Ohio Conference AAUP

05/26/2026

Higher education should be affordable and accessible. It's more than a private investment—it’s a public good that benefits society as a whole.

Some Ohio legislators are hoping to close the distance toward higher education by offering tuition-free access to public institutions.

HB 854 would levy an income tax on people earning more than $500,00 a year. The program would offer free four-year tuition, or eight semesters, to in-state students to any state school.

When colleges and universities are viewed as public goods, their purpose extends beyond job training or corporate profit. They exist to strengthen society as a whole.

An educated public:
• strengthens democracy and civic engagement
• drives cultural, scientific, and economic progress
• creates more equitable opportunities across communities

That’s why public investment matters. Historically, public universities in Ohio were built to uplift communities and expand opportunity—not saddle individuals with lifelong debt.

But over the past few decades, Ohio's legislators and policy makers have increasingly treated college as a private commodity.

The result? Rising tuition, massive student debt, and the assumption that students alone should bear the cost because only they benefit.

The reality is different: society benefits when education is accessible, affordable, and treated as a shared public responsibility.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — An Ohio bill would tax the state’s wealthiest residents to provide tuition-free college. Introduced by Reps. Munira Abdullahi (D-Columbus) and Tristan Rader (D-L…

05/01/2026

A great “May Day” option for our friends in Central Ohio. Here are some details to keep in mind if you plan to attend…

— We plan to line up at 12 p.m. on High Street at 15th as we gather to promote higher education as a public good.

— Please wear red or AAUP swag if you have it. We’ll have a small amount of t-shirts and signs but we encourage you to bring your own signs.

— OSU has adopted very restrictive policies in their effort to silence students and faculty. Things like amplified sound, including bullhorns, are prohibited on OSU property.

As such, we plan to meet on public property. However, police and administrators have been eager to shut down all spaces of free speech and attendees should keep this in mind.

We simply want to celebrate May Day and will try our best to de-escalate situations with police. But, OSU has been very aggressive in its efforts to silence students and faculty.

— At 1 p.m., we will have a faculty led campus tour, stopping
at important sites for labor and social justice struggles on campus. All are welcome.

Please, please, please keep in mind that we will have to abide by all OSU space and noise policies during the campus tour.

04/03/2026

It might be a big weekend for the "Final Four" but it's also an important time for our "Final Five."

We heard from so many of you during our Facebook Retrenchment Race to the Bottom-- asking what you can do about these policies, looking for contact information for the various boards of trustees, sharing your experiences with retrenchment...

The information wasn't the easiest to find. But, you have a right to make your voice heard on this and other issues impacting higher education. So we did a little digging for that information and have made it available on our website. Get the link in the comments below. AAUP Wright State University Save the University of Akron from the BOT Akron-AAUP

03/25/2026

The bracket is tightening as we are down to the last five schools in the 2026 RETRENCHMENT RACE TO THE BOTTOM.

There is no Cinderella story for these schools. They've made it this far because their retrenchment policies are terrible--no respect for faculty, no recognition of rank or tenure, and giving politically-appointed bureaucrats absolute power over the process.

Sadly, it's students that stand to lose the most because of the erosion of tenure, rejection of academic freedom, and potential disruption to their educations at these schools.

So it is with much disappointment that the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors announces a five-way tie in the RETRENCMENT RACE TO THE BOTTOM. In alphabetical order they are:

1. CENTRAL STATE UNIVERSITY
2. UNIVERSITY OF AKRON
3. UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO
4. WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY
5. YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Scroll through these images to see why these universities are the biggest losers in the retrenchment policy competition. Akron-AAUP AAUP Wright State University

**If you're upset that the whole bracket--just like retrenchment-- is busted, be sure to check back tomorrow to learn what you can do to make your voice heard on this important issue.

03/24/2026

As we move on to the next group knocked out of the Worst Retrenchment Policy bracket, you'll see some commonalities in their policies. Check out all the images and you'll see that these schools' post SB 1 retrenchment policies still honor rank and tenure.

What does that mean in practice? If a university is invoking retrenchment for a true financial exigency or emergency, they want to keep their top faculty. That means there is an order to which types of positions are eliminated. These schools have retrenchment policies that show some level of respect for the expertise and instructional success of top and tenured faculty.

So even though these schools are better than the worst-- and most didn't drastically change their retrenchment policies-- you will see how before SB 1, retrenchment was truly reserved for financial emergency. Now, thanks to SB 1, retrenchment has been weaponized. It's a tool universities and boards of trustees can use use to acquiesce to powerful politicians' ideology, special interests and big donors. **Don't forget, politicians appoint the trustees that make these decisions.**

Sadly, the impact to students is not part of the equation in the post SB 1 world. And if politicians have there way with HB 698, even these schools are likely to fold to mounting pressure to use Ohio's public higher education system to promote political agendas.

So kudos to University of Cincinnati Chapter of the AAUP AAUP AAUP and AAUP for standing strong on retrenchment provisions.

03/24/2026

It might be March Madness time with folks watching their brackets and hoping their team comes out on top.

But, we're going the opposite way. We have to--because, quite frankly, politicians are passing laws that are harmful to Ohio's public colleges and universities and it's creating a race to the bottom.

So without further ado--here's the first round of schools that didn't even make it to the big dance. Remember, in the worst retrenchment policy competition, you don't want to advance.

Miami University, Ohio University, and Ohio State University are out of the running in OCAAUP's race to the bottom--simply because they didn't have "Pre SB 1" collectively bargained retrenchment policies. They're out on a technicality but that doesn't mean their retrenchment policies aren't destrucFaculty Alliance of Miami - AAUP AAUP-Ohio State United Academics of Ohio University - UAOU

03/24/2026

Let's quickly revisit the concept of "retrenchment" and how SB 1 opened the door for this destructive, and historically rare--action to become the norm in Ohio.

First, SB 1 took away faculty collective bargaining rights. So now universities can use retrenchment to terminate professors as a way to "give in" to powerful special interests, big donors, and even politicians. Boards of trustees, who are appointed by politicians, can abuse their retrenchment power to terminate top faculty members who are nationally recognized experts in their field when there has been no wrong doing and no due process. Bureaucrats don't need to consider a faculty members value to the program, unique expertise, whether that faculty member is critical to the curriculum or ability to sustain a major, student evaluations, or peer evaluations.

In the end it's the student that lose-not just faculty members--when politically appointed bureaucrats decide to use retrenchment to satisfy the whims of those who keep them in power, special interests, and big donors.

Students' academic programs and majors can disappear, they lose their advisors, and the academic reputation of the school and specific programs take a big hit.

03/23/2026

Going to be a big week here at AAUP Ohio! We've spent the last few days taking a look at the fallacy of retrenchment, how it harms students, and lowers the quality of education they receive. Now, we get to share what we've uncovered.

Stay tuned this week to find out who has the worst retrenchment policies--and what you can do to combat them at your university...assuming they made the list.

Big hint--the combo of bad retrenchment policies and board of trustee overreach is such a widespread problem in Ohio, there may be more than one university that wins the race to the bottom.

Check back tomorrow as we start to reveal the winners and loser!

03/23/2026

Retrenchment is destructive. Everyone loses but students are the most harmed....and, Ohio politicians are making it easier than ever to do this.

SB 1, passed in 2025, and HB 698, pending, greatly expand the authority of bureaucrats and non-experts to use retrenchment in ways that hurt students and reduce the quality of education.

Faculty are already a minority of total full-time positions. When boards of trustees retrench faculty, students get even less classroom education and academic support for their tuition dollars.

Retrenchment means less access to full-time faculty who are RECOGNIZED EXPERTS IN THEIR MAJOR, who MENTOR STUDENTS, GIVE THEM CAREER ADVICE, and who HELP CONNECT THEM WITH JOBS in their fields. It's not uncommon for students to leave a university when retrenchment causes their programs to be cut or their majors to be eliminated.

So, WHO TEACHES THE STUDENTS THAT STAY? Full time faculty are replaced with part-time and adjunct faculty who are often less available to help students.

It's not a situation that part-time or adjunct faculty want. They simply have no choice. Wages are very low and, as contingent workers, most adjunct faculty don't have access to benefits like health insurance. By necessity, adjunct faculty have other full-time jobs or they have to also teach at other universities--not campuses--but other completely different schools. As a result, adjunct faculty usually aren't on campus outside of class times or very limited office hours.

It's easy to see how students and educational quality suffer as a result of retrenchment at Ohio's public colleges and universities. So, does any good come from all the bad associated with faculty retrenchment? The answer to that is quite simply NO.

Because faculty compensation is just a fraction of the budget, real cost-cutting can only happen when high paid administrators and bureaucratic bloat are addressed.

Administrators already outnumber faculty 3:1. Retrenchment only widens that gap and allows students to fall through the cracks.

So what does retrenchment accomplish? Boards of trustees and administrations can use retrenchment to control and silence faculty and pour more money into non-academic entities.

Retrenchment is a road to the destruction of higher ed. And unfortunately, it's a path that Ohio has chosen to take.

03/22/2026

RETRENCHMENT IS DESTRUCTIVE. It hurts students, an institution's academic reputation, and won't solve budget problems in the long run. That's why historically it was rarely used.

Retrenchment has never been and should not be used as a standard tool to manage budgets and staffing. It was always reserved for true emergencies like financial exigency.

Let's be clear. Financial exigency is not just simple budget adjustments--it is only supposed to be triggered when there is a severe documented financial crisis such as sustained, long-term enrollment drops that threaten the university's ability to continue to operate. Retrenchment is a last resort, following other cost saving measures.

The fallacy of retrenchment--or cutting faculty--is that FACULTY WHO TEACH AND RESEARCH PRODUCE MOST OF THE REVENUE AT OHIO'S COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. They do this while their compensation is less than 25% of Ohio's public college and university budgets.

Why then have Ohio politicians passed laws that encourage boards of trustees to retrench faculty--all while administrator positions and salaries have been skyrocketing? We'll share our thoughts on that soon---and those politicians probably won't like it.

In the meantime, check out our website for more information about the fallacy of retrenchment: https://ocaaup.org/uncategorized/the-fallacy-of-retrenchment/