Ohio State University became the first public university in Ohio to ban most land acknowledgments, citing compliance with Senate Bill 1, which prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on public college campuses.
Other universities have not yet followed suit. And Miami University is one local school that says it doesn't plan to.
A land acknowledgment is a message that states the original Indigenous occupants of the land an institution is built upon.
The OSU’s new policy says that land acknowledgments “are considered statements on behalf of an issue or cause.”
But as written, Senate Bill 1 doesn’t explicitly prohibit land acknowledgments.
Miami University operates the Myaamia Center in collaboration with its namesake, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. The university has maintained a relationship with the removed tribe for more than 50 years. The center oversees initiatives such as Myaamia language revival and cultural research.
“Miami University is located within the traditional homelands of the Miami and Shawnee people, who along with other Indigenous groups ceded these lands to the United States in the first treaty of Greenville in 1795,” the school’s land acknowledgment begins. “The Miami people, whose name our university carries, were forcibly removed from these homelands in 1846.”
Miami University spokesperson Seth Bauguess said in an email that the school has no plans to prohibit these statements.
“Miami’s land acknowledgment exists to reaffirm the Myaamia people's deep connection to their homelands and our commitment to each other,” Bauguess wrote. “Miami’s land acknowledgment was developed in consultation with the university’s Myaamia Center to honor the traditional homelands of the Myaamia and Shawnee people.”
Myaamia Center staff declined to comment.
It’s unclear if any other Southwest Ohio universities are looking to implement land acknowledgement prohibitions similar to OSU; neither Wright State University nor the University of Cincinnati returned requests for comment.
As of Sept. 16, other public universities in Ohio that still have land acknowledgments on their websites include Ohio University, the University of Akron, and Bowling Green State University.
Institutions continue to interpret what exactly falls under “DEI initiatives,” as many have moved to shutter offices geared towards ethnic, gender or sexual minority groups.
Bauguess said the university plans to maintain the Myaamia Center: “It is the university’s understanding that SB1 does not apply to the Myaamia Center or the university’s relationship with the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma."
