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Professors are not the enemy. Issue 1 will stop agenda pushed by JD Vance, GOP lawmakers. [1]
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Date: 2024-09-11
Gretchen McNamara
Guest Columnist
Gretchen McNamara is the president of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance's attempts to vilify Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as a “childless cat lady" have gotten headlines. But several of the U.S. senator from Ohio's other comments deserve more scrutiny and criticism.
Just in terms of higher education, Vance has invoked Richard Nixon’s assertion that, “The professors are the enemy,” and has applauded Hungary’s authoritarian takeover of higher education.
Vance, who has a short, yet disturbing history of attacking educators and educational institutions, has stated, “We have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.”
Such thinking is not only counter-productive, but potentially dangerous for all of us who work every day to provide high-quality education for Ohio’s young people.
Turning on their own educators
Like many others on the far-right who have benefited from higher education, Vance is a product of both a flagship public university and an elite university — Ohio State and Yale.
These extreme politicians want to convince regular citizens that educators are enemies and that the very institutions from which they themselves have benefited are evil.
They aim to undermine confidence in colleges and universities so that they not only can exacerbate the educational divide between the wealthy and working classes, but also so that they can attempt to exert partisan control over curriculum and even classroom discussions.
Vance isn't the only one attacking higher education
But the attacks on higher education certainly aren’t just a problem at the national level.
At the state level, in addition to decades of cuts and under-funding for postsecondary education, the gerrymandered legislature has pushed Ohio Senate Bill 83, a sweeping attack on higher education that threatens workers, would impede academic freedom and would gut important programs dedicated to student success.
Introduced in March of 2023 by State Sen. Jerry Cirino, SB 83 has rightfully faced enormous opposition.
There were more than 600 opponent testimonies submitted for SB 83 and its companion bill, House Bill 151, compared to about a dozen proponent testimonies. There have been hundreds of thousands of emails and calls to legislators asking them to reject the bill.
It is opposed not just by members of campus communities, but also the broader public, who see that SB 83 would undermine — not enhance — Ohio higher education, which is inextricably tied to workforce development and economic growth.
Cirino, Vance and other Opponents of higher education are far out of step with Ohio voters on this issue.
Throughout the legislative process on SB 83, my association, the American Association of University Professors, has offered to discuss our concerns with Cirino and other legislator in hopes of finding common ground. Each of our communications was met with silence.
We were able to make our concerns with the bill clear in our public testimonies, but there were no attempts to address them. It became evident that this was a politically-motivated bill, not one in which stakeholder input was seriously sought.
The bill is not representative of Ohio voters
Despite another push to get SB 83 over the finish line in June, the small group of lawmakers who attempted to demonstrate that the bill “had the votes” failed to get a majority of signatures on their letter that urged the bill to be brought to the House floor for a vote.
This was a good thing.
Nonetheless, the bill’s sponsor took this latest defeat as an opportunity not only to reiterate his unwillingness to discuss the bill further, but also to suggest that he will try to ram through an even worse version in a more favorable political environment. That response is deeply troubling and further demonstrates that this is about scoring political points and not at all about enhancing higher education.
This kind of legislative environment in which lawmakers are insulated from public opinion is made possible by gerrymandering.
We can help to solve this problem by voting yes on Issue 1 this November to end gerrymandering and to establish fair districts.
JD Vance and S.B. 83 are pieces in a broad, national, culture-war-fueled attack on higher education, and we will always fight back to preserve our rights and to maintain quality education for our students.
Vance — and the members of the Ohio legislature who appear to believe the same things about universities as he does — are wrong. Professors are not the enemy.
Let’s tone down the rhetoric, vote yes to the reforms necessary to create a more representative legislature and collaboratively work on solving problems in a way that is truly representative of Ohio.
Gretchen McNamara is the president of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2024/09/11/ohio-issue-1-jd-vance-ohio-senate-bill-83-jerry-cirino-higher-education-ohio-state/75093499007/
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