What happens when the institution entrusted with the pursuit of truth becomes an instrument of suppression? What does ethical leadership look like when the policy is the problem? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Darryl B. Rice, the Richard T. Farmer Associate Professor of Management at Miami University and Associate Editor at the Journal of Managerial Psychology. An award-winning scholar whose research centers organizational justice, behavioral ethics, well-being, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, Dr. Rice brings both intellectual firepower and lived experience to a conversation that is as urgent as it is clarifying.

Dr. Rice isn't just studying ethical leadership from a distance; he is living it in real time. In April 2025, Miami University began dismantling its DEI programs and initiatives in compliance with Ohio's Senate Bill 1, the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, which effectively prohibits DEI offices and training courses at public universities. Dr. Rice, who built a record of service through DEI committees, the Across-the-Divide Conference, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, and the Inclusive Excellence Faculty Fellows Program, filed a federal lawsuit against Miami University's Board of Trustees in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, arguing that the closures violated his First Amendment rights and his academic freedom as a tenured faculty member.

This episode doesn't just cover a lawsuit. It excavates the architecture of institutional power, the weaponization of legislation against protected speech, and what it costs a scholar, personally and professionally, to stand on the side of justice when the institution moves against it.