Leadership at Ohio State University is going from Burrillville to Brown.

Burrillville High School graduate Walter E. “Ted” Carter resigned as president of Ohio State last weekend after disclosing an inappropriate relationship to its Board of Trustees, ending a two-year tenure for one of the country’s most decorated college presidents.

But since Rhode Island is, in fact, the center of the world, the Buckeyes chose to maintain their relationship with us by choosing Ravi V. Bellamkonda as the university’s 18th president on Thursday. Bellamkonda earned his Ph.D. at Brown University in 1994.

Carter’s downfall was swift.

He was the first Burrillville High School graduate to attend the US Naval Academy, and later became superintendent of that institution. He is also a former president at the US Naval War College in Newport and the University of Nebraska.

But Carter ran into trouble at Ohio State when he admitted that  "he had an inappropriate relationship with someone seeking state resources to support her personal business,” according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Subsequent reporting has found that Carter’s relationship was tied to a podcast sponsored by JobsOhio, a nonprofit with state ties that focuses on economic development.

Bellamkonda has a fun story. He had never been on an airplane before when he arrived at Brown University from India in 1989, according to a profile in Duke Today (he previously oversaw the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University). 

At the end of that profile, he had a great quote about what he loves about America.

“When I arrived, it was assumed there would be other Indian students who would be my friends,” he said. “And some of them did become close friends, but my closest friends were not all of Indian origin. In the US, we have a melting pot with people from everywhere, and the people you resonate with can be from anywhere. It was a powerful realization for me that when we say ‘us,’ we can mean anyone.”