Ohio college students and protesters rally at the Statehouse on March 19, 2025, against Senate Bill 1, a higher education overhaul that bans diversity efforts and faculty strikes, and sets rules around classroom discussion, among other things. (Photo by David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal.)
A group of Youngstown State University faculty members are trying to stop a massive Ohio higher education law by taking it to the voters.
Members of the Youngstown State University’s chapter of the Ohio Education Association are collecting signatures in the hopes of trying to get a referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 1 into law on March 28 which bans diversity efforts, regulates classroom discussion, prohibits faculty strikes, set rules around classroom discussion, creates post-tenure reviews, put diversity scholarships at risk, and creates a retrenchment provision that blocks unions from negotiating on tenure, among other things.
“After waiting for another organization or body to take up the lead on a state referendum, it became clear that no one was stepping forward,” the S.B. 1 State Referendum website said. “It was also clear that efforts prior to the passage of S.B. 1 were going largely ignored by the legislators."
S.B. 1, which affects Ohio’s public universities and community colleges, is set to take effect at the end of June. In the meantime, a referendum petition can be filed and the legislation would be paused.
The next step is to get an initial written petition signed by 1,000 registered Ohio voters submitted to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who must verify the number of valid signatures within 10 business days of receiving the petition. After that, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost must certify if he believes the petition summary is a “fair and truthful statement” of the law.
If those steps get approved, the signature gathering process can begin. The petitioners would need about 248,092 signatures — 6% of the total vote cast for governor during the last gubernatorial election. The signatures must be from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
“A state referendum is our last opportunity to make our legislature know that we do not want to destroy higher education in Ohio,” according to the S.B. 1 referendum website. “We want to retain collective bargaining rights for faculty.”
The last referendum that passed in Ohio was when voters overturned an anti-collective bargaining law in 2011.
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This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here.
