Ohio State moves quickly to name new president

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(The Center Square) The Ohio State University board of trustees moved quickly Thursday to name a replacement for former President Ted Carter, who abruptly resigned this week after admitting an “inappropriate relationship” with a podcaster.

The board named current provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda as OSU’s 18th president, replacing Carter, a former Navy vice admiral and Top Gun pilot who had been president for two years but resigned Monday. 

The university said Carter had an “inappropriate relationship with someone seeking public resources to support her personal business.”

Bellamkonda, whose total compensation package approaches $2 million with a $1.4 million base salary and annual performance bonuses, takes over the presidency only 400 days after being named provost at Ohio State.

“We often hear that Ohio State is a large place, one of the largest universities in the country,” he said after the trustees named him the new president. “That we are. But consider this: When excellence happens at the scale of Ohio State, we create an impact that is unmatched in its transformative power.”

He pledged to “take on hard things that are worth doing,” in athletics, health care and education.

He promised to use tax dollars and other funds wisely.

“When we access one dollar – whether it’s tuition dollar or from philanthropy from the generosity of our supporters or a research dollar, or from the taxpayers here in Ohio, we are serious about being the best possible stewards of that dollar,” Bellamkonda said. “That is why we pursue excellence.”

After Carter’s resignation, a private nonprofit group, JobsOhio, disclosed that it spent $60,000 to produce a pilot of four podcasts “as an opportunity to grow the military and veteran audience and connect them to our advanced aerospace and defense and energy sectors.”

Carter’s resignation “is possibly connected to a relationship between him and the host,” of the podcast, JobsOhio said in a statement.

Only one episode of the podcast series was completed, JobsOhio said.

 “As all four episodes were not completed and the first was removed, we are reviewing our clawback options in our contract,” the organization said.

JobsOhio is funded “from the JobsOhio Beverage System (JOBS) liquor enterprise we purchased in 2013 and still manage today,” the group states on its website. “No taxpayer funds are used.”