Effort to repeal ban on college DEI programs falls short

COLUMBUS (AP) — A petition drive seeking the repeal of a recent Ohio law banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs as well as faculty strikes at public colleges and universities has fallen short of the signatures needed to place it before voters, organizers announced Thursday. Surrounded by boxes of petitions, the organizers said they lacked the time and support to collect all 250,000 signatures needed to place a referendum on November's ballot seeking to overturn the bill, which makes several higher education policy changes including the ban on DEI programs. Absent those signatures, Senate Bill 1 is now free to become law on Friday, its initial effective date. The legislation cleared the GOP-led Legislature and was signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in March. Supporters say it will protect "intellectual diversity," including welcoming more conservative voices on campuses. Opponents of the legislation numbered in the thousands. Educators and students delivered hours of opposition testimony and staged protests at the Statehouse, decrying the measure as an anti-labor government encroachment on academic freedom. Besides eliminating DEI programs, the bill prohibits schools from endorsing or opposing any "controversial beliefs or topics," which it defines as anything related to climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, DEI programs, immigration policy, marriage or abortion. It also outlaws faculty strikes, eliminates the voting rights of student trustees at The Ohio State University, requires every Ohio college student to take a three-hour civics education course, and imposes dozens of other programmatic and administrative changes on the state's 14 public universities and 23 community colleges. Schools that violate the measure would risk losing their state funding.