Members of the Save Ohio Higher Education group met Thursday night in a webinar to discuss their concerns and share testimonies about the effect that the “Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act” could have on Ohio schooling. Credit: Tom Hanks | Lantern File Photo
With the potential of passing of the “Higher Education Enhancement Act” in Ohio looming, the Save Ohio Higher Education coalition aims to inform the Ohio community on why the bill should not pass.
Members of SOHE met Thursday night in a webinar to discuss their concerns and share testimonies about the effect that the bill could have on Ohio schooling. The group is made up of local chapters from the American Association of University Professors, which include faculty, students and education advocates from across Ohio.
Senate Bill 83 was introduced by Ohio State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, March 14 and attempts to strike down bias in classrooms across Ohio, end diversity, equity and inclusion training, terminate academic partnerships with China, prohibit faculty unions from conducting contract strikes and plans to introduce student evaluations where professors would be graded on the amount of bias shown inside of a classroom.
After proposing the bill, Cirino said in a March 15 press release the changes proposed will “teach students how to think not what to think.”
In a March 31 press release, Cirino said his bill is not censorship, because it “is simply designed to ensure free expression on campus and in the classroom.”
The bill is currently moving through the legislative process, now in the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee. Two hearings have been held for supporters and opponents of the bill. A third hearing will take place Wednesday.
Cynthia Peeples, founding director of Honesty for Ohio Education, said instead of improving on higher education across Ohio, the bill seeks to ruin it.
“Ohio Senate Bill 83, is titled the ‘Higher Education Enhancement Act,’ but we know what it really is, it is the ‘Higher Education Destruction Act,’” Peeples said.
Jill Galvan, associate professor of English at Ohio State, said there are many different problems with the bill, but two main concerns are the impact it could have on students seeking employment and a loss of credibility for Ohio professors.
“Are industries and employers going to want to invest in our state when this is the kind of culture that we are building?” Galvan said.
Leila Khan, a third-year in psychology and vice president of Ohio State’s College Democrats, said she is frightened and angry about the possibility of Senate Bill 83 passing in Ohio.
“The potential passing of Senate Bill 83 is detrimental in many ways, more than anything it endangers the trust students have in their government and in their educators,” Khan said at the meeting. “Having diversity in classrooms makes me feel safer. Knowing that wherever my classmates are from, or what they previously have been taught, they will learn about cultural and societal differences amongst citizens of the world.”
Along with SOHE’s concerns and Khan’s testimony about Senate Bill 83, the webinar also provided a short workshop for attendees, led by Tim Johnson, senior policy advocate for the Ohio Poverty Law Center, on how they can write their own testimony to help combat the bills passing.
“I cannot emphasize this enough, the legislators are experts in the things that they know, but they don’t necessarily know the things that you know,” Johnson said at the meeting. “They’re not dumb, but they are not necessarily experts in the field that you are. Just because they’re on the higher education committee doesn’t mean that they are experts in higher education, that’s a common misconception.”
SOHE isn’t the only group speaking out against the bill. Members of Honesty for Ohio Education and Ohio State’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors claim it would restrict academic freedoms and permit governmental overreach.
