The Faculty Senate voted to oppose the Ohio Senate bill outlining students’ rights, saying it would restrict academic freedom.

The Faculty Senate approved a motion to oppose the Ohio Senate Bill 24. The bill’s lack of clarity and misleading intent violates academic freedom, said Faculty Senate Secretary Mary Stansbury.

The bill discourages the introduction of controversial issues unrelated to course topics by faculty into the classroom. While President Carol Cartwright said this bill is likely to fail, it is still an important issue to the university community.

The university’s current policy serves students’ rights better than the proposed bill, Stansbury said. The motion to oppose the bill passed unanimously.

Issues such as college realignments and LER requirements continued through the bureaucratic system as the floor opened to new proposals.

The budget continues to be a high priority for the university, Cartwright said. Many two-year universities have been receiving greater increases in funding than four-year ones because their enrollment has been increasing at faster rates.

Focusing the university’s energies toward student success will create a positive outcome for all, Cartwright said, by promoting academic achievement while increasing the number of students enrolled at the university.

“We can enhance our funding base through enrollment and retention,” Cartwright said.

Issues passed during the Educational Policies Council meeting in January were brought before and passed by the Faculty Senate:

– Revision of university LERs to coordinate with state requirements.

– Establishment of the Global Management Center in the College of Business Administration and Graduate School of Management.

– Moving the schools of Exercise, Leisure and Sport; Family and Consumer Studies; and Speech Pathology and Audiology from the College of Fine and Professional Arts to create the College and Graduate School of Education and Health and Human Services. This new college will also include the departments of Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies; Adult, Counseling, Health, and Vocational Education; and Educational Foundations and Special Services.

– Within the nursing graduate program, establishment of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse practitioner program.

Contact academics reporter Rachel Abbey at [email protected].