By Gongwer Staff
Posted: April 24, 2023 8:03 AM

An expansive measure focused on higher education issues likely will see an amendment containing several revisions in the coming weeks, according to its sponsor.

Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) said in an interview Friday a forthcoming omnibus amendment to his legislation (SB 83) will feature items ranging from technical "cleanups" and clarifications to "structural changes" but declined to comment on the details.

"We're still in discussions and having legal reviews of things and so on, so I don't want to be specific," he said.

Sen. Cirino, chair of the Senate Workforce & Higher Education Committee, said the amendment's language will be based on ongoing conversations with interested parties, not testimony from more than a hundred opponents who went before the panel in a marathon hearing Wednesday evening. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, April 19, 2023)

The lawmaker said he found comments from the majority of the speakers at that hearing, who argued against the legislation's ban on faculty strikes and mandated diversity training, among other provisions, "not terribly constructive."

"In some cases, some of the clowns that testified were rude and disrespectful to the committee, as opposed to asking for meetings or suggesting rewritten lines, that sort of thing," he said. "That's how I would have tried to persuade someone."

Sen. Cirino said he has not yet committed to a timeline for advancing the bill, which has been identified as a "big priority" by Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima), out of committee.

Sen. Huffman told reporters he expects the full chamber to take action on the proposal "in the next several weeks," adding that aspects of it could end up in the state operating budget (HB 33).

"Whether provisions of that end up as part of the budget? The answer is probably not if the House passes the bills, if it's substantially the same, if it's resolved that way," he said. "But if for whatever reason the House doesn't, then you know, certainly we would try to get some provisions of that in the budget."

Sen. Cirino noted multiple provisions in a prior wide-ranging higher education bill (SB135, 134th General Assembly) he led were included in the current operating budget (HB110, 134th General Assembly Assembly) ahead of the former also being signed into law.

The lawmaker said while he has not been polling House members on the proposal, he is confident it and a companion measure (HB 151) will be well received in the lower chamber.

"I sense that there's a lot of support in the House, but we'll see," he said.

Sen. Cirino's proposal drew fire from a fellow Lake County Republican on Friday.

County Commissioner John Plecnik wrote in a Columbus Dispatch guest column that SB83 is "a dumpster fire that threatens to incinerate free speech in higher education."

Mr. Plecnik, who is also an associate professor of law at Cleveland State University, reserved special criticism for a provision requiring state institutions of higher education to adopt post-tenure review policies.

"First, the institution of tenure and fair evaluations protect minority viewpoints, and we all know conservatives are in the tiny minority on campus," he wrote. "Senate Bill 83 would allow a liberal dean or administrator to use two years of below average reviews in any category as a pretext to discipline or fire a conservative professor. This will immediately silence our few remaining conservative faculty."

Sen. Cirino said Mr. Plecnik did not mention the piece at Thursday night's Lake County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner attended by both officials.

The lawmaker said he believed Mr. Plecnik's criticisms were more related to his position as faculty member than a Republican or elected official.

"I would lump him in with all of the folks who testified Wednesday night," Sen. Cirino said. "These are people that think that we're going after tenure. We're not. I am not."