Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
The Ohio legislature is on the precipice of approving a higher education overhaul that, once enacted, will generally ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on college campuses and block university faculty from striking, among other things.
Senate Bill 1, which garnered overwhelming opposition from Ohio students throughout the committee process, was passed 58-34 in the House Wednesday, largely along party lines.
The bill was tweaked by the House, which means the Ohio Senate needs to vote to concur with the changes before it heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who last week told reporters, “I think I’ll probably sign it.”
Highlights of the bill — which would not impact private universities — include provisions that would:
- Ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on campus and force current DEI initiatives to close, despite offering no definition of what actually constitutes a “DEI” initiative;
- Allow the state to withhold funds for non-compliance with the bill;
- 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;”
- 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;
- Prohibit full-time university faculty from striking;
- Require state training for university trustees and reduce trustee terms from nine years to six.
