Ohio State faces scrutiny over DEI spending, international funding from China, coinciding with JD Vance’s appointment as VPOTUS

Ohio State College (OSU) is below scrutiny for its spending on variety, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) applications and its acceptance of international funding, in keeping with a report by Open the Books, a taxpayer transparency watchdog. This comes as OSU alumnus JD Vance is anticipated to turn into vice chairman.
The report states OSU spent $13.3 million on 201 DEI-related staff within the final 12 months. Open the Books claims this quantity might cowl in-state tuition for 1,000 college students.
The report additionally highlights $15.8 million in funding OSU acquired from China since 2013, the identical 12 months a Chinese language researcher at OSU was later convicted of constructing false statements to federal authorities associated to analysis fraud.
Moreover, the report particulars over $3 billion in federal grants acquired by OSU since 2020, together with funding for applications like “mountaineering for Women- (feminine and nonbinary teenagers)” and analysis on insect protein and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
OSU spokesperson Benjamin Johnson questioned the report’s DEI worker rely, stating figures “have all been produced with out the college’s enter or steering,” a neighborhood media reported acknowledged. He defined that a lot of the spending covers incapacity lodging, Title IX compliance, pupil retention applications, analysis grants, items, and scholarships.
Open the Books stated its report on OSU is the primary in a sequence inspecting DEI spending, international donations, and federal grants at public universities. The watchdog stated it used OSU’s publicly accessible payroll knowledge and federal data for its evaluation.
The report notes that whereas most of OSU’s international donations got here from nations like Japan and Switzerland, China was a major contributor, together with $7.7 million from sources tied to Saudi Arabia. It additionally highlighted OSU applications that join college students with profession alternatives in China. In line with native reviews, Open the Books acknowledged, “Whereas we spent on DEI, they have been engaged on getting STEM-related data.”