YSU chapter of Ohio Education Association votes to support referendum on SB 1

The Youngstown State University's chapter of the Ohio Education Association (OEA) has voted in support of a statewide referendum of Senate Bill 1.

Members of the YSU-OEA voted 93% in support of the referendum effort on Sunday, May 11.

“YSU faculty clearly see SB 1 for what it is,” said YSU-OEA president Mark Vopat . “It is an attack on our collective bargaining rights, it will micromanage student learning, and it will eliminate scholarship opportunities for women and minorities.”

Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 1 into office on March 28. The bill eliminates DEI programs, limits campus speech, bans faculty strikes and restricts collective bargaining rights for faculty unions.

“Faculty at Youngstown State understand how damaging this union-busting bill is for our university and for higher education across the state,” Vopat said.

Ohio law states that to get a referendum on a newly passed bill, one must get at least 1,000 valid signatures from registered voters among many other things before getting another 250,000 signatures from across half of Ohio's counties.

YSU-OEA was able to get 6,000 signatures in just 11 days and got the language of the petition approved by Attorney General Yost and State Secretary Frank LaRose.

The Labor Education and Diversity (LEAD) Ohio PAC was formed and leads the signature campaign happening statewide. Signatures are expected to be collected by June 25 just two days before the bills implementation.

“SB 1 has always been a solution in search of a problem,” Vopat said.