COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State University President Kristina Johnson will deliver her second state of the university address Thursday, in which she is expected to discuss campus safety initiatives, the university’s collaboration with Intel and new goals for smaller class sizes.
What You Need To Know
- President Johnson will address the university Thursday
- She became Ohio State’s 16th president in August 2020
- Johnson will discuss new and existing goals for Ohio State
Johnson, the university’s 16th president, will give her address at 4:15 p.m. in conjunction with a University Senate meeting. The university will also livestream the speech.
Amid heightened focus on campus safety due to the increase in serious crime locally and nationwide during the pandemic, the university said it’s working to improve security measures with the installation of license plate readers and additional surveillance cameras around campus.
“Safety has been a big deal this year, but it’s always been my No. 1 priority,” Johnson said in a recent interview with the Lantern, the student newspaper.
The university is also involved in initiatives aimed at improving the relationship between police and minority students.
In an interview with NPR station WOSU Wednesday ahead of her address, Johnson said she would set a goal during her speech for smaller class sizes at the university.
“My goal, again, this state of the university address is always about setting long term goals — that gives you time to achieve them — would be to significantly reduce the number of courses we have with over 100 students or over 50 students,” she said.
Johnson said the university learned valuable lessons about education models from the pandemic, and she said she believes some of the changes should be permanent, like making lecture broadcasts available for students online.
The university lifted its mask mandate last month, citing low case numbers and high compliance with a vaccination requirement. Johnson told WOSU that there’s been an uptick recently in COVID-19 spread on campus, which university officials will continue to monitor.
Ohio State has been named as a main academic partner on Intel’s plan for a massive investment in chip manufacturing in central Ohio. The company’s CEO Patrick Gelsinger is delivering the university’s commencement address, the university announced this week.
The university is fundraising toward a goal of being able to offer a debt-free bachelor’s degree within a decade. Johnson set that goal during her state of the university address last year.
Johnson holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University and was the chancellor of the State University of New York before taking the job at Ohio State in Aug. 2020. She is teaching a course this semester in which students are working on solutions for Ohio State’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
