Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Press News Editor
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Ohio Republicans announced Wednesday a higher education package, Senate Bill 1: Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, which focuses on eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, prohibiting faculty from striking and firing poorly tenured professors.
The bill, which is led by Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, is partly built upon the Senate Bill 83 that failed at the end of the previous two-year legislative session. The revamped bill features many similar things as its predecessor. And with support from new GOP legislative leaders, there’s a chance it could succeed once hearings on the proposal start the week of Jan. 27 with the Senate’s Higher Education Committee.
Eliminate DEI programs
Senate Bill 1 aims to eliminate DEI from Ohio’s college campuses. Universities wouldn’t be able to conduct training or orientation about DEI, have a DEI office or list DEI in job descriptions.
Furthermore, schools wouldn’t be able to offer any new scholarships based on DEI, which is an expansion of a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down affirmative action in college admissions at Harvard and North Carolina.
The proposed law would eliminate DEI programs entirely, not just prohibit mandatory ones. The exception would be for research grants that require DEI. In those cases, a university must ask the Ohio Department of Higher Education for an exception.
Ban faculty strikers
Senate Bill 1 aims to prohibit full-time faculty from striking. Cirino had removed the strike ban from the failed Senate Bill 83 as a concession to House lawmakers, but it’s back.
Changes to faculty, degree elimination
In an attempt to run universities like businesses, Cirino’s bill aims to empower university trustees, who are appointed by the governor, to act more like a business’ board of directors.
Trustees would reevaluate how often faculty must teach, research or provide clinical care to avoid disciplinary action, remedial training or termination - even if they have earned tenure – every five years.
Universities and colleges would also be tasked with eliminating any undergraduate degree program if fewer than five students have earned degrees in it over three years.
Faculty would also undergo annual performance evaluation, including feedback from peers and students. Tenured faculty members who don’t meet expectations on two of their three most recent performance reviews could also face discipline or termination with a post-tenure review.
Other items in the bill include:
• Reduce the length of terms of members of boards of trustees from nine years to six, while still allowing for multiple terms.
• Require professors to post course syllabi online for everyone to see.
• Require schools to adopt policies promoting full intellectual diversity.
• Prohibit universities from accepting gifts or donations from China.
• Require a three-hour course in American history with a focus on constitutional and other founding documents to receive a bachelor’s degree.
• Prohibit an ideological litmus test in hiring decisions.
• Prohibit schools and professors from taking positions on a “controversial belief or policy,” such as climate, foreign policy, electoral politics, immigration marriage and abortion.
