Ohio state senators have decided that attempting to regulate what goes on in Ohio college and university classrooms is an unwieldy and impossible task for a legislative body like itself to assume. Earlier this year, Republican senator Larry Mumper introduced a David Horowitz-inspired academic bill of rights that would have forbidden professors from using their classrooms to cast opinion as fact or to raise politically loaded topics unrelated to the course. After much debate and criticism, the senate did not adopt the bill, but instead worked with the Inter-University Council of Ohio to create a resolution urging schools to respect the diverse beliefs of students and faculty, and to avoid judging them on the basis of their politics. The resolution is expected to pass next month. If it does, state schools will be charged with implementing grievance procedures for students and faculty who feel they have been penalized for their politics. (Columbia University is implementing such procedures now as a result of last year's notorious investigation of its Middle East Studies department for bias and intimidation.)

Mumper says he likes the compromise better than his bill. State senator Joy Padgett, who chairs the Education Committee, supports the compromise as a pragmatic means of avoiding unenforceable, potentially abusable legislation while at the same time sending a message in a way schools are more likely to accept: "I thought there was some validity to the issue, but if we pass it as legislation, it would be difficult to control and implement."

As a former state legislative staffer, I'm inclined to mention that turning a substantive bill into a resolution is one of many face-saving ways to effectively kill it. A resolution does not carry the force of law: it merely states a legislative opinion.

"Mumper says he likes the compromise better than his bill."

Then he's an idiot, because the "compromise," in reality, amounts to the status quo plus a bit of pointless bloviating that no one will ever read again. As the bill sponsor, one might think that actually accomplishing something would be a little higher on his list of priorities.

Hopefully this will give students the motivation to place the defense in their rights into their own hands and not a piece of paper that would be only marginally enforceable. Combine the ABoR with FERPA and an administrator who feels that grading on “dispositions” is academic freedom and you don’t have squat. Gimme a student body who knows their rights (ala the Fire Guides) and how to call a press conference over feel-good legislation any day of the week.