The Ohio State University ranked only 12th on merit and free speech

The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal released new rankings of colleges and universities in the United States, measuring meritocracy and free-speech initiatives, among other factors.

The Ohio State University was ranked only 12th. 

The school, among many other institutions of higher learning, was not ranked favorably because it received low scores for pushing the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in hiring and accepting students based on any factor other than merit.

City Journal released a report on Nov. 10,  exposing the university for “hiring 50 professors whose scholarship addressed ‘social equity and racial disparities’” and seeking to recruit “100 underrepresented and BIPOC [black, indigenous and people of color] hires in all fields of scholarship.”

According to The College Fix, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow John Sailer, the author of the report, noted: “When delivering the records to me, Ohio State spokesman Benjamin Johnson pointed out that the university had eliminated [its] diversity officer position. He said that the university’s hiring policies have been modified to ‘align with Ohio Senate Bill 1, which took effect in June 2025 and includes broad prohibitions on DEI.’”

Even though Johnson previously stated that the university “does not discriminate based on race, ethnicity or any other protected class,” the facts tell a different story. Ohio.News previously reported that the university implemented “race-exclusionary practices.”

Ohio State ranked lower also because it failed to stop the spreading antisemitism on its campus.

City Journal’s rankings also included a “Jewish Campus Climate” metric, which assigned lowered scores to schools with antisemitic incidents, as well as the presence of pro-Hamas student groups and faculty on campus. 

Last year, three well-known Jewish organizations filed a federal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights against the university for several antisemitic incidents that were reported on campus. The organizations accused Ohio State of failing to address reports of harassment and violence against Jewish and Israeli students.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that her department is “deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year.”

“University leaders must do better. U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws,” she said, according to NBC 4.

City Journal also ranked institutional neutrality and viewpoint diversity, and Ohio State failed in both categories.