In addition to the upcoming opponent hearing for Sub. HB 151 next Wednesday, the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee is accepting final written testimony only on Sub. SB 83 this coming Wednesday, May 17 at 9:30 am. The bill is starred for a vote on the committee notice, which means that it is likely to be voted out of committee that day. It could go to the Senate floor for a full vote by that chamber the same day. This is the final opportunity to weigh in on the changes that were made to Sub. SB 83 and the current status of that bill. If you wrote and submitted testimony on the original version of SB 83, you can simply update it to reflect relevant changes that were made to the bill. You can read about the differences between the original bill and substitute bill here on our website. You can also view the Legislative Service Commission’s comparison document here. If you have been working on testimony for the House hearing on Sub. HB 151, yes, you can submit the same written testimony for this final hearing on Sub. SB 83. To be clear, the House hearing on Wednesday at 10:30 is for in-person and written testimony, while the Senate hearing on Wednesday at 9:30 is for written testimony only. Submitting testimony for Sub. SB 83 by May 16 at 9:30 am You must email the written testimony and your completed witness slip to the chair’s office at lynna.freeman@ohiosenate.gov no later than Tuesday, May 16 at 9:30 am (testimony must be received 24 hours in advance of the hearing).Witness SlipTestimony Template Please plan on being at the Statehouse on Wednesday, if you can. We will send more information next week about additional actions that you can take to combat SB 83/HB 151. In the meantime, we hope that you will prepare and submit testimony expressing opposition to the latest version of the bills. Please share this information with colleagues and others who may want to take action.

HB 151 Opponent Hearing
House Higher Education Committee
Wednesday, May 17 at 10:30 am
Room 017 (Ground Floor), Ohio Statehouse

This coming Wednesday, opponents to Sub. HB 151–the companion bill to Sub. SB 83–will have an opportunity to submit testimony.

This is a hearing for opponent testimony only. However, testimony will be limited to five minutes per witness. There will be a hard stop for the committee at 1:00 pm, meaning that it is very likely that many witnesses will not be able to present testimony.

Don’t let that deter you from showing up! We know they don’t want to hear from us and that they are trying to silence us, but we cannot let that stop us from trying to make our voices heard.

In the Senate, we had hundreds of people show up to the opponent hearing for SB 83 and more than 500 opposition testimonies submitted. Let’s exceed that in the House! We must keep up the pressure and send the message that this bill is still widely opposed!

Submitting testimony by May 16 at 10:30 am
If you are submitting testimony–whether written-only or you plan to testify in-person–you must email the testimony and your completed witness slip to the chair’s office at OHRHigherEducationCommittee@ohiohouse.gov no later than Tuesday, May 16 at 10:30 am (testimony must be received 24 hours in advance of the hearing).

Witness Slip

Testimony Template

If you wrote and submitted testimony on the original version of HB 151/SB 83, you can simply update it with the new committee information (which is in the template above), as well as to reflect relevant changes that were made to the bill. You can read about the differences between the original bill and substitute bill here on our website. You can also view the Legislative Service Commission’s comparison document here.

And don’t forget, we have a forum tonight, Thursday, May 11 at 6:00 pm, to discuss the changes and to hold another testimony workshop. Register here.

Sub. SB 83
We have heard that there also will be another hearing on Sub. SB 83 next week, but we have not seen an official committee notice yet. Until we see a notice, we are not sure if Sen. Cirino will be accepting testimony on the substitute bill. We will send more information when it is available.

Early next week, we will send an additional email with more information about Wednesday and more ways to take action. Again, thank you for all that you are doing to push back on HB 151/SB 83! If you have questions, reply to this email.

Substitute Senate Bill 83 (“Sub. SB 83”) A substitute version of Senate Bill 83 was released by sponsor Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) and formally adopted today, May 9, by the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee, of which Sen. Cirino is chair. Despite several changes that make clarifications and water down certain provisions, the bill is still deeply flawed and represents vast government overreach that undermines academic freedom, workers’ rights, and institutional autonomy. In fact, the bill has become even more detrimental in terms of new language that would place more limitations on collective bargaining. Below are details about what changed, what is new, and what stayed the same from the original bill to the “sub bill.” What changed? -The bill no longer applies to private institutions of higher education. -The section banning required diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) was revised to allow for certain exemptions. Exemptions must be approved by the chancellor and be required for compliance with federal law, licensure, accreditation, grants, or cooperative agreements. -The workload provision was changed from language that mandated 30 credit hours for faculty on 12-month appointments to say that full-time faculty shall have a mandated 30 credit hour workload, and that faculty with less than a full-time appointment shall have their workloads prorated based on the 30 hour formula. It mandates boards of trustees to approve a definition of full-time faculty as part of the institution’s workload policy. Workload policies are to include a definition of all faculty workload elements in terms of credit hours. -The requirement for syllabi to contain biographical information about faculty was changed to require “professional qualifications” of faculty. -The bill now clarifies that Chinese students can attend and pay tuition and fees to Ohio institutions. Ohio institutions also can have academic relationships with Chinese institutions; however, “safeguard requirements” have to be met and relationships must have approval from the Chancellor in consultation with the Attorney General. -The substitute bill revokes the language mandating intellectual diversity rubrics for classes, and clarifies that the bill is not meant to prohibit faculty or students from classroom instruction, discussion or debate, so long as faculty are committed to expressing and allowing the expression of intellectual diversity. However, the bill still requires institutions to develop a range of disciplinary measures against faculty and staff who interfere with “intellectual diversity rights.” -The new version revises language to clarify that prohibitions on policies designed to segregate based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression apply only to credit-earning classroom settings, formal orientation ceremonies, and formal graduation ceremonies. While this still is problematic and leaves aspects open to interpretation regarding certain courses that deal with the aforementioned subjects, it does remove the concern that the bill’s language would have applied to student organizations and athletic teams. -The bill no longer requires faculty evaluation results to be posted on institutional websites. What is new? -New language was added to require boards of trustees to develop policies on tenure and retrenchment and to update those policies every five years. The bill goes further to specify that tenure, retrenchment, faculty evaluations, and workload are not appropriate subjects for collective bargaining for future contracts, and that the policies developed by boards of trustees would prevail over any conflicting provision of a collective bargaining agreement. -The substitute bill includes new language in regards to endowments and donor intent. This is similar language to what Sen. Cirino attempted to include in a bill he sponsored during the previous legislative session (SB 135). -The new version of the bill would reduce trustee terms from nine years to four years. What stayed the same? -As mentioned above, the bill still requires institutions to discipline faculty and staff for interference with intellectual diversity rights. It also still contains language that faculty shall not seek to “inculcate” students. It still fails to provide any detail about process for anyone accused of interfering with intellectual diversity rights or inculcation. -Ban on required DEI outside of the abovementioned exemptions. -Ban on strikes by faculty and other unionized campus employees. -Specific syllabi requirements and making syllabi public and searchable. -Annual faculty evaluations for all faculty, which weight student evaluations as 50% of the teaching assessment. -Post-tenure review (PTR), which gives broad authority to administrative officials to call for PTR, which may lead to termination. Under the bill, a tenured faculty member’s academic freedom is only protected in terms of “allowable expression” under Ohio law, meaning if SB 83 becomes law, accusations of inculcation or lack of intellectual diversity could result in PTR and termination. This renders tenure meaningless and academic freedom unprotected. -Prohibition on using diversity statements in hiring and promotion decisions. -Various unfunded mandates that will require resources, but add no value to higher education. In short, the changes to the bill fail to assuage our very serious concerns. In fact, this new version, in some respects, is worse than the original draft, particularly as it pertains to proposing new constraints on collective bargaining. It couldn’t be clearer that Sen. Cirino is trying to take away bargaining power from faculty unions. This is the worst assault on union rights since Senate Bill 5 in 2011, and the worst assault on academic freedom that we have ever seen. We are still staunchly opposed to SB 83, and will continue to do everything in our power to prevent its passage. Next Steps for Sub. SB 83 In terms of next steps, we have heard that the Senate plans on passing Sub. SB 83 next week. It is possible that some or all of the bill is amended into HB 33, the state operating budget bill. Sen. Cirino has not yet stated whether any testimony will be accepted on Sub. SB 83 before it is passed from committee. First Hearing for HB 151 Tomorrow, May 10, House Bill 151–the companion legislation to SB 83–will get its first hearing in the House Higher Education Committee. The hearing is for sponsor and proponent testimony, which signals that this House Committee may be attempting to fast-track the bill (typically sponsor and proponent testimonies are held separately). It appears that the committee also plans to adopt the substitute version of SB 83 for its own substitute version of HB 151.We do not yet have confirmation, but Wednesday, May 17 may be the opportunity for opponent testimony on HB 151. We will inform members as soon as we have confirmation of these details. What we are sure of, no matter when the opponent hearing for HB 151 might be, is that we want as much opponent testimony submitted to the committee as possible. In person testimony is always most effective, but even submitting written testimony is important. In the Senate, there were more than 500 pieces of opponent testimonies submitted, and we want to exceed that in the House. We must keep up the pressure and impress upon legislators that these bills are widely opposed. Another Cirino Higher Ed Bill: Senate Bill 117 In addition to Sub. SB 83, Sen. Cirino recently introduced another piece of higher education legislation, Senate Bill 117, which would establish new institutes at Ohio State University and University of Toledo to study civics and American constitutional thought. Similar to SB 83, the purported goal is to promote “intellectual diversity.” The bill prescribes appropriations to fund the institutes, which lends itself to ultimately being folded into HB 33, the state operating budget bill. You can find the text and analysis for SB 117 here. Thursday, May 11 Forum on Sub. SB 83/HB 151 This Thursday, May 11 at 6:00 pm, in conjunction with the Honesty for Ohio Education coalition, there will be a forum to discuss the substitute version of Senate Bill 83/House Bill 151. The forum also will include a testimony workshop. Join us and spread the word! You can register for the forum here.

On April 19, hundreds of people–faculty, students, and allies–gathered at the Statehouse to oppose Senate Bill 83. More than 500 people submitted written opposition testimony, and over 100 of them were present to address the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee. We were told that the amount of testimony received is an Ohio Senate record!

Not only did we pack the 70 seats in the committee room, but we also packed the Statehouse rotunda, which was used as the overflow space (pictured above). The crowd cheered as we watched and heard the many opponent witnesses make pointed remarks about the harm this bill would cause to student success and learning, academic freedom, and labor rights. It was truly an incredible showing of solidarity in opposition to this deeply misguided piece of legislation.

Prof. Steve Mockabee testified on behalf of OCAAUP and was the first opponent to deliver remarks. You can read our full written testimony here. The other testimonies from the hearing can be found here. Due to the large number of witnesses, oral testimonies were limited to five minutes.

The hearing, which you can watch via The Ohio Channel, lasted for more than seven hours, and unfortunately, as the day got late, several opponents had to forgo giving testimony to return home. While we very much appreciate that Sen. Cirino’s office was willing to work with us on putting together the opponent witness list, we believe that there should have been multiple hearings to better accommodate the large number of testimonies.

We appreciate everyone that stuck around to make sure their voices were heard by the committee. We also value the many faculty who could not be there, but took the time to submit written testimonies. This is the kind of massive opposition that we must continue showing to stop this bill in its current form.

If you wrote testimony, hang onto it, because we may need you to submit it to the House Higher Education Committee, which could eventually hold hearings on a Senate-passed version of SB 83 or on the companion bill, HB 151. There is also more you can do with your testimony. Consider adapting it as an op-ed and submitting it to a local paper. Consider posting it online and sharing in other ways that spreads the word about the harm this bill would do.

Several times during the committee hearing, Sen. Cirino mentioned that there will be amendments to the bill, which would address some of the concerns that were raised by witnesses. We expect that there will be a substitute version of the bill introduced in the near future with multiple changes. However, it is difficult to imagine any version of this bill that we could find acceptable, and we do not believe that Sen. Cirino will budge on the anti-tenure or anti-strike language in particular.

We will continue monitoring SB 83 and inform you of the impending changes to the bill. We are starting to turn our attention to the House, where we might have better odds of convincing legislators that SB 83/HB 151 would cause serious damage to our colleges and universities and have broader effects on workforce readiness and Ohio’s economy.

In the meantime, share your testimonies far and wide. Talk to your friends, family, colleagues, administrators, and, where and when appropriate, students, about this bill. Continue to share our Action Network page, which already has been used by more than 9,000 people to send opposition messages to Ohio Senators.

Let’s keep up the pressure! While it couldn’t be clearer that this bill has far more opposition than support, the political reality in Ohio is that the vast majority of legislators hail from heavily gerrymandered districts that don’t require them to be responsive to the people. Nevertheless, a continued outpouring of activism can make a difference; and no matter the outcome, this is worth the fight!

SB 83 Opponent Hearing
Senate Workforce & Higher Education Committee
Wednesday, April 19 at 4:00 pm
South Hearing Room (2nd Floor), Ohio Statehouse

This coming Wednesday, opponents to Senate Bill 83 will have an opportunity to submit testimony. Technically, the hearing is for all testimony, including proponents, opponents, and interested parties.

What can you do to help?

1) Submit testimony: If you are submitting testimony–whether written-only or you plan to testify in-person–you must email the testimony and your completed witness slip to the chair’s office at jake.dowling@ohiosenate.gov no later than Tuesday, April 18 at 4:00pm (testimony must be received 24 hours in advance of the hearing).

Witness Slip
Testimony Template

2) Show up early for Senate session: Senate session will take place at 1:30 pm. We will have stickers with the image in this article to hand out, and we are hoping to have SB 83 opponents pack the Senate session to be visible to all Senators.

3) Pack the hearing and overflow rooms: Help us pack the hearing room and fill up overflow rooms to show how strongly this bill is opposed. Plan to arrive before 4:00 pm to get situated prior to the start of the hearing.

4) Call Senate offices on Wednesday: Call Senate President Matt Huffman and the Republican members of the committee with a simple message: “Hello, I am a professor at [your institution] and I am calling to let [Senator] know that I oppose Senate Bill 83, and I ask that they stop this bill from advancing.”

President Matt Huffman: 614-466-7584
Chair Jerry Cirino:614-644-7718
Vice Chair Michael Rulli: 614-466-8285
Senator Bill Reineke: 614-466-8049
Senator Michele Reynolds: 614-466-8064

You will either speak to an aide or have to leave a voice message. Keep it short and courteous.

5) Attend the press conference: That morning at 11:00 am, OCAAUP will participate in a press conference in the Ladies Gallery at the Statehouse with other organizations and students to discuss our opposition to SB 83.

6) Use and share our Action Network link: Click here to access our Action Network page, which allows people to easily send messages opposing SB 83 to Ohio Senators. Share it with colleagues, friends, and family!

Parking: The best parking option is the Columbus Commons Parking Garage, and there also are many metered spots in the area that accept credit cards or allow you to use the “ParkColumbus” mobile app.

Finally, we wanted to make you aware that there is now companion legislation (a bill introduced with the same language) to SB 83 in the House: House Bill 151. So far, HB 151 has been introduced, but has received no further activity. We expect that the bill will be referred to the House Higher Education Committee, but we are not sure whether the House will decide to hold hearings on HB 151 or whether they will wait for SB 83 to pass the Senate.

Now is the time to stand up and defend higher ed! Thank you for all that you are doing to push back on SB 83!