Smith Condemns Passage of Senate Bill 83

Today, state Senator Kent Smith (D-Euclid) issued the following statement after the Ohio Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 83, the highly controversial “Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act.”

“In my nine years as a member of the Ohio General Assembly, I have never had a constituent say to me, 'Please go to Columbus and weaken Ohio's world-class university system,'” said Smith. “Yet that is exactly what Senate Bill 83 would do if it becomes law.”

Among a litany of changes to Ohio’s higher education laws, S.B. 83 would prohibit all higher education employees from striking and ban institutions from having mandated diversity, equity and inclusion programs. It also would bar colleges and universities from endorsing or opposing as an institution any controversial beliefs, policies, specified concepts or specified ideologies.

According to U.S. News and World Report, Ohio has seven universities in the top 150 in the nation. Only California (15), Florida (8) and North Carolina (8) have more.

"Senate Bill 83 is a broadside attack on higher education and the worst attack on academic freedom that Ohio has ever seen," said Smith. "Within the bill are multiple egregious provisions including eliminating the right to strike for all higher education employees; barring institutions from having mandated diversity, equity and inclusion programs and training; and censoring free speech in our colleges and universities. This bill will shortchange our students, undermine our higher education faculty and staff and diminish our state's position as a global leader in higher education."

More than 300 Ohioans and organizations, including the American Association of University Professors Ohio Conference and Ohio Education Association, submitted testimony in opposition to S.B. 83 while it was receiving hearings in the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee.

Critics have argued the legislation is an unnecessary infringement upon the principles of free speech and academic freedom that will discourage prospective students from attending colleges and universities in Ohio and professors from seeking employment at these institutions.

S.B. 83 now goes to the House for consideration, where its companion legislation, House Bill 151, received its second hearing today.