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Jilly_in_VA

(9,854 posts)
Mon Jun 5, 2023, 01:10 PM Jun 2023

Ohio Staters Grapple With Bill That Stifles Climate Speech

DAN GEARINO

Keely Fisher chose to pursue her Ph.D. at Ohio State University because she wanted to learn about climate change from a world-class faculty. Now one year into her program, she wonders if she belongs here.

The problem has nothing to do with Ohio State and everything to do with the Ohio General Assembly and a proposal that would regulate higher education. The wide-ranging bill includes a provision that designates climate policy as a “controversial belief or policy” and says faculty must “encourage students to reach their own conclusions about all controversial beliefs or policies and shall not seek to inculcate any social, political, or religious point of view.”

“Is this going to force me to leave?” Fisher asked, interviewed at the school’s main library.

She came to Ohio to be part of the university’s School of Environment and Natural Resources and worries that the bill, if it becomes law, would hurt her program’s ability to recruit students and faculty, and would introduce uncertainty into the classroom about how climate change can be discussed. If the proposal had been law when she was deciding where to enroll, it would have steered her to a different university, she said.

The bill is an example of a national trend of Republican-led states seeking to rein in what they see as runaway liberal politics in higher education—a sentiment that threatens to undermine the rigor and accuracy of teaching about arguably the greatest threat to the environment and economy.

“You can say gravity isn’t true, but if you step off the cliff, you’re going down,” said Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist who teaches at Texas Tech University and a well-known writer and commentator about climate change and responding to climate denial. “And if you teach other people that gravity is not true, you are morally responsible for anything that happens to them if they make decisions based on the information you provided.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/ohio-state-bill-campus-climate-speech/

This is ridiculous in the extreme.
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Ohio Staters Grapple With Bill That Stifles Climate Speech (Original Post) Jilly_in_VA Jun 2023 OP
OK, it is ON now! EYESORE 9001 Jun 2023 #1
I see they support the 1st amendment. Fine bunch of patriots. republianmushroom Jun 2023 #2

EYESORE 9001

(25,812 posts)
1. OK, it is ON now!
Mon Jun 5, 2023, 01:25 PM
Jun 2023

I wasn’t going to get involved with specific issues or causes until fully retiring, but this is the straw that breaks my 🐫 back. Right now, the most important issue IMO is preventing repuQs from passing a measure to require a supermajority of 60% to approve constitutional amendments - a direct assault upon democracy itself.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/06/ohios-fight-over-state-issue-1-is-part-of-a-larger-national-battle-over-ballot-issues.html

I’ll be communicating whatever I find about this starting shortly. Please, pick up this story and disseminate it far & wide. This would be a body blow to democracy - one likely to be repeated elsewhere.

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