Ohio State President Ted Carter discusses record enrollment, protests and cybersecurity

Ohio State University President Walter "Ted" Carter Jr. spoke to WOSU Thursday in an exclusive interview, taking questions on several subjects, including the university's record enrollment, protests and Columbus' cybersecurity issues.

OSU's freshman class is the largest it's ever been. The one-year anniversary of the attack on Israeli civilians that sparked the war in Gaza is approaching. The extent of the data released on the dark web because of the July ransomware attack on the city is bringing up questions of the government's ability to prevent such attacks.

Here's what Carter said about each topic and how the university is handling each one.

Carter touts a diverse campus after affirmative action was overturned, says there are no plans yet for new residence halls

Ohio State achieved record enrollment for this year's freshman class. The university announced this week it accepted a freshman class of 9,530 students.

Total enrollment at Ohio State increased to 66,901, up 2.3% from 2023. Graduate student enrollment also reached a record high of 11,408 students, and professional student enrollment remains stable.

Under all these numbers is a bright spot when it comes to diversity on campus, after the U.S. Supreme Court abolished affirmative action last year. Carter said the university enrolled 5,450 Black students and just under 3,900 Hispanic students.

Carter said both are record numbers.

"So we're doing some things right and making sure that we're being attractive to everybody that wants to come to Ohio State," Carter said.

Carter said with the record enrollment, the university had to prepare to divide its dorm room spaces effectively to all students to meet their needs. He said the university was able to plan well and had the right amount of space to house incoming students.

Some dorms at OSU are much older than others, but Carter said right now there are no plans to build new dorms or demolish older ones.

"As the population her in central Ohio (grows), our attractiveness as a university, as a land grant, is going to continue to rise. I believe we need to make sure that if we are going to grow, we grow with a purpose," Carter said.

Carter said "civil obedience" comments were taken out of context, says any protests on Oct. 7 will be treated the same as other demonstrations

Carter called for civil obedience at protests this year on campus during an interview on WOSU's "All Sides with Anna Staver" last month .

"We know we're going to probably see some protest groups this fall, and I'm hoping that we can do it with, again, a good bit of civil obedience," Carter said.

Protests by Students for Justice in Palestine and others have already begun protesting on campus. Some took issue with Carter's comment during a protest last week .

Carter thinks he was taken out of context by protesters who took issue with that comment. Carter said he acknowledges the teachings of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that espoused practices of civil disobedience to protest the Jim Crow policies of southern states in the 20th century.

"As we as a university support free speech, the idea that they have a voice and it should be heard, it doesn't give people the freedom to incite violence or to do destructive damage to property or to public spaces, or to create encampments or security issues for which we can't manage," Carter said.

The protests on campus last year remained peaceful, but other campuses across the U.S. did experience violence erupting between police, protesters and counterprotesters.

Carter said there is room for civil disobedience, as long as university rules are followed and the ability of students to learn isn't impeded.

"The whole idea of education for citizenship said that we should allow all of our students who pay tuition to be able to continue with their mission. So anything that impedes that or prevents us from doing that part of that mission, we're going to have to, you know, take a step back and say, you know, that's going to be reviewed and not allowed.

The one-year anniversary of the attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians that sparked the war in Gaza is approaching. Carter said OSU is not treating any potential protests differently than they would others.

As city of Columbus faces cybersecurity issues, Carter wants to protect OSU data

It's been over a month since the city of Columbus was the victim of a ransomware attack. In the wake of that incident, Carter said the university is always looking to make upgrades to cybersecurity and insurance policies.

Carter said universities, especially health care centers and hospitals like Wexner Medical Center, are particularly attractive targets to cyber criminals. Carter said he's followed along as the city has "wrestled" through the attack that exposed thousands of Columbus residents' data.

"The human interface of these things is usually the most vulnerable spot. So phishing attacks where somebody send you an email and somebody clicks on something, you want to make sure that you've got, you know, protection against that human mistake, because that's how most of these intrusions happen," Carter said.

Carter said students and employees get educated on how to protect themselves from potentially dangerous links and downloads.

Carter also said cybersecurity is one of the most difficult topics that grips really just about every part of industry, education and government in our nation. He said he dealt with during his time at the University of Nebraska, and he has some experience with the issue.

"We are continually monitoring. We are always looking at upgrades to our cybersecurity, our insurance policies, all of that because we count so heavily on our ability to use IT systems. It's super important," Carter said.