For years, conservative politicians have lamented that public schools are being corrupted by what they call “divisive concepts” and what the rest of the world calls historically accurate information.
It began with a call to end critical race theory and continues as books about subjects such as race and sexual orientation are ripped from the shelves of school and classroom libraries in Florida.
Now, the autonomy of all public universities in Ohio is being threatened by the introduction of Senate Bill 83 in the Ohio Legislature. This bill would require Ohio higher education institutions to include certain verbiage in their mission statements, including the following:
“The institution affirms that its duty is to ensure that no aspect of life at the institution, within or outside the classroom, requires, favors, disfavors, or prohibits speech or action to support any political, social, or religious belief.”
More specifically, universities would have to alter their classes to exclude the following (and more) and not allow student organizations pertaining to:
- Controversial belief or policy, or “any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including issues such as climate change, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion.”
- Specified concept, or “a concept such as allyship, diversity, social justice, sustainability, systematic racism, gender identity, equity, or inclusion.”
- Specified ideology, or “any ideology that classifies individuals within identity groups, divides identity groups into oppressed and oppressors, and prescribes advantages, disadvantages, or segregation based upon identity group membership.”
Essentially, learning about slavery, about the forced removal of Native Americans and other systemic inequalities will not be allowed. Along with this, mandatory training programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, would be prohibited at public universities, all under the guise of “intellectual diversity.”
Classrooms should be a place where students can explore various ideas without considering specific ideological boundaries. However, they should be fully informed on the aspects of history that are multi-faceted and frequently buried by mainstream, whitewashed history. This way, they can make a clearer decision.
Senate Bill 83 would be a massive overstep on the part of the government into the classroom. It would allow government censorship of academic topics in a way that pushes boundaries in how great of a role the government can play in education. It affects not only specific sections of many classes, but threatens entire departments, such as African American Studies and Women and Gender Studies.
Ohio University students deserve the highest quality education for the amount of money they are paying to go to school here. Higher education is expensive, and students should receive as much information as they can at school as opposed to letting the government dictate what they learn for them.
The world is much more complex than one-sided history. To adequately equip college students for the realities of the world they are about to step into, they must understand how it all came to be.
I encourage everybody reading this article to take a look at Senate Bill 83 linked above and make up their own minds. If you are also concerned, please call your senator and encourage them to vote no.
Megan Diehl is a sophomore studying journalism. Please note that the views expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Megan? Email her md396520@ohio.edu.
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