quite honest, right now," Carter said. "But what it is that we do and how we do it is so important."
Daniels said that we've seen democracies around the world "drifting to authoritarianism" and "robust democracies becoming fragile."
"It's in that context that you ask the question, 'What can institutions do to ensure the survival and the flourishing of these political arrangements, of these institutions that we associate with the idea of democracy?'" he said.
Education, both Daniels and Carter said, is a huge part of the solution. Both shared how they've worked to integrate civics education at their universities.
At Johns Hopkins, Daniels said the university started "Democracy Day," a full day of programming during freshman orientation where new students hear all about the tenets of democracy, learn about opportunities across campus and in the broader community to get involved, and participate in activities to cultivate and practice civil discourse.
"We're trying to normalize this exchange, and again, be a corrective force to the deep polarization that exists in this country," Daniels said. "We're deeply, deeply divided, but we're not even talking to each other. We're just hurling insults and getting more and more entrenched... This is an opportunity to develop this ability to navigate these differences."
Carter noted that "Education for Citizenship" is both Ohio State's motto and its mission. He highlighted the university's Listen. Learn. Discuss. platform, launched during fall semester. The platform acts as an umbrella to campus groups dedicated to free expression and civics, including the Center for Ethics and Human Values, OSU Votes and the Divided Community Project.
Civil discourse: These Ohio State academics want to help you navigate difficult conversations better
It was almost fitting that an event about education did not take place without its detractors. About halfway through the discussion, two students seated in the audience stood up and called on Carter to join them at a protest outside the Ohio Union to hear directly from students.
About 50 students gathered before the Chase Center event to protest the university's recent decision to shutter two of its diversity offices, as well as the state of university's investments and student housing.
"We have students, faculty and staff who are concerned about the lack of democracy at Ohio State University," one of the students said. "... We want you to embody the citizenship you're talking about here."
The protestors were escorted out of the theater minutes later without issue. Before resuming the event, Carter said to audience members that he is proud that students feel comfortable expressing their freedom of speech on campus.
"As I said earlier, I wore the uniform for 38 years. I was committed to the Constitution of the United States, and part of that was First Amendment," he said. "So as much as it seems like a disruption, it's OK, and that's part of what we do here."
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.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State, Johns Hopkins leaders speak at Chase Center's first event
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