Oxford Councilor Alex French said it’s particularly important for councils of towns connected to universities to “express the depth of harm that a bill like SB83 could cause to a community like ours.” French noted that unattractive regulations on Ohio campuses might have an adverse affect on college towns.
“For better or worse, Miami (University) is a significant part of our town population (and) of our economy and if students choose to go elsewhere, we lose that; and I don’t know how we make that back,” French said.
French was joined in opposition by the rest of her colleagues, who raised their own concerns with the bill, including Councilor David Prytherch, who said, “I really come back to the economics of this.”
“Students can go to colleges in any one of the 50 states and internationally, and if we make Ohio an unattractive place for people to come, they will go to other states,” Prytherch said. “I think we have to speak up because Miami’s livelihood is our livelihood, and SB83 is bad for education, it’s bad for college towns, it’s bad for Ohio, and we gotta speak up.”
Councilor Amber Franklin, Ph.D., an associate professor at Miami University’s department of speech pathology, submitted opposition testimony to the bill a few weeks ago. In it, Franklin wrote about her concerns regarding national accreditors who have updated their accreditation standards to mandate that programs incorporate diversity and equity training.
“If these programs cannot comply with accreditation standards — because of this disastrous bill — their accreditation will be at risk,” Franklin wrote, citing major investment toward new university buildings that will house the speech pathology and audiology program on campus. “Why would our state invest so mightily in health science programs that lead to stable and secure jobs, only to pass legislation that would jeopardize their accreditation status and diminish their national reputation?”
Mayor William Snavely characterized the bill as an assault on academic freedom and as an assault on Oxford itself.
In Snavely’s prognostication, an enacted SB83 would lead to an exodus of faculty, particularly the university’s top faculty, as they would have the most options to leave. “When we’re trying to attract new faculty, who’s going to come here in the state of Ohio?” Snavely added.
“We shouldn’t have to do resolutions like this against something that heinous,” Snavely said after the resolution passed unanimously. “I’m afraid there will be more.”
Assistant City Manager Jessica Greene told the Journal-News that the council forwards resolutions like these onto state legislators as “a way to let them know what the city of Oxford values and believes in.”
SB83 awaits a vote out of committee at the statehouse.
“Miami University is reviewing the legislation and working with legislators and the Inter-University Council of Ohio — an association that includes Ohio’s 14 public universities — to determine how Senate Bill No. 83 and House Bill No. 151 would affect the university and those that we serve,” said Miami Spokeswoman Alecia Lipton.
Staff Writer Michael Clark contributed to this report.
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