Ohio State leader halts efforts to remove Les Wexner's name from campus buildings

Ohio billionaire Leslie Wexner attended a meeting of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Board of Trustees for the first time in more than a year on Sept. 1, 2026.(George Shillcock / WOSU )Ohio State University's Interim Provost Trevor Brown halted the review of hundreds of requests to rename buildings that bear billionaire and university megadonor Les Wexner's name.Brown, the former dean of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs who was appointed interim provost when Ravi Bellamkonda was named Ohio State president, wrote a letter to the committee explaining his decision Friday. The university's Standing Advisory Committee for the Review of University Space and Entity Names said in a report it wanted to conduct a full review of more than 500 requests to rename the buildings.Brown's decision means the committee will not issue a full recommendation to Bellamkonda.Brown was given this responsibility despite serving under Wexner on the Wexner Center for the Arts Foundation's