Yahoo Autos Ohio's chilling new pro-ignorance bill a threat that will drive off students
Lalitha Pamidigantam is Advocacy manager for YWCA Columbus.
Our state's senate has been active lately — taking after other states, introducing bills that would make Ohio a harder place to live and thrive for marginalized people.
In the latest attack on education, Sen. Jerry C. Cirino introduced Senate Bill 83, a comprehensive attack on higher education.
From prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings for university employees and students, to prohibiting collective bargaining, Senate Bill 83 is an attempt to radically skew oversight of higher education, truncate the self-leadership of Ohio’s universities and colleges, and shortchange the university experience.
The bill is in direct opposition to YWCA’ values and vision for a liberated future.
A direct threat
YWCA is a longstanding social justice agency.
Our mission — to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, dignity, and freedom for all — is why we oppose this bill.
Universities are where people go to explore ideas, ideologies, and have a free flow of thought and dialogue. Students enter university for the purpose of education and to gain a better understanding of themselves and the world around them. Higher education is often an economic driver, a catalyst for innovation, and propels the values of free speech, free thought, and active dialogue.
While university DEI programs are only one part of a continuum of resources and programming that contribute to student safety, university programs can attract highly talented students of historically marginalized identities by incorporating those practices into their administration and curricula.
On campus, marginalized students deserve spaces where they can feel safe.
Furthermore, this bill poses a direct threat to YWCA's vision of a more just and equitable society.
Our justice, equity, and belonging trainings benefit participants who want to better understand the historic and social context of our modern-day society. We train private, public, and nonprofit teams, while centering the margins, which allows companies to thrive in their approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
These practices are tools to build better relationships amongst attendees and impart an understanding about systemic and systematic racism, along with other forms of oppression. We are moving forward through the quagmire of racism, step by step, through training the public and advocating for the marginalized. Universities have long been an ally in this work.
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At university, students can expand their knowledge base, challenge predetermined — or yet unchallenged —assumptions, and debate amongst themselves and with faculty to sharpen their understanding of the world. Graduates frequently reflect the desire to create global positive changes that systemically reinforce social justice in the systems in which we live and work.
