Ohio State Civics Center Professor Who Tackled Cameraman Resigns

D. J. Byrnes/The Rooster

The Ohio State University faculty member who received probation after tackling a cameraman in February resigned Friday, according to the university.

Luke Perez, an assistant professor affiliated with the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society, was filmed knocking a phone out the hands of documentarian Mike Newman and wrestling him to the ground in a hallway at the university. Newman and another journalist were there to ask questions of E. Gordon Gee, a two-time president of Ohio State and then-consultant for the center, after he gave a guest lecture.

Perez pleaded no contest in July to a count of disorderly conduct. He received two years’ probation and a suspended 30 days in jail. He was also required to pay a $100 fine, a $240 probation fee and $584 in court costs, according to court records.

The university placed Perez on administrative leave in February, just after the incident. He remained on paid leave until his resignation Friday, a university spokesperson wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed. Perez “was on leave during the faculty sanctioning process, which had not concluded,” the spokesperson said.

Perez didn’t return Inside Higher Ed’s requests for comment Monday.

State lawmakers established the Chase Center in 2023. Over the past decade, Republican-controlled legislatures and some university governing boards have been creating these often conservative-leaning civics centers on prominent public university campuses in red states.