TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – In a word, this is how University of Toledo student Antoine Washington felt about program cuts coming to the university as a result of Senate Bill 1.
“It was quite shocking,” Washington said.
The timing added to the shock, as the announcement came just one day before a panel planned by Washington and other students with UToledo’s Student Government Association
The topic? Senate Bill 1.
Coming off of one of UToledo’s first statements about how Ohio Senate Bill 1, a higher education reform bill, will impact the university community, Washington said he expected high attendance.
“Seeing those programs get cut, I think really caught their attention,” Washington said.
He was right. People packed the room to hear the three Ohio state representatives and one University of Toledo professor on the panel.
That professor was Renée Heberle, political science professor and co-director of UToledo’s Program in Law and Social Thought. Heberle noted many of the programs impacted by Senate Bill 1 are humanities, topics she said are central to the university’s mission.
“It’s not lack of student interest, it’s lack of public support for the capacity of the university to sustain these programs,” Heberle said.
Republican State Representative from Sylvania Township, Josh Williams, was also on the panel. He said undergraduate degree program suspensions were tied to the number of graduates produced in a certain timeframe.“
That clause in Senate Bill 1 has nothing to do with a particular subject matter or a particular viewpoint,” Rep. Williams said.
He said the reasoning for the cuts was purely fiscal.
“There’s a state share of costs that comes to the taxpayer, so we do have oversight of what happens at our universities,” Rep. Williams said.
Panelists and Democratic State Representatives Erika White (Springfield Township) and Elgin Rogers Jr. (Toledo) said it should be up to the universities to decide.
“Academic freedom means you have offerings for people to be able to choose,” White said. “And it’s not about how many people are enrolled, it’s about offering courses that match with the people that want to come to your university.”
While UToledo announced these cuts this week, Ohio Senate Bill 1 will officially take effect this summer.
Washington said he hopes to better understand what the future holds for his university and Senate Bill 1.
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This article was published by WTVG on 2025-04-23 00:16:00
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