Ohio State University President Ravi Bellamkonda took questions Wednesday, October 21, at a Columbus Metropolitan Club live forum in Columbus. The forum began at noon and was hosted at the National Veterans Memorial. Bellamkonda, Ohio State’s 18th president, appeared in a moderated conversation, with Sheridan Hendrix, the higher education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, serving as moderator.
The midday forum gave a Columbus audience a chance to hear directly from the university’s new leader in a question-and-answer setting. The Columbus Metropolitan Club format, moderated by a reporter who covers higher education, put Bellamkonda’s background and the challenges facing Ohio State at the center of the discussion, rather than in a formal address delivered from a podium.
Bellamkonda comes to the presidency with a background as a bioengineer and neuroscientist. That training in science and research has shaped a career spent inside universities, and it now informs his work leading one of the state’s best-known public institutions from its campus in Columbus.
Before arriving at Ohio State, Bellamkonda taught and led at both private and public universities. He came to Ohio State as a sitting provost, experience that university leaders have pointed to in describing his preparation for the presidency and the academic and administrative responsibilities that come with the role.
University leaders have praised Bellamkonda as the right person for the role. Their support was part of the backdrop for Wednesday’s appearance, as the president fielded questions in public about the university he now leads and the direction of higher education more broadly.
That broader conversation is being reshaped by artificial intelligence, changing workforce needs and affordability. Those forces are pressing on colleges and universities across the country, and they formed an important part of the context for the forum, as students, families and employers look to institutions like Ohio State to respond to a changing economy and new technology.
Bellamkonda’s arrival also follows a period of transition and introspection at Ohio State after the unexpected resignation of the previous president. Wednesday’s forum at the National Veterans Memorial was a public moment in that transition, placing the university’s 18th president before a Columbus audience to take questions about his background, his experience and the issues now shaping higher education.
Photo: Robert Chriss, CC BY-SA 3.0