Union groups have begun an effort they hinted at when Republican lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1 earlier this year. That’s the legislation that Republicans say will halt what they see as liberal indoctrination at public universities by banning faculty strikes and most mandatory diversity programs.
The union representing Youngstown State University faculty is circulating petitions to ask voters to repeal Senate Bill 1. That law, which takes effect in June, also requires performance reviews for tenured professors and what’s termed “intellectual diversity” on certain controversial topics including electoral politics, abortion and marriage.
“I'm hoping that enough people hear this and say this really is state overreach," said philosophy professor Mark Vopat, the president of YSU's faculty union, which is affiliated with the Ohio Education Association. "It's not just about the collective bargaining rights that they're sort of chipping away at, but also the effect this is going to have on students and on faculty just in doing their job.”
Vopat said the repeal effort is built off the protests against the law, which brought in testimony from more than a thousand opponents this session and when a similar bill was proposed in the last General Assembly.
"I think that there is a widespread dislike, that's probably a soft term for that, for this bill," Vopat said. "I think this is just bad for Ohio. It's bad for the students. I can't see anyone that this actually helps."
Vopat said other OEA affiliates and the American Association of University Professors are also expressing interest in the effort.
The first step is gathering 1,000 signatures. Organizers of the effort plan to bring the petition to a protest outside the City Club of Cleveland on Thursday, when the law's sponsor Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) will be speaking. Cirino is also the chair of the Senate Finance Committee.
After that, the initial petition and the full text of the repeal's language would go the attorney general, and then to the Ohio Ballot Board to ensure it affects only one law. To get on the November ballot, they’d have to get around 250,000 more signatures by early July.
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