Ohio State president resigns; investigation launched over 'inappropriate relationship'

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President Walter "Ted" Carter Jr. at Michigan Stadium on November 29, 2025 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio State University has launched an investigation after President Walter "Ted" Carter Jr. abruptly resigned over the weekend. 

The university said Monday that his departure followed the disclosure of "an inappropriate relationship" with a woman who was seeking public resources for her private business.

What they're saying:

Carter, 66, said in a statement that he had resigned voluntarily after informing the university's board of trustees of his error. He did not elaborate on the nature of the relationship and whether it was romantic; his statement indicated that he and his wife, Lynda, are still a couple.

"For personal reasons, I have made the difficult decision to resign from my role as president of The Ohio State University," he said. "I disclosed to the board of trustees that I made a mistake in allowing inappropriate access to Ohio State leadership."

The other side:

Board Chair John Zeiger accepted Carter's resignation in a letter dated Sunday, a day after trustees held a private executive session. Spokesperson Ben Johnson said Carter was not present at the session but that trustees were aware of the situation before they met.

"The Board was surprised and disappointed to learn of this matter and takes the situation and its potential impact on the university very seriously," Zeiger wrote. "We respect your decision and appreciate your cooperation in supporting an orderly leadership transition."

Dig deeper:

The board had been pleased with Carter's work overall. Trustees awarded him a more than $50,000 merit raise in August on top of his $1.1 million annual salary, as well as a nearly $400,000 bonus. His contract was supposed to run through 2028. Ohio State presidents also are provided residency at a roughly $3.6 million mansion in a tony Columbus suburb.

What's next:

Johnson said that the university has opened an investigation into Carter's impropriety, as it also works to put in place a leadership transition plan. The latter could be detailed as soon as this week, he said.

In the absence of its president, the university’s daily operations will fall to members of Carter’s former cabinet, Johnson said, which includes a chief of staff, two executive vice presidents and seven senior vice presidents. In the event of an emergency, the school’s public safety professionals would take direct action, which is always the case.

The backstory:

Ohio State is the nation's sixth-largest university, with more than 60,000 students, over 600,000 living alumni and a highly ranked football team and medical center. Carter oversaw a fiscal year 2026 budget totaling $11.5 billion in revenues and $10.9 billion in expenditures — although it was not clear that the "resources" to which he availed the woman were monetary.

The university brought Carter on board in 2023 from the University of Nebraska system. He is also a former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and a retired vice admiral who attended the Navy Fighter Weapons School, known as Top Gun. He holds the national record for carrier-arrested landings with over 2,000 mishap-free touchdowns.

He filled a vacancy at Ohio State left by the mid-contract resignation of President Kristina Johnson, which went largely unexplained. The engineer and former undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Energy had been chancellor of New York’s public university system before she joined the Buckeyes as president in 2020, succeeding President Michael Drake.

Local perspective:

Jennifer Tisone Price, executive director of the Ohio conference of the American Association of University Professors, said Ohio State students, faculty and staff deserve better.

"This is OSU’s third president since 2020," she said in a statement. "If the university wants to do better with the next one, it must have a transparent hiring process that honors shared governance which includes the input from faculty. Shared governance isn’t just a bureaucratic nicety. It’s how universities stay honest."