American Association of University Professors
SB 83 Hearing Next Week
Next Wednesday, November 15 at 10:00 am in Room 017 of the Ohio Statehouse, the Ohio House Higher Education Committee will be holding a second hearing on Substitute Senate Bill 83. As of right now, the bill is not slated to be voted upon at this hearing.
The committee will hear a total of one hour of opponent testimony, as well as one hour of proponent testimony. Oral testimony will be limited to five minutes. We highly encourage members to submit testimony and to show up if you can be there. We must continue to convey that there is still widespread opposition to this latest version of SB 83.
Here are several links to help with testimony preparation:
Full Bill Text of SB 83 -11
Comparison Document (changes between Senate-passed and -11 versions)
Committee Notice for November 15 Hearing
Witness Slip (must accompany your testimony submission)
Testimony and witness slip must be submitted to OHRHigherEducationCommittee@ohiohouse.gov 24 hours in advance of the hearing, so no later than Tuesday, November 14 at 10:00 am.
If you are able to testify in person on Wednesday, please email OCAAUP Executive Director Sara Kilpatrick at sara@ocaaup.org so that she knows who will be there. Due to the imposed time constraints, we do not know how many people will be able to address the committee, but we will do our best to help facilitate the hearing so that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak. You can also email Sara with any questions.
Testimony Workshop This Sunday
This Sunday, November 12 at 3:00 pm, we are holding a workshop in conjunction with the Honesty for Ohio Education coalition to discuss the latest version of SB 83 and to provide a testimony training. This is a great opportunity to get up to speed on the bill and learn how to write and present effective testimony.
You can register here for the workshop.
We can’t take our foot off the gas now! Our unrelenting activism has halted a bill that most people thought would be a slam dunk. Please consider submitting testimony, even if written only, so that we can continue to show that SB 83 is bad for students, bad for higher education, and bad for Ohio!