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Op-Ed: I couldn’t teach college students truth if zombie bill passes.
End the Zombie Bill Once and For All
This Op-Ed first appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on February 5, 2025.
I couldn’t teach college students truth if zombie bill passes. It must die | Opinion
Pranav Jani | Guest Columnist
The Republican politicians who want to ban freedom of thought at Ohio colleges and universities are at it again.
On Jan. 22, as Statehouse police restricted the speech of protesting students, Sen. Jerry Cirino and his colleagues held a press conference to introduce Senate Bill 1 — attempting to revive the unpopular Senate Bill 83, which died in December 2024.
What was SB 83? Why was it so unpopular?
SB 83 purported to restore “intellectual diversity” to Ohio’s universities. In reality, SB 83 was a classic example of Big Government overreach, seeking to control and limit what faculty teach in classrooms, restrict equal opportunity for students of all backgrounds and to take basic rights away from faculty unions.
As I argued in a Dispatch op-ed when it was introduced in March 2023, SB 83 is best understood as part of a larger…
