Senate Bill 83, also known as the “Higher Education Enhancement Act” recently was altered in sections concerning the right to strike and student evaluations of professors. Credit: Nicole Nowicki | Lantern Reporter

University faculty would lose the right to strike and be more reliant on student evaluations with recent changes made to a controversial bill in Ohio’s legislature.

Ohio Senate Bill 83, also known as the “Higher Education Enhancement Act,” aims to overhaul Ohio’s public universities with major reform including limits to diversity training requirements, prohibiting the university from taking public positions on “controversial beliefs or policy” and requiring students to take three credit hours of American history or government. After passing the Ohio Senate on May 17 in a 21-10 vote, two major amendments including changes to the right to strike and students’ evaluations of professors – were added. 

“It passed very handsomely in the Senate, and I’m sure it will do the same in the House,” the bill’s primary sponsor, Ohio Sen. Jerry Cirino, said. “It’s got a lot that is needed, I think, in terms of reforms in Ohio higher education.” 

The legislation was quickly met with criticism from many professors across Ohio’s universities and was condemned by the Ohio State Board of Trustees. Many students have also given testimony against the bill.

After receiving input from universities and professors, Cirino put forth two major amendments to the bill in an attempt to guarantee its passage through the Ohio House of Representatives. Here are some of the major revisions that will impact the faculty of Ohio’s public universities and colleges.

Right to strike

Upon the bill’s initial passing through the Senate, all university staff and faculty were barred from striking. After discussing this provision with service worker unions, Cirino said, the legislation was amended to allow staff to strike. 

Cirino said professors are still excluded from this measure due to the perceived impact a faculty strike would have on students’ education.

“When you pay for that instruction for the semester, that’s a contract that exists between you and the university,” Cirino said. “Nothing should get in the way of that contract from being met.” 

Associate professor of political science Benjamin McKean disagreed, saying this measure purposefully targets faculty, who have become major scapegoats in the country’s latest culture wars. 

“Singling out faculty suggests that it’s not about disrupting students, but disempowering faculty,”  McKean said. “What’s happened in the past is faculty have gone on strike because they’ve seen that what the university is doing isn’t good for students.” 

Pranav Jani, president of the Ohio State chapter of the American Association of University Professors and director of Asian American Studies, said he believes student and faculty interests are commonly aligned.

“Cirino has repeatedly said that (Senate Bill) 83 is in the interest of students, but when you look at what happened in the spring and summer, hundreds of students came out and spoke against (Senate Bill) 83,” Jani said. 

If the bill does pass, McKean said he worries there will be a major power shift toward university administration and away from faculty, as one of the most powerful bargaining tools is taken away from professors. 

“Even when the right to strike isn’t exercised, the fact that it exists is really important for workers, including professors, in making the playing field more level,” McKean said. 

Jani said if passed, the impact of the strike measure would have varying effects depending on whether university faculty are unionized. 

“For unionized faculty, they have the right to collective bargaining for new contracts,” Jani said. “If (Senate Bill) 83 passes with a ban on faculty strikes, that would have a devastating impact on what faculty unions could negotiate in their collective bargaining agreements.” 

Unionized faculty in Ohio include professors at the University of Miami in Ohio and the University of Cincinnati. At Ohio State, which does not have a faculty union, the impact of the legislation would look different, Jani said.

“It wouldn’t have that kind of direct impact in that same way [as unionized faculty], but it would show us that the statehouse is hostile to the faculty voice,” Jani said. 

Student evaluations

The bill also aims to add student evaluations to annual faculty performance reviews, a measure professors disagree with due to concerns about a student’s academic performance in the class influencing their perception of the professor. 

“As they’re currently done, they’re not very informative, they’re much more reflective of the grades people get rather than the instruction, and they include a lot of systematic biases,” McKean said.

Cirino noted the criticism and lowered the impact student evaluations would have in regard to the teaching area component of the professor’s performance review from 50 to 25 percent. 

“There are six categories in the evaluation process,” Cirino said. “One of those six categories is instruction, and of that one-sixth of the evaluation criteria, I had the student evaluations comprising 50 percent of that section.” 

 McKean said the student evaluation measure itself is flawed. 

“At a time when the university itself is coming to recognize flaws with the system, for the legislature to come in and basically freeze it in place would be a huge mistake,” McKean said.