COLUMBUS — With only Republican “yes” votes, the Ohio Senate on Wednesday approved a bill designed to push back against what was characterized as a “bastion of liberal bias” on public university and college campuses.
The sweeping reforms cleared the Senate 21-11 with two Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition, just hours after a committee heard more than eight hours of testimony, nearly all from opponents, late into Tuesday night.
“It’s a union-busting bill,” David Jackson, professor at Bowling Green State University and president of that school’s faculty association, told the committee Tuesday. He spoke on behalf of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors.
“It would prohibit faculty unions from bargaining over fundamental terms and conditions of employment and also would ban the right to withhold labor due to unfair treatment,” he said. “It effectively ends tenure in Ohio, meaning that professors won’t be protected to teach, to conduct research, and to write freely.”
Senate Bill 1, dubbed the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act by its sponsor, largely mirrors Senate Bill 83 that cleared that chamber last session only to die in the House. It’s expected to have a different outcome this time given that new House Speaker Matt Huffman (R., Lima) was Senate president last session.
“Unfortunately, higher education across our nation largely has become a bastion of liberal bias,” said Sen. Kristina Roegner (R., Hudson), chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee. “True, there are instances where that’s not the case, but it has become pervasive enough that we must act.”
The bill’s supporters contend conservative speech has been stifled in classrooms led by liberal professors.
Opponents counter that the measure would stymie free speech altogether on campuses and force professors, in fear for their jobs, to give equal time to alternative theories that lack scientific or historical basis.
A crowd of some 200 opponents filled the committee hearing room Tuesday, overflowed into another, and then overflowed again into an area outside the Senate chambers.
After the Senate vote, a small group of protesters still around on Wednesday shouted, “Higher ed is dead!" and “Senate killed higher ed!” as they headed for the door.
The bill would impact all 14 of Ohio’s four-year public universities and its 23 two-year community colleges.
All of northwest Ohio’s senators voted along party lines.
Sen. Bill Reineke (R., Tiffin) said the bill would put control of colleges and universities back in the hands of their boards of trustees and students.
“Are teachers running our universities or are students running our universities?” he asked. “Shouldn’t students be able to get a final product for what they’re paying? I believe they should.”
Among its many provisions, the bill would ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs — including all related staffing and spending — on campuses, generally in line with recent actions taken by the Trump Administration at the federal level. This ban would not affect classroom instruction and debate.
“Why are conversations regarding diversity controversial?” BGSU graduate student Hannah Jaqua asked. “Why is it scary for individuals to have the opportunity to be educated on the history of a race?
“How is it a crime to treat everyone equally, regardless of their identity?” she said. “This is history repeating itself, and I implore you to consider this.”
The state could withhold subsidies from any school that fails to comply.
Last session, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jerry Cirino (R., Kirtland), made several concessions, including removal of the ban on faculty strikes, in a failed bid to get the bill to the governor’s desk.
In this new environment, Republican senators were having none of that Wednesday, rejecting Democratic attempts to remove the strike ban and make other changes.
The bill would:
● Prohibit schools and professors from taking formal policy positions on controversial subjects like climate, foreign policy, electoral politics, immigration, marriage, and abortion.
● Require post-tenure and annual performance reviews of faculty and prohibit collective bargaining over those issues.
● Reduce the length of terms of members of governing boards of trustees from nine years to six, while allowing for multiple terms.
● Prohibit, with some exceptions, any school from accepting gifts, donations, or contributions from entities related to China.
● Require schools to adopt policies fostering full intellectual diversity.
● Mandate a three-hour course for a bachelor’s degree in American civic literacy with required study of capitalism and reading of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the Rev. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, among others.
● Prohibit an ideological litmus test in hiring decisions.
First Published February 12, 2025, 10:13 p.m.
