President Gonzalez shares latest University updates in response to the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act
The following message was shared with all OHIO students and employees on Monday, June 23, 2025.
Dear OHIO Community,
As we shared with our University community in April, today our Division of Diversity and Inclusion, including the Multicultural Center, Women鈥檚 Center, and Pride Center, will close in accordance with the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act. As part of that transition, in early May we asked for broad feedback on the future of the spaces in Baker University Center that have been occupied by our identity-based centers and ideas for ensuring we continue to be a campus where all belong.
We wanted to share an update on what we heard from our University community and make you aware of the short-term plan for the spaces operated by the centers.
We have compiled a summary report of the feedback we received from our May input survey. A few of the key messages that were clear in your responses included:
- Space in Baker University Center should be prioritized for student use, including study, places for clubs and organizations to meet and informal networking space.
- Any new use of the spaces occupied by the centers should honor the legacy of that space as much as possible.
- Students, as well as faculty and staff, need physical spaces where they can be their authentic selves.
With that in mind, we are temporarily repurposing the second-floor space that housed the Multicultural Center as the Visible Student Lounge. Outside of that gathering place, signage reads:
Be Seen. Be Heard. Be Visible. This space is reserved for any and all students to gather, to express their unique identities and perspectives, to connect across differences, to practice dialogue and to learn from each other. Here, we always Make Respect Visible.
The offices adjacent to the Visible Student Lounge will house our Make Respect Visible Coordinator, our LINKS program staff and staff from the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership, and we will utilize the space as we continue our Make Respect Visible educational initiative, designed to set University expectations for engaging in dialogue, not division, and for building connections across cultures that make us all stronger.
Additionally, we are converting our Women鈥檚 Center space on the fourth floor of Baker Center into Baker Landing, an informal student space to stop in for a study or lunch break with classmates or to catch up or rest during a brief break between classes.
And finally, we are working to prepare the space previously housed by our Pride Center as a reservable meeting space for student organizations.
These plans are intended to serve as a temporary response to immediate needs for the 2025-26 academic year as we engage further with our University community to design the best use of these spaces long term. This will also serve as a pilot to help us determine if, and how, students utilize informal student meeting space in Baker.
We also wanted to highlight a few organizational changes that have been finalized over the last several weeks:
- We remain committed to our Cultural History and Heritage Programming, including our annual Martin Luther King Day Celebration, our cultural history months and our four-year celebration of the Life and Legacy of John Newton Templeton. The organization of these programs will be led by the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership.
- The University Interfaith Association will be led by the Dean of Students Office.
- Management of important accessibility resources and information, such as locations of lactation rooms and single-user restrooms, will now be managed by our Civil Rights Compliance office.
- As a reminder, our Templeton, Appalachian, Urban and Margaret Boyd Scholars programs are now managed by our Honors Tutorial College.
Thank you to all who have or will provide input into this important transition.
I want to close by reminding us all that ensuring OHIO remains forever for everyone is a core value for our institution. When we refreshed our institutional mission, vision and values in 2024, we included as one of seven key values: 鈥淲e expect respect across differences and recognize our responsibility to practice empathy, to appreciate diverse perspectives and cultures, and to develop the capacity to solve problems that transcend borders.鈥 Let鈥檚 all keep those words in our minds as we plan new approaches that will help us live our values and support our students.
With appreciation,
Lori
Dr. Lori Stewart Gonzalez
President, 花季传媒