Public records obtained by WOSU one year after Ohio State University arrested dozens at a pro-Palestinian protest on campus showed the university dealt with a bomb threat and revealed more about how OSU and police responded that evening.
An anonymous bomb threat was sent to OSU around 9:30 p.m., 30 minutes before police began breaking up the large protest on April 25. The emailed threat was sent by "Nomen Nescio," which is a Latin phrase meaning "I don't know the name."
"Hello. Consider this my manifesto. Highly lethal lead azide devices have been hidden throughout the library as well as a dorm building. They are going to explode soon, at which point I'll start shooting. Free Palestine!" the email said.
No emergency alerts were sent out to students or the OSU community after this threat was sent and the threat was not revealed to the general public in the year since the protest.
Ohio State University spokesman Christopher Booker said in a statement the university takes all threats seriously. The statement said on that April day, police investigated the threat and didn't find it credible. That's why no alert was issued.
The university declined to say if the bomb threat caused police to treat the protest differently. Police deployed snipers on rooftops that evening and started arresting protesters shortly after that threat was sent.
"There are no additional details to share regarding the investigation of the threat. Regarding security, we do not discuss our security protocols in detail," Booker said
'Don't be next" - Hundreds of emails flood the university in the hours before and after pro-Palestinian protests
Ohio State received almost 2,000 pages of emails from the public between April 24 and April 26 before and after the protests. Before the South Oval demonstration April 25, students at dozens from other universities were setting up encampments with tents on campus to protest Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
The day before the protest, OSU received over 1,000 emails that appear to be copied and pasted from a template and sent in a coordinated way by a group called End Jewish Hate. The emails were addressed to dozens of U.S. college presidents.
"Don’t be next," the hundreds of emails said. "Don’t be the next school to fall prey to the mobs terrorizing college campuses nationwide."
It is not clear how many, if any, of these emails were sent by Ohio residents.
After the April 25 protests, Ohio State was treated to another deluge of emails — almost 200 pages. This time, most appear to have been sent by Ohio residents, Ohio State faculty, staff and students or family members of people at the university.
Hannibal Hamlin, an Ohio State English professor, was one of dozens of people who filled out a contact form to criticize Carter. Hamlin said he was disappointed in the university's response, which he said is clearly following a "sad precedent" set by Columbia University.
"What we see is the suppression of speech and protest by overwhelming armed force. I admire those students, peaceful protestors, who persist in standing up for their beliefs, based on what are surely basic principles of human rights and decency," Hamlin wrote. "As for those students not protesting, I suspect these scenes will still haunt them for the rest of their time at OSU and well beyond."
Many emails WOSU received in this records request were supportive of Ohio State's actions. Dozens more were supportive of the protests and criticized the university for cracking down on the protest and arresting peaceful protestors.
Meredith and Michael Dardia were also critical of Columbia University, but unlike Hamlin thought the New York City Ivy League university wasn't doing enough. They told Carter he needed to be the "anti-Columbia."
"Your tepid leadership emboldens (the protestors), and your half-measures vindicate them. They need to be expelled," the two wrote. "Either you apply your code of conduct equally, or you admit you really only intended to apply it to certain groups."
Like the emails sent before the protest, many on both sides of the issue are copied and pasted messages that appear to be coordinated by advocacy groups. But the emails sent after the April 25 protest appear to be organic.
Emails reveal how Ohio State University police and administration prepared for and handled arrests
Emails between Ohio State University administration and police officers show the university planned ahead of time to arrest protestors on April 25, 2024. OSU had been aware that Students for Justice in Palestine were planning the protest and calling it an "encampment" like those seen at Columbia and other U.S. colleges.
Ohio State police communicated about the protests at least two days ahead of time to coordinate staffing levels that evening.
On April 24, Deputy Chief Eric Whiteside emailed with university officials about reserving the Ohio Union's Conference Theatre to process the protestors that would be arrested April 25.
The same day, Whiteside also sent a list of other U.S. universities and what happened at each when protestors began to set up encampments. The list included U.C. Berkley, the University of Michigan, Columbia, Yale and Princeton.
"Here are a sampling of the schools dealing with tent cities. Our goal is to stop it on our campus before it becomes a larger problem," Whiteside wrote to the entire police division's email address.
Ohio State Associate Vice President of Public Safety Monica Moll said in an email on April 26 at 8 a.m. that the university planned to go through videos of the protest and identify students who took part in it. She said OSU would be able to issue student conduct charges to these students for violating university policy.
University spokesman Booker declined to give any details about how many protestors they gave student conduct charges. He said that would violate privacy.
Another document emailed on April 26 around noon from an OSU police lieutenant contained notes on how police responded.
The notes applauded the officer’s actions, such as noting there weren’t any injuries. The notes also suggested ways police could respond more efficiently, like logging arrests better, bringing riot helmets to the protest zone earlier and having a bomb technician onsite and not on standby for protests.
One note admitted that the police bluffing, by stating multiple times that they would begin arrests in 15 minutes, but not actually doing so, isn’t a strategy OSUPD should use in the future.
OSUPD was assisted by the Franklin County Sheriff and Ohio State Highway Patrol the night of the arrests.
OSU President Ted Carter texted Governor Mike DeWine and others amid protests
Very few of the records requested by WOSU were directly from Carter. Some of the only records from Carter were text messages between the president, members of his administration and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.
The day before the protest, Carter was sent the message being sent to the protest organizers by Senior Vice President for Student Life Melissa Shivers. The message warned that the Ohio Union, near the site of the protest, was a testing site during finals week. The message also reminded the organizers of the university's space use rules.
Ohio State University said after the protest that the organizers violated the space-use rules by erecting tents, which are strictly prohibited. That was the basis for the criminal charges for trespassing issued to the dozens arrested at the protest.
Those charges were later dropped by the city of Columbus and expunged.
Carter texted Chief of Staff JR Blackburn the day of the protest at 9:47 p.m. He told Blackburn "I should be landing in a bit. Anything happening new?"
Blackburn responded: "No. waiting on state police helicopter to get back to campus. Then arrest will start."
Ohio State did not say whether Carter was out of town on a trip the day of the protest.
The last text message WOSU got in the records request was between Carter and DeWine at 11:25 p.m. that evening. Carter texted DeWine, thanking him.
"Could not have been able to end this peacefully (or at all tonight) without State support. Tomorrow is another day and we will be ready and more nimble should this start up again," Carter wrote.
DeWine responded that his team reported the response to the protest went well.
"Let's hope we don't have multiple campus challenges... anyway one day at a time!" DeWine responded.
Records request took a year for Ohio State to respond to.
It took Ohio State University almost exactly a year to respond to this records request. This isn't new behavior by Ohio's flagship university. It also took OSU several months to respond to a records request for emails between OSU and 2024 commencement speaker Chris Pan.
Booker, the Ohio State spokesman, explained the delayed response in a statement.
"Ohio State receives thousands of records requests and processes them as quickly as possible. This request included thousands of pages of records that required extensive review to comply with state and federal laws," Booker said.
The records request also included dozens of redacted records of what appear to be drafts of statements and messages Carter eventually sent out an email to the student body, the Ohio State Board of Trustees and the general public about the protests.
The emails contained subject lines like "Message for Cabinet - attorney client privileged communication" or ": FOR REVIEW Draft Board message - attorney client privileged communication."
Senior Vice President and General Counsel Anne Garcia was copied on these emails.
Booker said in a statement that "all attorney-client privileged documents are handled in strict accordance with state and federal law. Documents that are not privileged are released."
Booker said information that constitutes attorney-client privileged communication and/or attorney work product was redacted, and cited Ohio Revised Code and court cases relevant to the case law.
