Straws in the Wind - Part 29

From News5Cleveland: A controversial new Ohio higher education law banning diversity efforts, prohibiting faculty strikes and regulating classroom discussion takes this week. Ohio Senate Bill 1 [went] into effect [June 27].

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed S.B. 1 into law on March 28 after it quickly passed the House and Senate earlier this year. S.B. 1 creates post-tenure reviews, puts diversity scholarships at risk, sets rules around classroom discussion, and creates a retrenchment provision that blocks unions from negotiating on tenure, among other things. The law affects Ohio’s public universities and community colleges...

Some of Ohio’s public universities have started making decisions because of the new law. Ohio University announced it will close the Pride Center, the Women’s Center and the Multicultural Center. The University of Toledo is suspending nine undergraduate programs. Kent State University is closing its LGBTQ+ Center, Women’s Center and Student Multicultural Center...

Full story at https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/state/new-ohio-higher-education-law-banning-diversity-efforts-and-faculty-strikes-takes-effect-this-week.

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From the NY Times: The University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter. For the leader of one of the nation’s most prominent public universities to take such an extraordinary step demonstrates President Trump’s success in harnessing the investigative powers of the federal government to accomplish his administration’s policy goals.

The New York Times reported... that the Justice Department had demanded Mr. Ryan’s resignation as a condition to settle a civil rights investigation into the school’s diversity practices. In a letter sent on Thursday to the head of the board overseeing the university, Mr. Ryan said that he had planned to step down at the end of the next academic year but “given the circumstances and today’s conversations” he had decided, “with deep sadness,” to tender his resignation now, according to one of the people familiar with the matter who was briefed on the contents of the letter...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/politics/uva-president-resigns-jim-ryan-trump.html.