As the potential passing of Senate Bill 1 looms over public universities in Ohio, some members of Kent State’s faculty are doing all they can to stop it.
On Tuesday, members of the Kent State United Faculty Association will travel to Columbus to show opposition to SB1 in an attempt to persuade Ohio state representatives and Gov. Mike DeWine to not pass the bill.
Deborah Smith, chapter president and professor of philosophy, said the bill is “sprawling and omnibus” and contains “horrible” items.
“We’re most concerned about the aspects of the bill that restricts the freedom of expression of universities and colleges here in Ohio,” Smith said. “We’re also severely concerned about the anti-union elements. If it became law, the bill would restrict our right to collectively bargain key terms and conditions of employment and eliminate our right to strike.”
KSUFA is a member chapter of the Ohio Conference of American Association of Professors, which was holding a day of action to oppose SB1 in some capacity. Although each chapter union had the choice to protest in any way they seemed fit, Smith said the best course of action was to head to the steps of the Statehouse to be seen and heard.
“We can pass out some flyers, we can pass out some ‘no on SB1’ buttons and we can answer people’s questions,” she said. “We thought that would be much more effective than anything we can do here in Kent.”
Faculty members who teach classes Tuesday, or couldn’t attend the protest in person due to other commitments, were given other methods of making their voices heard, Smith said. This includes calling persuadable Republicans on the Workforce and Higher Education Committee and participating in a sign-making event that was held Thursday.
Smith said some faculty members have been feeling completely hopeless regarding SB1, and that the upcoming protest and sign-making event helped alleviate worries and fears.
“What I’m hearing from faculty is that having this opportunity is really giving them a way to channel their frustration and anger,” Smith said. “Every single person said this was incredibly cathartic because they felt like they were actively doing something that might make a difference.”
Despite massive opposition to the bill, including over 800 submitted testimonies, SB1 passed through the Ohio Senate. Feeling her request could fall on deaf ears, Smith said she’s trying hard to remain optimistic. However, she said all it takes is a few Republican members to side with Democrats on the committee to stop it from passing.
“I don’t know that there’s a lot of room for optimism that we’ll be able to keep it from passing in the House, but I think there is room for reasonable hope all the same,” Smith said. “It’s not impossible, it’s not a pipe dream and it’s going to be a lot of work.”
If SB1 becomes law, Smith said the future of public universities in Ohio is dire, and it will be very challenging to attract world-class faculty nationally and internationally and convince students to continue their educational journey at Ohio universities.
Smith said she hopes that if SB1 is passed, legislators will add common-sense amendments to make the bill a little less harmful.
“There’s very little in the bill that I like at all, and I certainly wouldn’t be sad if the whole thing got shelved,” she said. “There are definitely some common-sense amendments that could be made to it, and that would preserve some of what I think they want out of it.”
John Engoglia is a beat reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
