• They/Them

A real "we've got a nephew" of graphic design and illustration, mental illness held at bay by a very nice vegetable garden and cats.

Lapsed printmaker, you should ask me about it and I'll be very weird


Portfolio:
glitchprismatic.com
BlueSky
sanguinarynovel.bsky.social
Ko-Fi
ko-fi.com/sanguinarynovel

cohostunionnews
@cohostunionnews

About three months ago I profiled the unionization of Miami University's faculty staff, which occurred right as Ohio Republicans began to consider Senate Bill 83. This particular hobby-horse of the far-right was significant to Miami's faculty because it would have totally banned faculty strikes—alongside a "[ban] mandatory diversity training, [requiring] certain American history courses, and [mandating] tenure evaluations based on if the educator showed 'bias or taught with bias'". But in a surprising development, pushback from Democratic lawmakers, university faculty, and organized labor made Ohio Republicans reconsider: despite passing the Senate in May, the bill was shelved and left out of the state budget in exchange for the House taking it up at a later date.

Unfortunately: instead of quietly dying, the bill is back as promised. It's expected to be a bit less extreme now, but that's not saying much. The Columbus Dispatch summarizes a number of the changes, and they're rather few and far between. The headline change—and the one most relevant to this blog—is a revision to the faculty strike ban: it is now expected to apply "only" to professors. How this will work with mixed unions such as FAM is unclear to me; it is also receiving the same pushback as the full faculty ban, so it is an open question of whether unions can get this provision nixed entirely.

But most of the rest of the bill is the same, and I'd be remiss to not also note that. There are only two other noteworthy changes: student/tenure evaluations are now weighted to "just" 25% of a professor's review instead of the previous 50% (questions on their bias remain); and mandatory DEI has now received one exception which is when it is "required for things like federal grant dollars or certifications needed for certain degrees". But it seems as if many of the worst components remain. Those are, among other things (and again according to the Dispatch):

increased oversight on partnerships with Chinese universities, mandatory history classes, changes to how boards of trustees work, post-tenure review requirements and a ban on higher institutions taking public positions on controversial issues [such as "climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion"]

The House is expected to take up the bill when the legislature returns from summer break, which as far as I can tell currently means September 27th. I would strongly encourage Ohio residents to get in touch with their local labor leaders and/or progressive and socialist groups about organizing a second wave of vehement opposition to this bill. It is unfortunately not likely that the bill can be stopped in its entirety—Ohio is a gerrymandered state and I should note the 2022 elections took place on illegal maps—but concessions may still be won, because they've already been won on this bill.


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