New Ohio Higher Ed Law Banning DEI Policies and Faculty Strikes Takes Effect This Week
“We are seeing to a very high degree people withdrawing their name from consideration if they did apply for a position in Ohio.”
We need more of this in more states.
Ohio Capital Journal reports:
New Ohio higher education law banning diversity efforts and faculty strikes takes effect this week
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.”
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Comments
I hope that post-tenure reviews mean worthless teachers can be let go!
I remember when during a De Paul’s graduate class, a tenured PHD main goal was to pick up a fellow student.
Disgusting!
If as Sarah Kilpatrick says, they are having a harder time attracting “qualified candidates from full time faculty to grad students” and people are removing their names from consideration over not being able to teach DEI or indoctrinate in the classrooms then they were attracting activists not teachers.
Hard to see how they are going to get away with banning strikes, though. SCOTUS will probably hear this one on whether a government can ban strikes by it’s public workers. I hope they can and we can get rid of government unions.
Let’s see some data on faculty and TA numbers and ratios closer to the new school year.