When Vice President-elect JD Vance takes the oath of office Monday afternoon, he will be the first Ohio State University alumnus to serve as VP.
His alma mater, however, doesn’t have any plans to recognize Vance’s new position.
Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson said the university is a public institution and doesn’t take partisan positions. Johnson said the university congratulated Vance in two posts on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, following his nomination and after the election.
“While nothing is planned immediately, we will continue to highlight his historic achievement,” Johnson said.
Vance attended Ohio State and studied political science and philosophy. The former U.S. senator from Ohio graduated in 2009, calling that part of his life “put-up-or-shut-up time” in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
In 2017, he was a scholar in residence in Ohio State’s Department of Political Science and spoke at his alma mater multiple times. Vance spoke about his book and his nonprofit at Ohio State in 2016 and 2017, as well as about how he thought the problems facing Ohio could be solved.
Vance joked after Ohio State beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl that he might skip the inauguration to watch Ohio State play Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff National Championship. He clarified during an interview with Fox News last weekend that he was kidding and will attend his and President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Sheridan Hendrix is a higher education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. Sign up for Extra Credit, her education newsletter, here.
@sheridan120
