The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
A controversial new Ohio higher education law banning diversity efforts, prohibiting faculty strikes and regulating classroom discussion takes this week.
Ohio Senate Bill 1 goes into effect Friday. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed S.B. 1 into law on March 28 after it quickly passed the House and Senate earlier this year.
S.B. 1 creates post-tenure reviews, puts diversity scholarships at risk, sets rules around classroom discussion, and creates a retrenchment provision that blocks unions from negotiating on tenure, among other things. The law affects Ohio’s public universities and community colleges.
Higher education institutions have already been feeling the effects of the law before it’s even gone into effect.
The new law is making things more difficult for faculty and administrators, said University of Cincinnati American Association of University Professors President Stephen Mockabee.
“We’re spending time figuring out how to comply with all these state mandates, rather than focusing on research and teaching,” he said.
The biggest short term effect higher education institutions are seeing from S.B. 1 having a hard time attracting quality candidates — ranging from full-time faculty to graduate student positions, said Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of the Ohio Conference of AAUP.
“We are seeing to a very high degree people withdrawing their name from consideration if they did apply for a position in Ohio,” she said. “I’m hearing this on a regular basis from people that are involved in those search processes.”
Ohio State University History Professor Chris Nichols said he knows graduate students who were offered fellowships, but turned them down because of the new law.
“Any little thing could tip the balance for them,” he said. “If they’ve got an offer from Michigan and an offer from (Ohio State), Michigan is more hospitable right now, so that’s where they’re going, even if all other things are equal.”
The University of Michigan’s astronomy department had 435 graduate school applicants this year compared to Ohio State’s astronomy department, which only had 269 graduate school applicants this year, said Laura Lopez, an Ohio State astronomy professor.
“We are comparable PhD programs, so I think their greater applicant numbers are an indication of how S.B.1 or other legislation is impacting our pool,” she said.
Mockabee said all of their job candidates have asked about S.B. 1.
“It’s not going to make it any easier to recruit,” he said. “In the long term, my concern is that we won’t be able to retain people that we’re going to see a brain drain in Ohio.”
Some of Ohio’s public universities have started making decisions because of the new law. Ohio University announced it will close the Pride Center, the Women’s Center and the Multicultural Center.
The University of Toledo is suspending nine undergraduate programs.
Kent State University is closing its LGBTQ+ Center, Women’s Center and Student Multicultural Center.
RELATED: Kent State University to close multiple identity-based centers in compliance with Ohio law
“With multicultural centers being dismantled and the LGBTQ+ centers being dismantled, and the censoring of topics that we’re going to be allowed to talk about, it’s just going to totally change the dynamic of campuses and classrooms,” said Kali Barcroft, a Miami University sophomore.
She looked at colleges out of state and ultimately chose to stay in Ohio to be close to family, but admits things would be different if this new law had been in effect.
“If (S.B. 1) was happening when I was still looking at colleges, I would be in North Carolina,” Barcroft said.
The bill also has had a chilling effect on what courses faculty plan on teaching this fall.
“(Faculty have) said they don’t want to teach a class like African American history because they’re afraid it might be too controversial right now or some of our new hires aren’t proposing new classes that might cause some backlash,” Nichols said. “There’s no doubt we have a chilling effect happening on classes that are proposed.”
Some faculty and staff at universities are afraid to speak out publicly against the new law, Nichols said.
“I think some of our most vulnerable people are feeling very at risk, and they really don’t want to stick their heads up,” he said.
State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced the bill in January at the start of the General Assembly.
“Without the very best educational system, we will not have a properly trained workforce, and without a trained workforce, we will not have a robust economy here in Ohio,” Cirino said in April during a City Club of Cleveland forum. “This law will not be ignored. It will be welcomed.”
Members of Youngstown State University’s chapter of the Ohio Education Association are trying to get a referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot to stop S.B. 1. They have been collecting signatures since May and plan on submitting them to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose this week.
About 248,092 signatures are needed — 6% of the total vote cast for governor during the last gubernatorial election. The signatures must be from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
LaRose will then need to verify the signatures before the measure is referred to the Ohio Ballot Board to determine the language that would appear on the November ballot.
