Ohio State University released findings Tuesday about the circumstances surrounding the abrupt resignation of former president Walter Edward “Ted” Carter. The move came roughly six weeks after the university’s board of trustees learned about an “inappropriate relationship.”
Carter’s dealings with his “personal associate” Krisanthe Vlachos – who produced a podcast described by one person in the investigation as being “unprofessional and unengaging” – are on display throughout the 47-page report.
The investigation shows how Carter “misused his position as Ohio State’s president to seek resources from the university and key university partners” to assist Vlachos, officials wrote in a news release. Trustees immediately requested an inquiry after Carter’s resignation. Two independent university departments were tapped to lead the work.
The report, along with huge batches of related email messages, calendars and expense reports from employees across the university, all got shared on a standalone university website.
It represents an extraordinary amount of information produced in a relatively short time frame as both the university and state agencies face calls for more transparency amid the fallout.
“What you’re seeing is what the university wants you to see at the moment,” said James Finkelstein, an Ohio State alum and professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University.
Ohio State chooses internal vs. external investigation
It’s normal for universities to handle misconduct allegations internally. But when it comes to high-profile cases involving presidents or other influential leaders, colleges often turn to outside help.
Stanford University used an external law firm as well as a team of outside researchers to investigate claims of scientific misconduct made against its then-president in 2022. The University of Michigan hired a firm last year to look into its athletics department after public fallout surrounding the university’s head football coach’s affair with an employee, the latest in a string of recent sports scandals.
Finkelstein said there’s “always a risk” when an institution looks into itself. The university employees tasked with leading the investigation knew they were ultimately producing something for their superiors, he said. An internal investigation could make others wonder about the findings’ thoroughness or bias.
More context may have been produced by an external examination. Finkelstein said he would have liked the report to include full transcripts of the 48 university employees and 12 external people interviewed as part of the investigation.
Carter declined the investigation’s interview request, while Vlachos did not respond.
College president firings often come ‘with little to no’ investigation
Launching an external investigation would have taken far longer, according to Michael Harris, dean of Southern Methodist University’s School of Education and Human Development. He pointed out the scandal involved relatively few players in a relatively short timeframe.
“It was about Carter’s actions, about the inappropriate relationship and where he was seeking benefits,” he said. “In the scope of higher education investigations, that’s a relatively narrow scope.”
Harris said he thinks it’s noteworthy that Ohio State launched any probe at all. That’s not always the case when institutions deal with presidential misconduct, he said.
“Lots of presidents get fired for doing comparable kinds of things with little to no investigation,” he said.
Carter is already gone. So, too, is Chris Kabourek, a former senior advisor to Carter. The investigation notes Kabourek “went far beyond any other employee in supporting Carter’s efforts to assist Vlachos, both inside and outside the university.”
The investigation doesn’t recommend the firing of any additional employees. It also applauds university systems and workers for preventing Carter’s efforts to help Vlachos “from succeeding within the university.”
What comes next for Ohio State
The investigation said the university received “inquiries” from three state and two federal agencies after Carter’s resignation. It did not name them.
Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson didn’t explicitly answer Signal Statewide’s question to note the agencies and what requests they made to the university, though he did say the final report was shared with the state inspector general, auditor and attorney general, along with the Ohio Ethics Commission.
An official with the ethics group told the Columbus Dispatch Tuesday they are still processing the findings, which indicate Carter could have violated state ethics laws.
Days after Carter’s resignation, Ohio State’s board elevated Ravi Bellamkonda from provost to president, forgoing tapping an interim leader as well as a broader public search.
That choice may indicate university leaders are eager to turn the page, especially as they continue to face other controversies, including the school’s connection to Les Wexner, an Ohio billionaire with ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a sexual abuse scandal.
Bellamkonda is the university’s fourth president in six years. That turnover rate makes Ohio State stand out, even as the average tenure of university presidents continues to shrink.
