Summary of Town Hall on SB-1

Thank you to the many, many of you who attended the AAUP-UC townhall on Friday. It was the highest attended virtual town hall to date. It obviously demonstrates that faculty are aware of and apprehensive about SB #1.

Leadership at UC and across the state is activating. Look for more communications and calls to action. Below is a summary of the bill and more importantly links that you can use to contact the governor, the state legislature, and other action steps.

Powerpoint Presentation:  town hall Jan 31 2025

Summary 

What is new in SB 1 vs. SB 83? 

  • Strike ban
  • Expanded bans on DEI (but no definition of DEI)
  • Explicit funding threats if GA determines institutions failed to meet requirements (but no process for determination)
  • Required “American civic literacy” course now includes focus on “American economy and capitalism” and requires Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations
  • New provision eliminating programs that don’t graduate more than 5 students annually over a three-year period
  • Feasibility study for 3-year degree programs

SB 1 reprises the SB 83 attacks on faculty 

  • Prohibits collective bargaining over evaluations and retrenchment
  • Ridiculously broad definition of retrenchment
  • Imposes one-size-fits-all annual review process statewide
  • Allows administrators to call for a “post-tenure review” – i.e., termination review – at any time beyond annual reviews.
  • This effectively ends meaningful tenure protections
  • Requires syllabi to be posted with faculty contact info, dates, and location
  • Exposes faculty and students to harassment and physical danger
  • “Intellectual diversity” language opens faculty to frivolous charges, and provides no due process protections

What are we doing to fight this? 

  • OCAAUP is engaged in legislative meetings
  • Assisting legislative allies in prep for hearings
  • Labor union coalition is with us
  • Communications asking faculty members to contact legislators and Governor (links below)
  • Preparing amendments to be offered
  • We will keep you updated on opportunities

Helpful Links: 

What Can You Do? 

  • Call Gov. DeWine’s Office, and your House and Senate Reps. Email is good, but calls are more effective.
  • Talk to your friends, family, and community about why this is bad for Ohio
  • Write an Op Ed or Letter to the Editor
  • Stay engaged, and don’t give up!

SB1/HB6 on Fast Track

By now, most of you have probably heard something about SB1/HB6, the reappearance of last year’s SB83. Unfortunately, the Senate is looking to fast-track this anti-higher ed bill, which re-presents many of the worst iterations of SB83. There is much in this bill. It is a threat to higher education in Ohio. A summary of this long and ominous legislation follows, but first we must emphasize that we are going be fighting this with all our collective resources. Here are a few areas to learn more and get involved:

To make sure all UC faculty are informed and heard, we will be holding a virtual Town Hall on Friday, January 31 at 11:00am via Zoom.

The Ohio Conference of the AAUP will also be holding a training and information session on Thursday at 7pm

1 – Undercutting of tenure and job security: While Senator Cirino continually says that he is not against tenure, this bill provides several different measures which would effectively eliminate the protections and due process of tenure. Their mandates for post-tenure review, their takeover of Annual Performance Reviews (including providing specific questions which MUST be asked on student evaluations), and their vague and dangerous definitions under the Retrenchment category all make it possible for tenured faculty to be fired with little to no avenue for appeal. Of specific concern is that the legislation “Allows a department chair, dean of faculty, or provost to call for PTR at any time and for cause for a faculty member who has a documented and sustained record of significant underperformance.” Post-tenure review can lead to termination. For more on this, please read item #15 on the bill synopsis at the link below.

2 – Prohibitions on Collective Bargaining Subjects: The legislation prohibits workload, evaluations, tenure, and retrenchment as collective bargaining subjects. It also adds full time higher ed faculty to the list of state employees who are banned from striking.

3 – Retrenchment: The legislation defines retrenchment as “a process by which a state institution of higher education reduces programs or services, thus resulting in a temporary suspension or permanent separation of one or more institution faculty, to account for a reduction in student population or overall funding, a change to institutional missions or programs, or other fiscal pressures or emergencies facing the institution.” To be clear here, if enrollment drops by one student, the college or university can decide to close programs and terminate the faculty teaching in those programs. And, as is detailed above, the policies and protocols outlining retrenchment will be removed from the Collective Bargaining Agreement, so faculty would have no say in this process.

4 – Changes to Curriculum and workload: The mandate that every university must teach an American Civic Literary class (and must teach the texts the legislation mandates) will necessarily lead to changes in all curriculums across the university. This is also one of many unfunded mandates.

5 – Public posting of Syllabi: Requires course instructors to post syllabi on a publicly accessible website. Websites must include the following: instructor’s qualifications, instructor’s contact information, instructor’s course schedule, course syllabus for each course instructor is teaching. This allows anyone access to faculty’s contact information, which leads to all kinds of obvious concerns about safety and the like.

There is much more in this lengthy bill, so, again, please see the synopsis from the OCAAUP for a detailed description of it all.

To repeat information that was at the beginning of the communications, AAUP-UC will be holding a virtual Town Hall on Friday, January 31 at 11:00am.

The Ohio Conference of AAUP will also be holding a training and information session on Thursday at 7pm.

This may feel understandably overwhelming, but the fight isn’t over yet. Please email and call your House and Senate members, as well as Gov. DeWine’s office (details below). These actions do make a difference!

AAUP Office has relocated

We are now located in U-Square between Chase Bank and Target.  We do not yet have data or telephones, but if you call the office you can leave a voicemail which we can respond to, or email us at aaupuc1@ucmail.uc.edu.  We do not yet have the capability of letting people in remotely, so it is best to make an appointment before stopping by.

Inside the building, our office is on the third floor between the  Faculty Senate and Gender, Equity and Inclusion offices.

UC Chapter AAUP
225 Calhoun Street, STE 304
Cincinnati OH 45219
ML 0176
513.556.6861
aaupuc1@ucmail.uc.edu

Fighting Political Interference in Higher Ed: Lessons Learned in Ohio and Texas

AAUP Presents:  Fighting Political Interference in Higher Ed:  Lessons Learned in Ohio and Texas

 

From Florida to Texas to Ohio to Indiana politicians in some states are trying to substitute their own ideological beliefs for educational freedom by passing legislation that interferes with how colleges and universities operate. They’re introducing bills that  mandate or prohibit content in the classroom, empower partisan political appointees to determine campus policy, limit the freedom to learn, teach, and conduct research.

In this episode we look at member-led efforts to fight legislative interference in Texas and Ohio, specifically pushing back against bills targeting diversity equity and inclusion programs, tenure, and collective bargaining. We talk about each campaigns successes, failures, and the lessons learned.

The guests are Karma R. Chávez, the Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor and Chair in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also serves on the executive committee of the AAUP chapter, and Sara Kilpatrick, the AAUP Ohio Conference Executive Director. She previously worked as the political director for the Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus. The episode is hosted by Mariah Quinn, AAUP’s digital organizer.

Links:

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