Ohio college and university professors could be barred from teaching climate science without also including false or misleading objections under a sweeping higher education bill that was first introduced Wednesday.
Senate Bill 83or the Strengthening Higher Education Act, seeks to police classroom speech on a wide range of issues, including climate change, abortion, immigration and diversity, equity and inclusion — all of which would be labeled as “ controversial”.
On these and other issues, public colleges and universities must guarantee that faculty and staff will “encourage and allow students to reach their own conclusions” and “will not seek to instill any social, political or religious point of view”.
Colleges and universities that receive any state funding would be barred from requiring diversity, equity and inclusion education and would have to commit to “intellectual diversity” that includes “divergent and opposing perspectives on a wide range of public policy issues ».
The bill also includes provisions for annual reviews and reports, requirements for “intellectual diversity” when hiring guest speakers, disciplinary sanctions for interfering with that diversity, a ban on faculty strikes, and more.
Marginalizing debates
Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland and the primary sponsor of SB 83, said it was his idea to include climate change as a “controversial” belief or policy and that he “didn't really consult the climate people.”
“My agenda has been not to use this bill to influence energy policy,” Cirino said. However, he also said, “What I think is controversial is the different opinions that are out there about the extent of climate change and the solutions to trying to change climate change.”
Saying climate change is controversial is “simply wrong,” despite efforts to pretend otherwise, said Cyrus Taylor, a physics professor at Case Western Reserve University whose work focuses on climate science. “The science is absolutely clear.”
Advocates fear the legislation, if passed, would further hinder the state's progress on clean energy by marginalizing important debates on climate change and equity.
“The bill reinforces the privileges and inequities and inequities that we see in our energy policy system,” said Dion Mensah, energy justice fellow at the Ohio Environmental Council. The “ripple effects affect us all, especially in energy policy.”
Colleges and universities are exactly the places where teachers and students, including future policymakers, should be talking about social policies, clean energy and equitable solutions, Mensah said. In their view, this must include understanding the systemic racial and environmental injustice that has led to higher pollution burdens, higher energy loads, more health problems, and other disproportionate impacts on people of color, low-income communities, the disabled, and others historically underrepresented groups.
“By ignoring these stories, we are really setting ourselves up for building social policy that is not based on the truth, from the legacy of racism in this country,” Mensah said.
Cirino said nothing in SB 83 would prohibit teaching about climate change or other controversial topics. “It's that both sides of the equation need to be understood.”
But on climate change, the “both sides” arguments are often false or misleading propaganda from the fossil fuel industry and its allies.
“You'd be hard-pressed these days to find a legitimate climate scientist or environmentalist who says, 'I don't believe in climate change,'” said Steve Rissing, a professor emeritus at Ohio State University who teaches climate change in his biology classes. , including discussions on the role of methane, climate change news and more.
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reportreleased March 20, confirms “that climate change is real, it's human-caused, and it's going to have dire consequences,” Taylor said.
A chilling effect on teaching
Simply saying climate change is controversial in a state statute “will have a chilling effect,” said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education. Some faculty will likely avoid teaching about climate change science and solutions if they also have to present arguments they know lack evidence or are at risk of being overlooked by SB 83 review processes.
Another chilling effect will be to discourage talented faculty and students from coming to Ohio's colleges and universities, Taylor said. “What fools would come here if they weren't even allowed to teach what they work for?”
Limitations on diversity, equity and inclusion programs also mean students will not have an adequate foundation in cultural competency, Mensah said, referring to the skills necessary to understand and interact with people from different backgrounds.
Nor will they understand the underpinnings of ongoing injustices, “how some groups have always suffered more than others and to the benefit of others,” Mensah added. Without it, “we can't even begin to develop policy that is well informed.” The results will repeat what happened historically, “which makes it worse.”
“Equity issues around climate change are really, really important because there's no question it's going to hurt different communities differently,” Taylor said. And if these differences are not learned from and taken into account when developing policy solutions, society will “double down” on the status quo, leaving the most vulnerable communities to suffer even more.
Cirino said he and his staff wrote most of SB 83 with the help of legal counsel who put the bill in the right shape, based on his own research. He acknowledged that some concepts came from the National Association of Scholars. “It's not exactly a right-wing organization,” he said.
On March 22 statement from the organization praised Cirino for drawing ideas from a model higher education code she had drafted, adding that the group would be “delighted” to publicize SB 83 across the country.
The team was founded in 1987 and has a history contrary affirmative action programs and “keeping outside political influences from distorting teaching and learning on campuses,” according to DeSmog. A 2021 report from the organization is also critical of climate change being taught in elementary and high schools.
“The authors of the report are a nursing professor, someone with a master's degree in space science, and someone with a Ph.D. in history,” Branch noted.
“This is just a blatant power grab for education. Period,” said Sen. Kathryn Ingram, the minority member of the Workforce and Higher Education Committee, which assigned SB 83. The bill “talks about free speech, but everything here is against specific speech.”
Cirino gave sponsor testimony on SB 83 on March 23 at a packed committee hearing where some members of the public were ushered into an overflow room. He also chairs the committee and said he hopes to move the bill quickly.
