University of Nebraska President Ted Carter was named the new president of Ohio State University on Tuesday.
The Ohio State Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Carter, 64, as the university's 17th president at a meeting Tuesday afternoon. He will replace Krista Johnson, who stepped down in May after two years.
He will start in Columbus on Jan. 1, said Hiroyuki Fujita, the Ohio State Board's chairman, who said the university's search committee chose Carter out of a pool of more than 100 candidates from across the country.
"Wow," Carter said Tuesday at the university's Board of Trustees meeting in Columbus, which the outgoing NU president attended in person.
"What a true honor," he added. "I can't tell you how humbled I am by the support I have received. ... This is the greatest honor of my career, to be appointed president of this great university."
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In a letter to University of Nebraska administrators, faculty, staff and students sent moments after his appointment Tuesday, Carter called the news "bittersweet" and the decision to leave "difficult."
"We will forever be grateful for the warmth and sincerity with which you have welcomed us over these past four years," he wrote, referring to himself and Lynda Carter, his wife of 41 years. "We have truly come to love Nebraska as our own home state."
Carter said in his letter Ohio State "offers the opportunity to continue to advance the work and mission of public higher education."
"Just as Lynda and I saw the University of Nebraska four years ago as the next calling in our lives of service, we now see Ohio State as a calling that we will do our best to answer," he said.
The NU Board of Regents, which is responsible for hiring the administrator to lead the university system with campuses in Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney, learned Carter had been selected as Ohio State's next leader early Tuesday morning, Chairman Tim Clare said in a phone interview.
"He has been offered jobs by schools across the country since he's been here," Clare said. "He has turned every one of them down until today."
Clare hailed Carter as a leader who helped NU navigate a tumultuous period with a steadfast hand: "I'm happy for Ted and Lynda to go to a place like Ohio State, but I'm sad and disappointed for us because they have been great leaders and great friends since they've been here in Lincoln."
Regents will meet later this week to begin discussing next steps. A meeting notice sent out Tuesday afternoon indicated the board will meet in person and by video conference and go into a closed session.
Clare said he planned to proceed using words attributed to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.
"We're going to hurry but not rush," Clare said.
Previous searches for top university administrators, which resulted in the hiring of Carter and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Rodney Bennett, have been aided by AGB Search, a national search consulting firm, and have typically taken about 5-6 months.
Clare said how to move forward would ultimately be up to the board, but said he has been pleased with how the university has fared under recent searches.
"I thought the last process was outstanding," he said. "I can see getting that model out and dusting it off."
Tuesday's announcement of Carter's departure to Ohio was received with well-wishes from elected leaders and other officials.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, who was the chairman of the Board of Regents when Carter was appointed as NU's eighth president, called the outgoing leader an "extraordinary asset to NU students, faculty, staff members and our state taxpayers over the last three and a half years."
"Suzanne and I wish Ted and Lynda the best. The role of NU President is one of great responsibility as well as great opportunity — especially the ability to impact future generations," he said in a statement. "I know the role of NU President will speak to others very soon and we will gain another perfect fit for the university system.â€
Sen. Deb Fischer said Carter had served with distinction and "put our exceptional university on a path to even greater success," while Rep. Mike Flood praised Carter for strengthening NU's finances and "connecting it better to the communities it serves."
"He will be a great leader for Ohio State," Flood said.
A former Naval aviator who was superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy for five years, Carter was named NU president in the fall of 2019 following a national search after the departure of Hank Bounds earlier that year.
At his introductory news conference in Ohio following Tuesday's Board of Trustees meeting, Carter's first words were to the people of Nebraska, who he thanked for their hospitality over the last four years.
"I want to say a special thank you," he said. "We've been welcomed from the day we started. We've done amazing work together."
Carter also thanked Ohio State's Board of Trustees for giving him "enough runway" to see through his work in Nebraska. He will continue serving as NU's president through December, he said.
"Obviously, I still have a lot of work to do in Nebraska," he told reporters. "And what you'll find out about me is I don't take the pack off. And that's why I'm thankful I've been given that time to do some important work at Nebraska."
Carter's departure comes a week after regents awarded him a $144,000 bonus for meeting more than 99% of benchmarks laid out for him last year — an incentive he said he planned to donate to charity, including to scholarships at the University of Nebraska Foundation.
Speaking to reporters in Ohio on Tuesday, Carter acknowledged his recent bonus, which he said he appreciated but didn't ask for.
"Well, first, you should all know — and I said this earlier — I loved working at Nebraska," he said. "I'm not leaving there disgruntled, unhappy about anything. It's a tough job. And Nebraskans have welcomed my wife and I the entire time we've been there. So that's important.
"The contract that I had that was extended — I was very appreciative. It wasn't something I asked for. But this is a different opportunity. I mean ... this university is a significant opportunity for any academic leader to want to be a part of.
"When the opportunity came up, after a lot of very, very difficult thought — it is a bittersweet day, because I will be saying goodbye to Nebraskans at the end of the year," he added. "But I'm gonna be welcomed by a whole different community."
The bonus followed regents offering Carter a five-year contract extension last year to keep him at NU through the end of 2027, which also raised his base salary by 3% to $962,638.
The new contract also continued an existing privately funded deferred compensation package that put an amount equal to 11.5% of his base salary into an account every year, and added a second privately funded deferred compensation package of $340,000 he'll be able to receive beginning in January 2024.
In all, Carter's total salary and benefits at Nebraska will top $1.5 million.
At Ohio State, Carter will earn an annual base salary of $1.1 million, the Columbus Dispatch reported. His contract will run through Dec. 31, 2028.
Carter's tenure at NU saw economic and political headwinds almost from the beginning.
Shortly after he started as NU's top administrator on Jan. 1, 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the university to send students home for the spring semester and created economic challenges across higher education.
Carter was instrumental in bringing students back to campus for the fall 2020 semester, and implemented the Nebraska Promise — a program that waived tuition for students from families at or below the median household income in the state — but COVID kept campus activities and athletics limited.
He also helped navigate a challenge brought by then-Regent Pillen to end the teaching of critical race theory at the university. Pillen's resolution, which came to a head at a marathon public meeting in August 2021, was opposed by Carter, other administrators, faculty and students, and it failed to gain majority support from the board.
Carter helped spearhead the creation of a program for NU to address an $800 million backlog of maintenance projects across the state by partnering with former state Sen. John Stinner of Gering in the Legislature.
Shortly after the bill (LB384) passed in 2021, NU secured $400 million in bonds to begin replacing roofs, windows, and heating and cooling systems, as well as provide a boost to new construction.
But even with those successes, NU announced earlier this year it would be forced to close a roughly $58 million budget shortfall over the next biennium. The budget gap was created by enrollment losses, muted growth in state appropriations, and increased costs of operating the university.
"There is no easy button," Carter told regents in April, and in June, he announced a five-point plan to tackle the challenges faced by the university.
Also in June, the regents gave Carter oversight of Husker Athletics, which NU leaders often refer to as "the front door of the university," a responsibility that used to reside with the UNL chancellor.
That position put Carter on the Council of Big Ten Presidents and Chancellors, which recently approved both the University of Oregon and University of Washington as members.
Clare on Tuesday said he was "not going to speculate" on whether or not that position will stay with the next university system president.
"We'll have to visit about that," Clare said.
Bennett, who was selected by Carter to lead the state's flagship institution, said he was "shocked" by the announcement, but wished the system leader well in his next position: "I'm really happy for President Carter."
He also said he looked forward to the Huskers going up against the Buckeyes in the coming years.
"We'll get to whup up on him as a competitor and get a little redemption in all this," Bennett said.
Despite the change in leadership announced on the second day of classes for the 2023-24 school year, Bennett said he planned to continue the work outlined by Carter during his hiring process and throughout the summer: ensuring students are successful.
"The primary reason for which we are all here — our students — remains," Bennett said. "They are expecting us to remain calm and carry on."