Dear Faculty,
As you may have read or heard, an anti-faculty, anti-higher education bill, Senate Bill 83 (SB 83), has been introduced in the Ohio Senate. The bill contains a lengthy and bizarre list of mandates and prohibitions, including:
- Banning diversity, equity, and inclusion training for any faculty, staff, or students
- Requiring each public institution of higher education to adopt a policy that affirms it will ensure intellectual diversity and guarantee that faculty and staff will encourage students to form their own conclusions about “controversial matters” and will not inculcate any social, religious, or political viewpoint. “Controversial” is defined as “any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including issues such as climate change, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion.”
- Prohibiting all partnerships with Chinese universities and all study abroad programs in China
- Requiring that all students take a 3-credit American history or government course that includes a specified list of documents as assigned readings
- Requiring that all course syllabi include instructor’s name and biographical information, description of course requirements and major assignments/exams, required and recommended reading, and description of each lecture or discussion.
- Requiring state institutions to make public the syllabus for each undergraduate course, accessible through the main page of the institution’s website by use of no more than three links
- Requiring the Chancellor to develop a set of standard questions for state institutions to use in student evaluation of faculty. The evaluation must include this question: “Does the faculty member create a classroom atmosphere free of political, racial, gender, and religious bias?”
- Requiring institutions to publish on their websites the “average annual numerical score” from the student evaluations for each faculty member beginning August 1, 2024, and the same date annually
- Mandating an annual review process at all public institutions in Ohio that must use the categories “exceeds performance expectations,” “meets performance expectations,” or “does not meet performance expectations.” Student evaluations must account for at least 50% of the teaching evaluation component
- Requiring institutions to conduct post-tenure review if a tenured faculty member receives a “does not meet performance expectations” evaluation for a minimum of two of the past three consecutive years
- Requiring institutions to update their policies to express all faculty workload elements in terms of credit hours with a full-time 12-month workload minimum equal to 30 credit hours; faculty not on 12-month appointments will have workload prorated based on 30 credit hour formula
- Eliminating the fundamental right of faculty and staff at higher education institutions to strike
The bill is an attack on higher education. While the provisions are ridiculous, SB83 is also something that we, as UC Faculty, must take seriously given what has occurred in Florida and other states.
AAUP-UC will be working with the Ohio Conference, other colleges, and allies throughout the state to defeat SB83. Faculty are encouraged to use this Action Page to contact your State Senator. Watch for additional communications and action requests from the Chapter and Ohio Conference.
Click here for more information on SB83 from the Ohio Conference of the AAUP
Click HERE for an article in the Columbus Dispatch
Click HERE for a commentary from Cincinnati’s WVXU
Issues such as this are why we have and need a strong AAUP-UC. Please CLICK HERE to join today.
In solidarity,
Connie Kendall Theado
President, AAUP-UC