The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
A new higher education law set to take effect this summer is causing high school students across the state to think twice about applying to Ohio colleges and universities.
Ohio State University used to be high on Nakshatra Mohan’s list of potential colleges, but not since Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 1 into law at the end of last month.
Mohan, a junior at Brecksville–Broadview Heights High School in Cuyahoga County, wants to be a doctor and no longer has any interest in going to medical school in Ohio.
“DEI and medical education has always been really important to having equitable doctors and equitable healthcare,” she said. “If that’s not the environment that I’m going to be in when I get to medical school, I don’t want to be here at all in Ohio.”
The new law will ban diversity efforts, regulate classroom discussion, prohibit faculty strikes, and regulate classroom discussion of “controversial” topics, among other things. The law applies to public universities and community colleges and is set to take effect in June.
Mohan is now looking into applying to Northwestern University and schools in Chicago and New York “ because they do have more liberal policies, especially with DEI,” she said.
Michelle Huang, a junior at Olentangy Liberty High School in Delaware County, still plans on applying to Ohio State, but admits she’s less motivated to attend. She is also thinking about applying to the University of Michigan and schools on the East and West coasts.
“It is just really daunting to see how much is being done against DEI and being done against systems that are put in place for a reason and that are helping us currently,” Huang said. “It’s just really disheartening to see this happen in Ohio.”
She wants to pursue political science and economics in college and eventually go to law school. Huang was one of the more than 1,500 people who submitted opponent testimonyagainst S.B. 1.
Claire Witalec, a freshman at Laurel School in Cuyahoga County, is curious to see how the new law will have changed higher education in Ohio by the time she starts applying to colleges in a couple of years.
“By the time I’m attending college, if views are being stifled in Ohio, I would definitely want to think about out-of-state options, but I think it really depends on how this bill evolves over the next few years,” she said.
Mayya Sharma, a sophomore at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Summit County, said she is curious to see how universities implement the new law and “how restrictive that might be.”
“Now that this bill is passed, it’s really pushed me to go to colleges and states that have more, kinder DEI policies,” Sharma said.
John O’Keefe, president of Ohio University’s American Association of University Professors chapter, thinks the new law will give students pause before applying to Ohio universities.
“This really sends a message to so many potential students that they’re not welcome and this is not a place for them,” he said.
