Case Study: the Attack on Higher Ed…and Fighting Back

As always, look to gerrymandered states as previews for what the far right will do at the federal level.

And with JD Vance declaring that universities and professors are the enemy, look no further than his home state for what they will do to higher ed everywhere. It’s called SB1, it was recently passed and was signed by the Governor…

…and it does the following:

• “Prohibits orientation and training courses regarding diversity equity and inclusion, the inclusion of DEI in any job descriptions and the continuation or establishment of DEI offices or departments.

• Expands the list of public employees who are prohibited from striking to include full-time faculty members among other categories;

• Requires that state universities eliminate any undergraduate degree program it offers if the institution confers an average of fewer than five degrees in that program annually over any three-year period.”

• Adds restrictions on the teaching of “controversial topics,” which include climate policies; electoral politics; foreign policy; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and issues; immigration policy; marriage; and others.

• Ends student scholarships that serve diversity and inclusion goals.

• And a number of other changes

Don’t let this simple bullet point list fool you. The repercussions of this bill are sweeping, and universities (partly out of fear of financial retribution) are already complying in advance.

In the video above, I talked with YSU professor and faculty union leader Mark Vopat—who is on Substack at

Labor Education & Diversity OH

—to discuss the repercussions of all these and other changes on Ohio’s public colleges and universities. It’s an eye-opening conversation.

And even thought the law just passed, the first dominoes are already falling:

• The Ohio State University, Ohio University and Miami University are already dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs;

• OU interpreted the vague/broad ban on DEI to include the cancellation of its Black Alumni Reunion and Celebrate Women 2025 events;

• The University of Toledo recently announced the cancellation of nine majors to be in compliance with SB1 requirements, including the following: Africana Studies, Disability Studies, Philosophy, Women’s and Gender Studies, Asian Studies, Data Analytics, Middle East Studies, Spanish and Religious Studies.

As you’ll see and hear in the video, these are just the beginning of the ramifications. We also explain how these and other changes strike at the heart of a modern, balanced education.

Help Fight Back

But, we aren’t just complaining.

At the end of the video, we call on you to take ACTION. Because Mark and a growing team of Ohio professors, students and others are doing all they can to REPEAL this odious law. Their effort is already underway (they crossed the initial hurdle of getting ballot language certified), and now need your help.

Bottom line: they need to gather approximately 250,000 valid signatures to get this on the ballot.

If you’re in Ohio, you can:

• sign up HERE to help gather petitions;

• find a petition to sign HERE;

If you’re anywhere in the country, you can help by contributing HERE to the petition-gathering effort. This is an all-volunteer effort, so your support pays for petitions and other associated costs.

Here’s a general website on the effort.

As always, we have two choices: do nothing as democracy and institutions such as higher ed are attacked, or fight back.

I applaud Mark and his colleagues for choosing to fight back (reminds me of the doctors who began the process that led to Issue 1). Help out if you can.

Day 174 — May 14, 2025

Again, I often caution folks to watch states as much as the federal government. That’s often where the most damage is being done—to democracy, rights and the rule of law. I dubbed statehouses, completely lacking in accountability, Laboratories of Autocracy. I’ve been reading early American history of late, and these places also remind me of the British Parliament that ruled the colonies from afar and fueled the American Revolution.

In the never-ending race to the bottom of these statehouses, Missouri’s stacks up as among the worst. For years now, gerrymandered Missouri politicians have simply thwarted the will of the Missouri voters by openly defying the results of referenda. This happened with Medicaid expansion (the voters voted for it, the politicians refused to fund it). It happened with gerrymandering (they ignored a ballot measure reform that passed and replaced it with their own that undid it). And now it’s happening again.

Yesterday, the Missouri legislature 1) repealed a paid sick leave law that the voters directly approved; and 2) voted to place an abortion ban on the Missouri ballot, only months after Missouri voters voted directly to protect abortion rights and reproductive freedom in the state constitution. To get there, Missouri Republicans “invoked a rarely used rule” to shut down debate and force the measures through.

According to the Missouri Independent, the new abortion referendum would, if passed:

1. repeal the brand new Constitutional right;

2. “reinstate several targeted regulations on abortion providers, or TRAP laws, that were recently struck down as unconstitutional by a Missouri judge”

And in true “Laboratory of Autocracy” fashion:

1. “If approved, the amendment would also require any legal challenges to the state law around reproductive health care be heard in Cole County. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office was recently unsuccessful in convincing the courts to move an ongoing legal battle between the state and Planned Parenthood from Jackson County to Cole County.”

2. “The language that could appear on each ballot does not mention the amendment would ban abortions.”

3. Gender transition surgeries and medications for gender transition, including puberty blockers, for children younger than 18, are already prohibited under Missouri law. But the same prohibition is also included in the proposed ballot measure—clearly intended as “ballot candy” to sway voters to vote “Yes” on the unmentioned abortion ban.

This would either be on the 2026 ballot, or sooner, if the Governor tries to create a special election.

Like I said—when it comes to Laboratories of Autocracy, Missouri is as bad as it gets.

To hear and learn more on all this, I will be talking with Jess Piper today at 11 a.m. on a Substack Live. Tune in .