Statement on Freedom of Expression at OHIO

Statement on Freedom of Expression at OHIO

On February 17, 2020, various groups were on our campus, expressing varying viewpoints on an issue. Both were within their rights.  We take concerns about complex situations like this seriously, and first and foremost, our focus is always the safety of our students, our University community, and visitors to our campuses.

Our University believes that diversity of viewpoint promotes its educational goals. In fact, we support such exchanges through formalized engagements -- such as the George Washington Forum and our Challenging Dialogues lecture series -- as a means to provide opportunities for our students and University community to have healthy and respectful means of debate and idea exchange.

And within or outside of these sanctioned events, our University believes that diversity of expression and thought promotes its educational goals. We are a public institution and we take that responsibility very seriously by respecting the rights of all persons to express themselves in a lawful manner. To that end, we welcome lawful expression of differing viewpoints in appropriate forums throughout our campuses.