Reaction to Ray Tensing decision muted on University of Cincinnati campus

Campus was quiet Tuesday as Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced there would be no third trial for former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing.

At 1 p.m., while Deters was speaking in his Downtown office about his disappointment with not getting a conviction, the UC board of trustees sat in a conference room minutes away discussing changes to the student code of conduct and UC health care system regulations.

UC President Neville Pinto, who was at the University of Louisville when the UC cop shot and killed Sam DuBose in an off-campus traffic stop, didn't mention Deters' decision and declined to comment on it.

Bashir Emlemdi, who attends trustee meetings as undergraduate student body president, didn’t have anything to say on the record, either. The aftermath of DuBose's death simply isn't something that he's deeply involved in.

More:No third trial for ex-UC cop Ray Tensing in shooting death of unarmed motorist Sam DuBose

Tensing was terminated from the UC Police Department on the day he was indicted, and the university has no intention of reversing that decision, university spokesman Greg Vehr told The Enquirer. 

Outside the trustees' meeting, no students waded into the steamy summer afternoon to protest on the campus green. Even the nearby Mount Auburn intersection where DuBose was shot and killed by Tensing two years ago was empty as Deters announced the end to the state's prosecution efforts.

It seems UC is just trying to move on.

There are pockets of outraged students and relentless activists, including Ashley Nkadi, co-founder of the Irate 8, a student-led activist movement born out of the death of Sam DuBose. She said she wasn't surprised by the decision but was "incredibly disappointed and disheartened."

More:John Cranley on decision not to retry Ray Tensing: 'It is not over'

She also wasn't surprised by the non-reaction on campus.

"It’s on the minds of students," Nkadi said, "but we go to an institution where people are transient."

There’s a new generation of students on campus who weren't directly affected and don’t have the “emotional residue left over” from July 19, 2015, she said.

"(They’re) not going to take direct action because 'it doesn’t have anything to do with me or my college experience,'” Nkadi said. "A lot of people who were immediately impacted have moved away or are in graduate school."

The university has spent the last two years working to move past the fatal incident, making significant changes with some of the "best policing experts in the country," said Robin Engel, who was hired as vice president for safety and reform.

UCPD has new leadership, a new policing strategy with less aggressive tactics, additional training and new data that are being used to hold officers accountable. The university also reached a nearly $5 million settlement with the DuBose family.

More:How has UCPD changed since DuBose shooting?

More:New UCPD leaders focus on crime prevention

“I believe we’re the only police department in the country that’s under voluntary reform … where it’s not federally mandated,” Engel said. “We continue to be committed to become a model for urban campus policing.”

Nkadi said UC is moving in the right direction, but there is a lot of work to be done and the DuBose family needs to be part of that.

"We can’t forget the catalyst for it," Nkadi said. "I never want UC to stop considering what the family wants in terms of how the university and police department move forward."