FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2024
Contact: Sara Kilpatrick (OCAAUP), sara@ocaaup.org
Neil Bhaerman (OFT), nbhaerman@oft-aft.org
SB 1 Threatens Ohio’s Colleges and Universities
Bill Would End Research Partnerships, Erode Collective Bargaining Rights, and Protect Hate Speech.
COLUMBUS — Today, Ohio Senator Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) released details on SB 1, the “Advance Ohio Higher Education Act.” This bill is a more extreme version of SB 83 from the last legislative session. SB 83 failed to advance due to bipartisan legislative opposition after receiving overwhelming criticism from Ohio’s institutions of higher education, students, faculty members, and other Ohio residents and voters. More than 600 opponents testified against SB 83, while fewer than two dozen proponents testified.
Sara Kilpatrick, Executive Director for the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors (OCAAUP), and Melissa Cropper, President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, released the following statements in response. Both unions represent higher education faculty and staff, and are affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers.
Sara Kilpatrick: “Senator Cirino speaks about promoting a diversity of thought in higher education, yet he has consistently refused to meet with stakeholder groups who hold divergent views, including student organizations and faculty organizations like ours. He’s not interested in hearing opposing views, which shows that this bill isn’t about intellectual diversity, but is actually about pushing a partisan agenda. We do agree with him that ‘students come first,’ and we hope that he’ll finally start listening to the thousands of students who had written to legislators about their concerns: this bill would suppress students’ freedom to learn about, research, and understand the topics they are interested in and this bill would drive up the cost of tuition by placing more bureaucratic unfunded mandates on colleges and universities.”
Melissa Cropper: “Ohio has world class colleges and universities because Ohio has world class higher education students, faculty, and staff. We deserve legislators who will work with us to solve problems like rising tuition and keep Ohio colleges and universities competitive in our region and in the world. SB 1 doesn’t do anything like that. Instead it uses culture war politics to attack workers’ rights and turn campuses into hostile environments for people of color, immigrants, and other marginalized communities.”
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