Outraged Ohio college students made it clear, Senate Bill 83 'irredeemable'| OSU student
Clovis Westlund is a second-year undergraduate student at Ohio State University studying public management, leadership, and policy and sociology.
Sen. Jerry Cirino, the primary sponsor for Senate Bill 83, said the proposed bill is designed for students’ benefit. He recently commented on a Columbus Dispatch opinion column saying that the “support for SB 83 is growing every day”.
I ask the senator — where is this growing support?
It was not visible on at the first public hearing for Senate Bill 83 open to opponent testimony, and it was certainly not visible among the students present.
Cirino’s inspiration for this legislation, which undermines the safety, support, and flourishing of marginalized students on Ohio campuses, is completely baseless.
From 4pm to 11:30pm, Cirino faced the might of Ohio students, themselves empowered by classrooms and campuses that establish diversity, equity, and inclusion as necessary and productive pillars of higher education.
An unprecedented number of testimonies were submitted to the Ohio Senate at this hearing. Nearly 120 of these testimonies came from students from across 12 Ohio higher education institutions.
The 70-person hearing room was packed with those waiting to testify, and the downstairs rotunda overflowed with further witnesses and advocates.
In the front row of the rotunda, students watched the testimony intently and edited their own to fill the holes left behind by previous witnesses’ arguments. They intended to break this bill down line by line and make it clear this bill is irredeemable.
The amazing thing about the general education curriculum, writing requirements, and electives at Ohio universities is that you learn to speak for yourself. You learn to put your energy to paper. You learn to oppose those that create harm.
Freshmen and sophomores from the University of Akron showed me their highlighted print-outs of all 39 pages of Senate Bill 83.
A car-full of juniors from Wright State University waited at the Statehouse until each and every one of them got the chance to speak.
Students from Kent State University waited with held-back tears until the final hour of testimony to speak to Cirino face-to-face, knowing full-well they had a two-hour drive home and class in the morning.
Droves of Ohio State students moved from their seats to the podium in sequential order to give members of the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee a taste of their outrage.
One Cleveland-area student sat in the back row, actively organizing a community dialogue on Senate Bill 83 on their campus. Undergraduate student government leaders spoke of a letter denouncing Senate Bill 83 and representing over 200,000 Ohio students.
Mind you, we show up with this energy and presence in the midst of finals.
Our primary responsibility is our education, but we can’t keep our focus when legislators want to uproot the classrooms and communities we hold dear.
If passed, Senate Bill 83 disrupts the arc of progress on our Ohio campuses. Joined by faculty, university staff, and advocates, Ohio students mobilized for their campuses and communities, as well as for higher education’s ability to nurture empowered citizenship.
After the final witness walked away from the podium, Senator Jerry Cirino addressed the room. He said, “you might not like me, you might not like the bill, but you can’t accuse me of not listening or not giving you time before the committee”.
Senator Cirino allowed us to voice our concerns on Senate Bill 83, but will he listen?
Clovis Westlund is a second-year undergraduate student at Ohio State University public management, leadership, and policy and sociology. Originally from Shaker Heights, Clovis is currently organizing on behalf of Honesty for Ohio Education to amplify Ohio student perspectives on the education policies most impacting them.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Why 116 outraged Ohio college students testified against Senate Bill 83| Opinion
