Open Letter to The Ohio State University President, Michael V. Drake
To President Michael Drake of The Ohio State University:
We recognize the university has had to make many difficult decisions in the interest of the safety of both the
greater OSU community and the general public in the past several months, including closing our campus,
moving to remote learning for the summer semester and significantly shifting the work of staff at Wexner
Medical Center to prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While a lot of good work has been done, there are several areas where we believe OSU can do even better. To
that end, there are a few principles that we believe the OSU should operate by as part of its response to the
current pandemic:
1. Students, staff, and faculty who are impacted by decisions should have a meaningful, enforceable
say in those decisions such as staff safety and return to campus protocols; and
2. Employees of the University and Medical Center who are routinely exposed to a higher level of risk
and/or asked to go above and beyond their normal duties should be appropriately compensated for
doing so; and
3. Students, faculty, and staff should not bear the economic cost and/or risk of the organization's
decisions around cancellation of in-person classes and closing the campus; and
4. The University should ensure that sufficient classes are offered to allow for satisfactory academic
progress and meaningful employment.
We ask that you, President Drake, and other trustees and administrators participate in a discussion with
representatives from our organizations in an effort to determine in what ways the OSU can better operate in
accordance with the principles laid out above. OSU, like many places, is receiving supplemental federal funding
in response to the pandemic. Universities around the country are committing to working with students, staff, and
faculty in meaningful ways to best protect the health, safety, and livelihood of the university community and to
live up to the ideals of shared governance. We hope you will join them.
President Estlin Hiller
Student Solidarity at OSU
Executive Director Prentiss Haney
The Ohio Student Association
The Graduate Student Labor Coalition at OSU
Rick Lucas BSN RN OCN VA-BC CCRN
President, Ohio State University Nurses Organization