Youngstown Daily Legal News

Professors endorse revised bill seeking to improve quality of education

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 2, 2017

First launched as an overhaul of current tenure practices at Ohio public universities, a legislative measure before House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee has morphed into a study of the state's undergraduate instruction.

The revised House Bill 66, now, directs the Chancellor of the Ohio Education to organize a group to study and evaluate each state university's contribution to the undergraduate mission.

"Students are entitled to receive full value for their investment in both their university and their education," the bill begins. "The undergraduate mission can be successfully fulfilled only through student exposure to the most experienced, accomplished talents available at the university in each field offering undergraduate coursework."

The yearlong study, however, will include review of university efforts to ensure tenured faculty members participate in the undergraduate mission through face-to-face interaction with undergraduate students.

Retired professor and former dean of Engineering, Nursing, Science and Business at Cedarville University Stanley Baczek offered committee members background relevant to HB 66.

"On March 22, 2011, a report from Inside Higher Education, entitled 'A Heavier Load in Ohio,' exposed a proposal included in Gov. Kasich's budget that mandated that professors at Ohio's public institutions teach one additional course every two years," Baczek detailed. "This action was fueled by the notion that tenured faculty have a comfortable life; that they typically have light teaching loads leading to the need to hire part-time faculty, or adjuncts.

"This in turn increases teaching costs. It also implied that students are denied education from the best professors and are taught by adjuncts."

Noting the proposal was met with resistance at the time, the retired professor said there was no real follow up to the plan's implications - no study to define the problem.

"The citizens of Ohio, especially those paying for a state funded education have a right to the best college education that the state can offer," Baczek explained. "Establishing a committee to evaluate each state university's efforts to secure participation in the undergraduate mission by the university's tenured faculty members is a reasonable step toward fulfilling the objective of the committee.

"The study has the potential to reveal strengths and weaknesses of current tenure processes at public universities within the state. Adapting best practices will strengthen these processes."

Ohio State University Distinguished Professor of Economics Richard Vedder, though supportive of the revised measure's aim, cautioned lawmakers that the mandate may prove difficult.

"Even if a good idea, (it) is very tricky business," Vedder offered in testimony. "HB 66 deals with that by proposing a commission of largely university personnel to come up with ideas on nudging universities to give full attention to undergraduate learning in ways that are effective, not excessively costly, nor intrusive on the ability of institutions to innovate and try new approaches to disseminating knowledge, ideas, and creative endeavors."

Joel Hughes, a psychology professor at Kent State, offered his rationale behind support of the bill.

"This legislation recognizes and provides an opportunity to document the importance of tenured research faculty to the undergraduate mission of the university," he wrote. "Establishing a committee is preferred to legislating workload policy, as was proposed in the initial version of the bill."

Vedder offered a final bit of advice to lawmakers as they proceed with the measure.

"Care should be taken so that any commission is not perceived as fiercely partisan," he said. "The issues are not Republican or Democratic, but relate to good governance and use of public funds.

"Credibility would be enhanced if non-politicians served as members, that is to say that appointees by the speaker or the Senate president be citizens who are not holders of public office."

HB 66 would apply to University of Akron, Bowling Green State University, Central State University, University of Cincinnati, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Miami University, Ohio University, Ohio State University, Shawnee State University, University of Toledo, Wright State University, and Youngstown State University.

As of publication, the bill had not been scheduled for a further hearing.

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