AIM’s Ohio State Investigation Featured in Ohio.news as DEI Debate Intensifies
May 12, 2026
Undercover video: Ohio State still teaches DEI as usual, despite Senate Bill 1
By Henry Aleksandrov | May 12, 2026
An Ohio State University official allegedly told an undercover conservative journalist that the university is still promoting left-wing beliefs to its students, even though Senate Bill 1, passed last year by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, limits diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Ohio State, Jennie Babcock, told an undercover journalist at Accuracy in Media that “from a curriculum standpoint, there are no limitations in terms of what we teach.”
During the conversation, Babcock mentioned SB 1, saying that “the good news” about the bill is that “it doesn’t impact our curriculum.”
“We are teaching our curriculum, our courses, as we always have,” she said. “We talk about bias. We talk about social justice.”
Babcock added that they “can talk about anything in a class as long as our learning objectives on the syllabus are clearly stated.”
“We have many courses that are on sexual diversity. We are still teaching them. We are teaching them as we always have,” she said.
Even though there is no limitation on the curriculum, Babcock admitted that the university president and the Board of Trustees eliminated various “student support entities,” such as OSU’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which was shut down after DeWine signed the bill.
However, Babcock said that the university’s student-led organizations were not impacted by the bill because they are “outside of that legislation.”
“For instance, in the College of Social Work, we have Out in Social Work, which is a student organization that is made up of LGBTQ and allies,” she said.
Babcock also said that the university has a staff advisor who helps students with all DEI-related matters.
Babcock then said that the push by conservatives to stop the DEI initiatives is “really frustrating,” adding that she and her colleagues, who are passionate about sharing their left-wing beliefs with the students, are “really angry” because they claim that the bill infringes on their ability to teach what they want to teach and how they want to teach it.
After President Donald Trump was elected to a second term, she received many phone calls and emails from prospective students – especially prospective graduate students – who were concerned about whether it still made sense to come to OSU, given the recently passed law.
President of Accuracy in Media, Adam Guillette, criticized Senate Bill 1 in his email response to Ohio.News, writing that “Ohio’s DEI ban isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”