By By Okon Ekpenyong
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has urged Ohio’s higher-education leaders to remain open to voluntary mergers, partnerships and other changes as colleges and universities face shifting demographics and student expectations.
Governor DeWine rejected state-mandated mergers of public universities and a centralized statewide higher-education system. He said individual institutions and their boards should decide their own futures.
“College boards, whether it’s a private liberal arts school or whether it’s a public four-year university, be creative and don’t take anything off the table,” DeWine said.
At the Fawcett Center at Ohio State University on Wednesday, Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor Mike Duffey kicked off the 2026 Trustees Conference by highlighting leadership stability across Ohio’s higher-education institutions before introducing Gov. Mike DeWine.
The room was filled with trustees and several long-serving college and university presidents. Among them were David Harrison, president of Columbus State Community College since 2010, and Steven Johnson, president of Sinclair Community College for 23 years.
Miami University President Gregory Crawford has also reached a decade leading the university. Duffey highlighted the longevity of Ohio’s institutional leaders as a strength as colleges navigate changes in enrollment, demographics and student expectations.
In his final appearance at the Ohio Trustees Conference, DeWine urged Ohio’s higher-education leaders to remain open to voluntary mergers, partnerships and other changes as colleges and universities face shifting demographics and student expectations.
DeWine said voluntary mergers could make sense for some public and independent institutions if both parties benefit. He pointed to the strengths of larger public universities and smaller liberal arts colleges and asked whether institutions could combine those strengths to serve students better.
“We have to always be looking at each student,” DeWine said. “We have always to be looking at what’s in the best interest and what that student wants,” DeWine said. Student expectations and society’s needs have changed, requiring institutions to adapt.
“My main message today was schools have to be open,” DeWine said. “They have to be open to change, and trustees have to embrace change. That’s how, you know, if you’re not changing, you’re going backward.”
DeWine also discussed Ohio’s $50 million federal Talent Search Grant, which aims to expand educational and career opportunities for low-income and first-generation students across the state.
“There is a real need today in our K-12 schools to better inform our young people of all the options that they have, whether that is a college option, whether that is a career tech, whether it’s a two-year community college,” DeWine said.
The goal is to give students exposure to different opportunities and help them discover subjects and careers that interest them. DeWine said guidance counselors already have a lot on their plates. “Figuring out ways that we can get this information to students is what this grant is all about,” DeWine said.
Ohio will receive the federal funding over five years and evaluate which approaches work and which do not. DeWine’s focus on reaching students also carried into his discussion of possible college mergers. New Americans Magazine asked DeWine what protections he would want to ensure a merger does not reduce access for low-income, minority, first-generation and rural-area students.
DeWine said the state should not impose merger decisions on institutions.
“Nobody knows better than the board of trustees of each of the different universities, different colleges,” DeWine said. “So, they should make that decision.”
He said colleges have a responsibility to educate people who might otherwise be left behind and reach students who face barriers to higher education. “Colleges should be the great equalizer, and figuring out how to reach these young people or older people is part of what their job is,” DeWine said. “So I think any merger that might take place, that should be one of the key essential things.”
DeWine said institutions considering a merger should ask whether combining schools would improve what they offer students. He recalled a conversation with a college president who said institutions could evaluate potential mergers by whether they attract more students and create opportunities the schools could not offer separately.
“There’s no difference in selling any product,” DeWine said. “They’re selling a product. They’re charging money for it, so they need to continue to improve it.”
The conference continued Wednesday afternoon with a session on Senate Bill 1, the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, which DeWine signed into law in March 2025 and which made sweeping changes to Ohio’s public colleges and universities.
Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, a former Youngstown State University president and Ohio State football coach, led a session focusing on institutional advancement. Looking beyond the remaining months of his administration, DeWine said he hopes Ohio’s next governor and legislature will continue making education and other state initiatives a priority.
His final message to trustees centered on preparing institutions for change while keeping students at the center of their decisions.
“If you’re not changing,” DeWine said, “you’re going backward.”
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