COLUMBUS, Ohio — It's been almost a year since Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. took over the role of president at The Ohio State University, and in that time, Carter said he feels good about what they've achieved.
10TV's Angela An sat down with Carter on Friday for a one-on-one interview about the future of the university and several topics, ranging from name, image and likeness revenue to Boomtown. You can watch the full interview in the player below.
"I feel good about where we are. We've gotten a lot done this year," Carter told Angela.
He officially took over the role of president on Jan. 1 after Kristina Johnson resigned mid-contract. He is the 17th president of the university.
When he first started, 10TV asked him what his priorities were and what he wanted to achieve in his first year.
In his first couple of days on the job, he said he planned to be humble, listen, learn and earn the trust of the community, staff, students and researchers. For the year, he said he wanted to break things down to the basics.
The "basics" were centered around student success, supporting faculty and staff, attracting and retaining the best, doing meaningful research, making sure medicals are at the top of their game and hiring a new athletics director.
It didn't take long for a new athletics director to get hired at Ohio State.
Ohio State announced in January that Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork would replace Gene Smith after he retires. His first day was July 1.
As for keeping the momentum going, Carter said the strategic plan to keep the university going is a collaborative effort with students, staff, alumni, business community members, the general assembly and the Board of Trustees.
"I want to have some time to understand the landscape here. This is a large, complex organization — 154-year history — and as great as we've been, I want to make sure that we're thinking a little bit differently so that we can be even greater in the future."
A conversation on name, image and likeness
Just last week, Gov. Mike DeWine signed an executive order allowing colleges and universities in Ohio to pay student-athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness.
The executive order comes as the NCAA and several athletic conferences entered an agreement, allowing post-secondary institutions to directly pay student-athletes for their NIL.
Carter said Ohio State is in support of their athletes sharing revenue. The lawsuit between the House and the NCAA has not yet been settled, but Carter said they have a plan.
"We're sticking to a couple of really important principles. One is, we've got 36 Division I sports programs. We're one of the, if not the largest, athletic departments in the country and we intend to stay that way."
He said the university knows right upfront that they do not want to cut programs.
"There's a lot of talk about scholarships and roster. Roster limits are not controlled by us, that will be given to us. That's why we anticipate to have about 100 to 150 less student-athletes when the settlement is done, but we also know that we're strong enough that we could actually increase the number of scholarships across those 36 sports."
The university announced 91 additional scholarship spots for student-athletes on Thursday.
"At the end of the day, no tuition or taxpayer dollars will go to support student athletics. We will continue to do this independent of those dollars. We're one of the few programs in the country that will be able to say that."
Carter said the funding source would come from ticket sales and private donations.
Student safety and what's been done
This year, there have been several incidents of crime and violence near campus that have left many students and families of students concerned for their safety.
Carter said university police continue to partner with the Columbus Division of Police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
To add to safety around campus, Carter said the university has made investments in high-definition cameras, license plate readers and collaborative patrols.
Carter said they have also made efforts to help students protect themselves, like increasing the number of places where they can get a free cab ride, particularly after 9 p.m.
"It's not a program that is 100% safe all the time. It's very difficult to keep everything from never happening," Carter said. "I mean, things do happen, but we want to minimize them. We want to be able to anticipate those, and when something does happen, make sure that we can hold those that break the law accountable. We've been pretty successful with that."
Carter on how Ohio State plans to keep up with growth in a Boomtown
As the population continues to grow in central Ohio, 10TV has been highlighting what city and state leaders are doing to keep up with more demands for jobs, housing, food and education. Angela asked Carter how Ohio State plans to grow with the region.
Carter pointed out that there will be a need for more nurses, doctors, veterinarians, people who are smarter in the tech world and have knowledge of artificial intelligence.
"We're going to have to make sure that we're educating for the right job market," he said.
Carter added that the university will have to be smart about their physical plan as well. The university will soon add a roughly 350-acre campus, the Carmenton district, with hopes of it becoming the research triangle for the country.
Ohio State announced earlier this month that they are in the next steps of planning for the Carmenton district with phase 1, the Energy Advancement and Innovation Center, Pelotonia Research Center and The James Outpatient Care, all already underway.
"We're really excited that our board approved us working with Tishman Speyer, who is a developer. We're going to start thinking about how we're going to start developing that roughly 350-acre campus to become the research triangle for the country."
Along with cultivating a space for research, Carmenton district plans to expand to also include residential areas, green spaces, connector trails, restaurants and entertainment venues.