There's an effort by some professors now to repeal Senate Bill 1, the legislation that bans faculty strikes and most mandatory diversity programming at public universities. But it is an uphill battle to get it on this fall's ballot. And at least one major education group is indicating it is putting its resources elsewhere.
Before lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1, educators from around Ohio converged on the Ohio Statehouse, protesting the legislation. More than 700 groups and individuals testified against it.
Youngstown State University 's faculty union president Mark Vopat said almost 5,000 petition signatures were submitted to start the process of repealing SB 1. If 1,000 of those are valid, signature gathering for the repeal can begin. But Vopat, who's also a philosophy professor at YSU, said the process has become increasingly difficult in recent years.
"This is a sort of 'hail Mary'. We are going to see if we can get people to come out and do this," Vopat said.
Vopat said he and two other YSU professors who are working on the effort found a lot of people who were willing to help circulate the initial petitions. However, it will eventually take more than 250,000 valid signatures to get the issue to the ballot, with a deadline of early July.
Some opponents of SB1 want to focus resources elsewhere
A successful repeal effort will take a lot of time and money, with paid petition circulators and volunteers. While some groups had expressed early interest in a possible repeal effort, the state's largest union representing educators is not going to be investing in it.
In a written statement, the Ohio Education Association said it is focusing resources on other challenges, including litigation. OEA Vice President Jeff Wensing said in a statement: “Senate Bill 1 is bad for Ohio students, bad for higher education, and bad for Ohio, and the Ohio Education Association will continue to work with our coalition partners on efforts to legally challenge provisions of SB 1 that impact the academic freedom and First Amendment free speech rights of Ohio’s educators and the students they serve."
But the statement suggests the repeal effort isn't the priority.
"OEA and its coalition partners have determined that the referendum effort is not currently feasible because of time and cost constraints around gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures and mounting a successful campaign," Wensing wrote. "Instead, OEA is focusing resources on supporting our partners’ litigation efforts and developing internal support for OEA’s Higher Ed members – including providing guidance, training, and legal services – to help them successfully organize and navigate the new environment created by this law."
Repeal effort backers say they are not deterred
Vopat said he hopes any legal battle that will be waged will be successful. But he added fighting the law on different fronts is a good idea.
“I don’t think there’s any problem with a multi-front attack on this bill. I think it’s really bad for Ohio," Vopat said. "It’s bad for students, it’s bad for faculty, so the more the merrier."
State leaders are likely to fight any repeal effort
There was widespread support among supermajority Republican legislators for SB 1. No Democrats voted for the bill, and two Republican senators and three House Republicans joined them. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the law less than 48 hours after receiving it.
To make the ballot, the repeal language would have to be approved by Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, and then by Republicans who are the majority on the Ohio Ballot Board.
Republicans who backed the bill said it was a way to fight against "woke" liberal indoctrination they insisted was happening on Ohio's college campuses.
Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware), the head of the Senate Education Committee, said DEI policies have divided students and forced them to self-censor.
"Merit-based success is dismissed under DEI as privilege, leading to resentment from those who feel unfairly excluded due to DEI-driven policies," said Brenner, echoing a sentiment many Republicans have shared. “This bill is a step in the right direction to help all students and colleges to bring them all together so that we have a society that is growing intellectually—it is growing from diversity of thought and freedom."
SB 1 also requires post-tenure performance reviews, a civics course focused on American history and free market capitalism, and "intellectual diversity" in discussion of issues the law describes as controversial. The law takes effect in June.
