Ohio State University will keep Les Wexner’s name on its medical center, its arts center and its football complex — and a Columbus state senator whose district includes part of the campus says the decision betrays the university’s own values. Interim Provost Trevor Brown ended the university’s naming review in a letter on Friday, November 6, concluding that a fuller review should not proceed, according to The Columbus Dispatch. On Sunday, November 8, State Sen. Bill DeMora, a Columbus Democrat and Ohio State alumnus, publicly condemned the decision, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The names at issue are among the most visible in Columbus: the Wexner Medical Center, one of central Ohio’s largest health systems; the Wexner Center for the Arts, opened in 1989 with $25 million from Wexner in honor of his father; and the Les Wexner Football Complex. Wexner, a New Albany billionaire and former university trustee who founded L Brands, has given more than $200 million to Ohio State since graduating in 1959 and is the university’s largest donor, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The review was not prompted by a handful of complaints. From January through September 2026, 512 individuals — alumni, current employees and students — submitted requests about Wexner-named spaces, raising nine categories of claims and supplying approximately 6,000 pages of supporting documentation, according to the Standing Advisory Committee’s report, as covered by The Columbus Dispatch and The Lantern, Ohio State’s student newspaper. The Lantern confirmed the same figures in its own reporting on the decision.
The requests centered on Wexner’s association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Wexner has for years accused Epstein of stealing tens of millions of dollars from him, has denied knowledge of Epstein’s abuse and trafficking, and maintains he was not aware of Epstein’s crimes and cut ties after the alleged theft — a position The Columbus Dispatch has reported as Wexner’s stated account, not as established fact.
The committee’s recommendation, sent to Brown on October 7, asked for a fuller review of three areas specifically: Wexner’s relationship with Epstein, alleged personal sexual misconduct, and alleged abusive employment practices at Wexner’s businesses, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The committee worked from the documentation submitted to it and recommended the deeper look on that basis.
Brown declined. The university’s naming procedure requires “substantial evidence” of misconduct to justify an assessment of gross reputational harm, and Brown wrote that the standard was not met. “In making my decision, I do not have the same constraints as the committee and may consider the broader context and availability of additional evidence. I have concluded that further review should not proceed at this time,” Brown wrote in his November 6 letter, as quoted by The Columbus Dispatch.
Brown’s letter, as quoted by The Columbus Dispatch and The Lantern, noted that Wexner has faced allegations of misconduct but has never been charged with or convicted of a crime, and that he has denied the allegations, including under oath. Brown also argued the committee is not an investigatory body — it has no subpoena authority and no access to private records — and that asking it to investigate would put it in a nearly impossible position.
The demand built through the year. Ohio State received some 300 requests in February alone, after starting the year with only two requests in its portal, just one of them Wexner-related, according to The Columbus Dispatch. In late January, officials had already rejected an alumnus’s request to remove Wexner’s name from the football facility at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. In August, the same committee declined to act on a request to remove William Oxley Thompson’s name from the university library — the second naming request it turned aside this year.
DeMora’s rebuke gives the decision a Statehouse dimension. “I am deeply disappointed in my alma mater for failing to take action and remove Wexner’s name from several buildings on campus. Hundreds of students, faculty, and alumni — including myself — have spoken out and demanded that Les Wexner’s name no longer be associated with any part of campus. But yet again, it seems that the university is not listening to our concerns,” DeMora said in a statement reported by The Columbus Dispatch on November 8. DeMora said the decision does not reflect the university’s values and mission, and said he hopes Governor-elect Dr. Amy Acton will support removing Wexner’s name across campus, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the decision, the “substantial evidence” standard, the 512 requests and the committee’s October 7 recommendation are confirmed by The Columbus Dispatch and The Lantern. Still unknown: any response from Wexner or the university beyond Brown’s letter, any comment from Governor-elect Acton, and whether trustees or the incoming president’s administration revisit the question. Brown explicitly left a door open, writing that the procedure allows the matter to be revisited should new information become available.
What happens next: for now, the names stay and the committee’s work is done. The next developments to watch are a response from the governor-elect’s team — DeMora has publicly put the question to her — and any new publicly available evidence, which Brown said could return the matter to the committee. University President Ravi Bellamkonda had hoped for a decision by the end of the year; the November 6 ruling lands ahead of that timeline.
Photo: Jsjessee, CC BY-SA 2.0