American Association of University Professors
On Wednesday, April 1, Gov. Kasich signed HB 53, the transportation budget bill, into law, but not before applying a line item veto to the controversial language that would’ve made it more difficult for college students to vote.
As we reported to you last week, HB 53 contained language that would have required people from out-of-state to obtain an Ohio driver’s license and register their vehicle with the state within 30 days to establish residency and thus be able to register to vote.
This measure, inserted by Senate Republicans prior to passage of the bill, appeared to be designed to create barriers to out-of-state college students from voting in Ohio just ahead of the 2016 elections. Reports estimated that over 100,000 students would have been affected.
We commend Gov. Kasich for doing the right thing and vetoing the language. We also thank our members for contacting members of the conference committee and governor to protest the provision!
Congratulations to Martin Kich, Heather Howley, and Anita Waters for being re-elected to their positions of Vice President, Treasurer, and At-Large Member, respectively.
We appreciate their continued commitment to serving all Ohio AAUP members through their positions on the OCAAUP Board of Trustees. And we appreciate all of you who took the time to cast your vote.
Last Sunday, March 30, the Dayton Daily News published this story about the price students at Ohio’s universities are paying to subsidize intercollegiate athletics.
Journalists at Dayton Daily were prompted to investigate this issue after reading our 2015 Ohio Higher Education Report and discovering that each university, save Ohio State, takes heavily from the academic side to pay for athletic programs that can’t sustain themselves.
The article revealed startling numbers of how much students will pay for – or how much debt they’ll accrue to pay for – athletics over a four-year college career.
For instance, each student at Miami will end up paying over $4,500 to subsidize their athletic programs and their new ice arena.
At BGSU, students will pay nearly $3,300 by the time they graduate, if they graduate in four years.
The article quoted the questions raised in our report:
“We have to ask ourselves if the athletic expenditures are worthwhile, especially when students are the ones footing a substantial part of the bill, probably largely unknown to them,” the report says. “This is an issue of priorities and whether we are willing to say it is acceptable for students to accumulate thousands in debt over a four-year period to pay for athletic programs that neither make money nor are self-sustaining.”