Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
After Ohio Republicans proposed a bill last week to ban diversity and inclusion efforts on college campuses, bar university staff from striking and require a state-designed civics class for bachelor’s degree, some faculty and student organizations are taking a stand. Institutions themselves have said very little.
Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, is modeled after the former Senate Bill 83, which faced similar controversies.
The legislation would block universities from offering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, prohibit full-time university faculty from striking, and require universities to “affirm and declare that the state institution will not encourage, discourage, require or forbid students, faculty, or administrators to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology, political stance, or view of a social policy, nor will the institution require students to do any of those things to obtain an undergraduate or post-graduate degree.”
Additionally, the bill would:
- Require students to take a state-designed American civics or history class before being awarded a bachelor’s degree;
- Automatically eliminate any university degree program that awards fewer than five degrees per year on a three-year rolling average;
- Require state training for university trustees and reduce trustee terms from nine years to six.
Bobby Rubin, president of the American Association of University Professors at Wright State University, said the Wright State chapter stands with many students and professors in Ohio in opposition to the bill.
“As with previous iterations of the bill, it is a ‘solution’ in search of a non-existent problem,” Rubin said. “It will create unfunded mandates and needless administrative and regulatory bloat.”
