Senate Removes Anti-Faculty Provisions from Budget Bill, But It’s Not Over Yet

On Monday, June 12, the Ohio Senate released its substitute version of House Bill 49, the state budget bill. You can view the Legislative Service Commission’s comparison document to see the changes between the executive, House, and Senate versions of the bill. 

To our relief, the three provisions impacting public college and university faculty — the establishment of uniform post-tenure review; reduction of, and inability to bargain over, sick leave; as well as the financial disclosure requirement for any faculty who assigns textbooks — were removed. 

Moreover, language was added explicitly stating that colleges and universities are permitted to establish paid leave donation programs, which lends clarity to what has been a gray area for institutions. 

State Share of Instruction (SSI) figures remained the same as the House version, which is disappointing. However, the Senate did increase funding to the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG), even above the governor’s original proposed increase. 

These are the results of many weeks of meeting with legislators, working with allies, and testifying to committee. Your messages to Senators made a difference, too.

On May 25, OCAAUP President John McNay gave testimony to the Senate Finance Higher Education Subcommittee. You can view the testimony here.

While we are encouraged by the Senate’s actions, the budget bill is far from being finalized. HB 49 still must pass the full Senate (that vote is slated for June 21); and after, will go to a conference committee, through which the House and Senate will work out their differences before submitting the bill to the governor, who is required to sign by June 30.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be working with allies and having conversations with House and Senate members to try to ensure that these provisions remain out of the bill. We may need to call upon you to contact your legislators, as well as members of the conference committee.

We will continue to keep you updated with information and ways you can help. Thank you for the good work and support you have lent to this effort so far.

We reported to you last week that the substitute state budget bill contained three provisions targeting faculty: one establishing a one-size-fits-all post-tenure review policy, another reducing sick leave for university employees by 1/3 and prohibiting institutions from offering more or agreeing to more in a CBA, and a new mandate for every faculty member who assigns textbooks to file an annual financial disclosure form with the state.

We would like to thank all of you who took the time to contact State

Representatives to express concerns over these provisions. Additionally, we are grateful to our president, John McNay, for delivering testimony to the House Finance Committee last Thursday and taking questions from legislators for nearly 45 minutes. 

Unfortunately, despite our efforts, the amended substitute bill (Am. Sub. HB 49) passed the House earlier today by a vote of 58-36 with the aforementioned provisions intact. 

Am. Sub. HB 49 now will move on to the Senate for deliberations, and we will refocus our efforts there on the real issues affecting quality, access, and affordability. The full Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to receive presentations from various departments over the next two weeks, and then subcommittee hearings will begin. 

OCAAUP will testify to the Senate Finance Higher Education Subcommittee when that opportunity presents itself. We will continue to meet individually with Senators to press for changes that will make genuine improvements in Ohio higher education. 

You can aid our efforts by sending a message to your State Senator through our Action Network page. We will keep providing updates and let you know of other ways that you can help. Please keep an eye on your e-mail over the next couple of months.

Yesterday, the Ohio House unveiled Substitute House Bill 49, which is the heavily amended state budget bill. The easiest method for assessing the changes from the governor’s executive budget to the substitute bill is to review the Legislative Service Commission’s comparison document. 

Post-Tenure Review

Among the changes to the legislation was the addition of language requiring post-tenure review at least once every five years for each tenured faculty member at public institutions. We believe this provision is unnecessary, as our institutions already provide for post-tenure review, or some other form of recurrent evaluation of tenured faculty work. Our colleges and universities have determined what works best for them. This provision essentially dismantles the concept of tenure and replaces it with a series of renewable five-year contracts. This one-size-fits-all mandate simply will create more administrative costs to ensure compliance with what the state wishes to impose. 

Reduced Sick Leave & An Attack on Collective Bargaining

In addition, language was added that would reduce sick leave for university employees and would prohibit colleges and universities from providing sick leave greater than what is in statute, either on their own accord or via a collective bargaining agreement. This is Senate Bill 5 in piecemeal fashion. This is an attack on faculty collective bargaining. We intend to strongly oppose this measure.

Textbook Financial Disclosure Filings

Sub. HB 49 would require every faculty member that assigns textbooks to fill out an annual financial disclosure form to the Ohio Ethics Commission and pay a $35 fee. This is another unnecessary mandate that in effect will amount to busy work for faculty, more administrative costs at institutions, as well as greater costs for the state. We believe that the legislature is falsely assuming two things: 1) That faculty earn a great deal in royalties by assigning their own texts; 2) That faculty assign texts due to influence by textbook companies. We are completely unaware of either of these things being a problem, particularly the latter. This is a solution in search of a problem.

SSI, OCOG, & Tuition Guarantees

The substitute bill also would eliminate $20 million per year from State Share of Instruction (SSI) — the main state funding source to institutions — and flat-fund the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG), which provides need-based aid to low-income students who attend any institutions of higher education in the state. Sub. HB 49 would lift the tuition cap, but would require a tuition guarantee to students so that their tuition remains the same throughout their undergraduate careers.

Removal of Textbook Mandate & Reporting on CCP Outcomes

The provision that would have required institutions to provide textbooks to students was removed completely. Sub. HB 49 also calls for the Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education to annually report on outcomes for the College Credit Plus (CCP) program — something that we advocated for in order to ensure educational quality of CCP courses.

We believe it is important that we take action by contacting members of the House Finance Committee and our own State Representatives and asking that they remove the anti-faculty provisions from the bill.

There are two ways to contact these members

1) By phone. Phone calls are the most effective. We would like to target the Republican members of the Finance Committee with calls. If you can make a call to everyone on this list, great. If you have time only to make a few calls, we’ve put an asterisk (*) next to the members who are most important to reach.

*Chairman Ryan Smith: (614) 466-1366
*Rep. Marlene Anielski: (614) 644-6041
Rep. Steven Arndt: 614-644-6011
Rep. Louis Blessing: (614) 466-9091
Rep. Jim Butler: (614) 644-6008
Rep. Robert Cupp: (614) 466-9624
*Rep. Mike Duffey: (614) 644-6030
Rep. Keith Faber: (614) 466-6344
Rep. Theresa Gavarone: (614) 466-8104
Rep. Anne Gonzales: (614) 466-4847
Rep. Doug Green: (614) 644-6034
Rep. Sarah LaTourette: (614) 644-5088
Rep. Scott Lipps: (614) 644-6023
Rep. Robert McColley: (614) 466-3760
Rep. Tom Patton: (614) 466-4895
*Rep. Rick Perales: (614) 644-6020
Rep. Bill Reineke: (614) 466-1374
Rep. Mark Romanchuk: (614) 466-5802
Rep. Gary Scherer: (614) 644-7928
Rep. Robert Sprague: (614) 466-3819
Rep. Andy Thompson: (614) 644-8728

Below is a sample script for your calls. You most likely will be talking to an aide.

“Hello, my name is (your name), and I am a professor at (your institution). I am calling to voice my concern and opposition to several unnecessary and anti-faculty provisions that were amended into the budget bill. The provision requiring post-tenure review is unwarranted, since our institutions already have mechanisms to evaluate tenured faculty. In addition, the language that standardizes sick leave really amounts to an attack on collective bargaining. Finally, requiring all faculty who assign textbooks to file an annual financial disclosure statement is truly a solution in search of a problem. I assign textbooks because they are the best materials to help my students learn, not because I personally benefit or because I was influenced by a textbook company. Please pass along these concerns to the Representative. Thanks for your time.”

2) By sending an e-mail through our Action Network system. The e-mail that you send through this link will go to the State Representative that represents you.

Thank you in advance for your activism on these issues! OCAAUP will be testifying to the House Finance Committee tomorrow. We will keep you apprised of further developments.

Tenure Would Be Eliminated by New Bill

It has come to our attention that Rep. Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) plans to introduce a bill that would eliminate tenure for new faculty at public institutions of higher education in Ohio.

In the co-sponsor request being circulated by Rep. Roegner, she says that the  “one-size-fits-all tenure system is long outdated and is adding to the costs of higher education for universities and is being passed on to students.” 
The legislation, she indicates, will apply only to new hires at public institutions, and faculty that already have tenure or are tenure-track will be grandfathered in to the current system. 

While we see this as a politically-motivated attack rather than a useful piece of legislation rooted in facts or understanding of higher education, it presents us with an opportunity to defend and promote tenure to the General Assembly. It gives us the chance to discuss what tenure is and isn’t, how it is critical in protecting academic freedom, and how attacking tenure will drive away quality faculty from Ohio. 

This bill has yet to be formally introduced. When it is, we will inform you of the bill number and what you can do to help defeat it. 

McNay Testifies to Higher Ed Subcommittee

Yesterday, OCAAUP President John McNay delivered testimony to the House Finance Subcommittee on Higher Education regarding House Bill 49, the state budget bill.

In his testimony, McNay emphasized that the academic missions of our colleges and universities should be the focus of state and institutional decision-making. He cautioned legislators on the “less education is better model” that College 

Credit Plus promises, as well as the dangers of not giving students a full liberal arts education in an ever-changing economy.
President McNay also criticized the new performance-based funding formula, citing a Columbia University study, which found that Ohio universities were moving funding from need-based students to high-achieving students who are more likely to pass courses and graduate and thus generate financial return for institutions.

Moreover, he addressed the budget language related to establishing a commercialization pathway to tenure. He told the subcommittee members that OCAAUP is not opposed to establishing another path to tenure, but that the commercialization research in which public institution faculty are engaged must be peer-reviewed and serve the public interest. 

He expressed academic freedom concerns about the textbook proposal, and subcommittee members Rep. Duffey (R-Worthington) and Rep. Anielski (R-Walton Hills) asked him several questions about textbook costs and faculty selection of textbooks. 

Rep. Ramos (D-Lorain) asked McNay if so much emphasis on textbooks, and so little emphasis on increased state aid, would help the state achieve its goal of 65% of Ohioans with a degree or certificate by 2025. McNay responded that students often do not finish their college education due to financial reasons, and that increased state support would help more students earn degrees. 

Ramos also asked about adjunct faculty, noting a correlation between universities that have lower numbers of adjuncts and higher numbers of graduates. President McNay commented that part-time faculty are professionals who get paid very little and have little to no institutional support. 

He said that it is difficult for adjuncts who often have to piece together a living by teaching at multiple institutions to hold office hours and have other out-of-classroom interaction with students that full-time faculty do.

He pointed to the section in OCAAUP’s recent report, which shows that institutions could afford to hire more full-time faculty if they would cut costs in non-academic areas and redirect that money toward instruction.
The subcommittee chair, Rep. Perales (R-Beavercreek), thanked McNay for his testimony, saying that he always brings a valuable perspective to the committee.

OCAAUP’s 2017 Ohio Higher Education Report

In 2015, for the first time ever, OCAAUP produced an Ohio higher education report entitled “The Real Problems Deserve Real Solutions.” The purpose of the report was to shed light on the true cost-drivers in higher education.

Too often, faculty are scapegoated for institutional financial difficulties, and we wanted to point lawmakers and the public to the real problems we face and how we can solve them.

In keeping with that goal, especially in the face of short-sighted state and institutional policies, we produced another report this year called “Education First.” This report urges lawmakers and institutions to make the educational missions of our colleges and universities the focus of decision-making. 

Unfortunately, over the last several years, we have seen policies and programs such as performance-based funding and College Credit Plus which threaten educational quality. In addition, we continue to see institutions spend scarce resources on things peripheral to the academic mission, such as grandiose construction projects and athletics.

The report is being shared with state legislators and higher education reporters throughout the state. In doing so, we hope to bring attention to these issues and perspectives so that Ohio higher education can be put on the right path. 

This project was done completely in house by OCAAUP and is the product of months of research and writing. A special thanks to those who had a hand in it: John McNay, Sara Kilpatrick, Patty Goedl, Marty Kich, Steve Mockabee, and members of the OCAAUP Board.

Report Reveals Endowment Hedge Fund Investments

A new Hedge Clippers report shows that Ohio universities are making risky, expensive hedge fund investments.

Hedge Clippers is a group that works to expose public investments in hedge funds, which often charge higher fees and produce lower returns than index funds. Hedge fund billionaires frequently use their profits to fund anti-worker and anti-public education initiatives. Hedge Clippers brings attention to these issues in order to encourage public entities to divest from hedge funds.   

Their latest report on Ohio university endowments revealed these key findings:

• Twelve Ohio colleges and universities paid about $425 million dollars in fees to hedge fund managers since the Great Recession — enough to provide over 8,000 full in-state scholarships at Ohio public universities per year. 
• Eight Ohio public universities paid an estimated $238 million in hedge fund fees; the four large Ohio private universities included in our analysis paid nearly as much, with an estimated $187 million in fees to hedge fund managers since 2009. 
• These fees are in no way justified by returns. According to estimates, these twelve universities on average paid an unbelievable 65 cents in fees to hedge fund managers for every dollar of net return to the endowment fund from 2009-2015. 
• Hedge funds operate without transparency and without accountability. Hedge fund managers do not have to disclose to universities how much they are collecting in fees, and universities are not obliged to report to the public how much they have invested in hedge funds, which hedge funds they are invested in, and how these hedge funds have performed. 
• High fees rip off Ohio taxpayers and colleges while hurting Ohio communities. Hedge fund managers are using the fortunes they’ve grown through exorbitant fees to fund politicians and initiatives that put Ohio communities at risk.

Take a look to see if your institution made the report.