After Ohio State University announced in late February that it would shutter two campus offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion and eliminate more than a dozen related staff positions, it didn’t take long for Kieran Duhl to decide they needed to resign.
Duhl was working as a recruitment and enrollment specialist in the OSU College of Arts and Sciences and leading the Program for Advancing Scholarship and Service, a learning community for OSU freshmen. It was a program they said that provided many friendships and mentors during Duhl’s time as an undergrad. Leading the program was one of their greatest honors, Duhl told The Dispatch.
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Ohio State University students Chidera Ejinaka and Ayele Amouzouvi pose with Kieran Duhl, a former university recruitment specialist. Duhl publicly resigned from their position last month after the university announced it was eliminating DEI offices and jobs.
But the office had already started making small changes to “dial back diversity” throughout fall semester, like changing the language for some programs and scholarships to focus less on student diversity, Duhl said. So as they read President Ted Carter’s email announcement about closing Ohio State’s DEI offices, and seeing students’ defeated looks upon learning the news, their decision was clear.
Duhl could not in good conscience continue to recruit students to Ohio State under these circumstances, they said. Duhl ultimately decided to publicly announce their resignation from the university two days later on March 1 at a Buckeye Bound event for admitted multicultural students, as seen in a video of the event that recirculated on social media over the weekend.
“My role in recruitment requires me to convince admitted students to pay their acceptance fees and commit to OSU,” Duhl said at the event. “While I am still dedicated to the students who are at the university, I cannot in good faith recruit students when we do not know what we’ll be able to offer them.”
Duhl said that their recruitment office did not receive any information about how to talk about the recent changes before the event, which led to frustration as a staff member responsible for working with admitted students.
A majority of the students, staff and faculty in the room for the event were Black. The first family that Duhl spoke with that morning asked about the news.
“They asked, ‘What’s up with this DEI stuff?’ And I told them you know as much as I do,” Duhl said. “It disappointed me as an alum and as a staff member.”
Duhl said resigning was not a decision made lightly, but one they stand behind.
“I didn’t feel comfortable standing at this event telling these students they could come here, spend your money here, that you’ll feel safe and protected here,” Duhl said. “If you know me, you know I can’t do that. It’s about integrity.”
Kieran Duh, pictured on the far left in the second row, is a former Ohio State University recruitment specialist. Duhl resigned last month from their position after the university announced it was eliminating DEI offices and jobs.
Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson said in a statement that the university “remains committed to supporting students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds, every community in Ohio, across the country and around the globe.” He said Ohio State is maintaining programs like Morrill and Young Scholars scholarships “that support all students and remove barriers to success.”
“We will continue to foster a community where all are welcome and treated with respect. We wish Kieran all the best,” Johnson said. As far as Duhl’s future plans, they still involve Ohio State. They are starting as a graduate student in a Ph.D. program in women’s, gender and sexuality studies this fall.
Duhl said regardless of their role at Ohio State, they will keep supporting students at the university.
“There will still be Black students at Ohio State, and I will still be a support,” Duhl said. “But I can’t tell people to come here right now. It’s unethical.”
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 recruitment specialist publicly resigned after DEI closures
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