To the Contrary: Conservatives Differ on Higher Education Bill

In March of 2023, Senator Jerry Cirino introduced Senate Bill 83, the Enact Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act. The bill was promptly assigned the Senate Workforce and Education Committee and by late May of 2023, it had received 5 committee hearings, been passed by the Workforce and Education Committee, passed by the Ohio Senate, and referred to the House.

In the words of Senator Cirino, the intent of the bill is to ensure “free expression on campus and in the classroom at Ohio’s public universities and colleges,” and to “allow students to exercise their right to free speech without threat of reprisal by professors or administrators.” Cirino elaborates:

“Here’s what my bill is designed to do:

• Ensure intellectual diversity in the classroom and among the faculty.
• Provide free speech protections for students, faculty, and staff.
• Eliminate requirements for diversity, equity, or inclusion (DEI) courses or training for students, staff or faculty.
• Require full syllabus transparency.
• Ban political and ideological litmus tests in all hiring, promotion, and admissions decisions.
• Install a number of other worthwhile provisions including eliminating faculty labor strikes, establishing post-tenure periodic review, and requiring full disclosure of any donations made by any affiliate of the People’s Republic of China.”

(Taken from Senator Cirino’s April 4, 2023 guest column in the Columbus Dispatch)

Many conservatives view SB 83 as a chance at much-needed relief from the suffocating strictures of woke agendas in higher education. As such, the bill received support from many Ohio conservatives who have been fighting for a return to sanity in our higher education classrooms.

One particularly poignant defense was delivered as proponent testimony in the bill’s third hearing on April 19, 2023. Professor John Paul Wright from the University of Cincinnati’s School of Criminal Justice described his support of the bill due to the deteriorating effects of woke ideology on campuses:

“It pains me to say that free speech on many campuses is viewed as a problem to be managed and not as a necessary ingredient to intellectual exchange, but it is true. … It pains me to say that the academic climate—the day to day work life of faculty– has devolved to the point where tenure no longer protects scholars from book burning mobs, but from colleagues you’ve known for 20 years, from students ideologically primed to view every word, every utterance, every scientific finding through the lens of gender or race, and from Machiavellian administrators who all too easily wilt at first sight of the mob—but this is also true. … And it pains me to say that our great institutions have become political monocultures and that they readily embrace the worst sorts of behaviors to enforce conformity. Indeed, I have personally experienced many of these behaviors.” (Download Professor Wright’s testimony here.)

But others are not so sanguine on the bill. The usual and expected group of left-leaning, pro-union demagogues showed up in hearings to oppose the legislation. Surprising to some, they found themselves with strange bedfellows: a long list of conservative voices also oppose the bill, insisting it goes too far toward pushing “speech codes” and stifling academic freedom.

Outspoken conservative Lake County Commissioner John Plecnik, also an associate professor of law at Cleveland State University, has been characteristically unabashed in his criticisms of the bill. In his own Columbus Dispatch guest columns in April 21, 2023 and December 7, 2023, Plecnik described the billl as “a dumpster fire that threatens to incinerate free speech in higher education.”

Plecnik fears the bill would lead to grade inflation, silencing of conservative faculty, and micromanagement of class administration, leading to snarls with accreditation, possible complications for religious universities that seek to hire with regards to faith and a severe threat to free speech on campus. “Make no mistake,” warns Plecnik, “Senate Bill 83 is a trial balloon by the politicians in Columbus to see how much they can get away with on campus, before they come for you at home or in your place of work. To save free speech, we need to shoot it down now.”

Plecnik is not alone in his concerns. Hundreds of Ohio citizens submitted testimony in opposition to the bill, according to Plecnik, “To date, more Ohioans have testified against this bill than any other in Senate history.” (see lists and download testimony here).

After being referred to the House Higher Education Committee in May of 2023, SB 83 has gained several Amendments and Substitutions and been the subject of four hearings in the House Higher Education Committee. Most recently, the bill was passed by the committee and re-referred to the Rules and Reference Committee in January of 2024. The next steps will be a vote in the entire House and, if successful, Governor DeWine’s signature.

See also…
Bill prohibiting mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training at colleges moves forward
Bill is ‘a dumpster fire’ that threatens to incinerate free speech’ at Ohio’s colleges
‘The bill is alive.’ Extreme bill not dead, threatens to incinerate Ohio’s cherished colleges
Senate Bill 83 is not about tearing down Ohio’s system of higher education. It’s about rebuilding trust and esteem: Hal R. Arkes