A Northeast Ohio lawmaker has reintroduced a bill to combat what he calls wokeness on college campuses.

Local immigration advocates want law enforcement to refuse to aid deportations and races for statewide office in 2026 are taking shape after Jon Husted is sworn in to the U.S. Senate.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for joining us.

As he promised to do, Republican State Senator Jerry Serino of Kirtland has reintroduced a bill that seeks to overhaul higher education, addressing what he and colleagues call liberal bias.

Local immigration advocates have asked county sheriffs and other law enforcement to refuse requests to aid in federal deportation efforts ordered by the Trump administration.

Ohio's attorney general, though, wants locals to comply and wants to outlaw sanctuary cities.

With Jon Husted now in the U.S. Senate, who takes his place as lieutenant governor?

And how does Houston's move impact the upcoming governor's race?

And Cleveland State University is cutting three of its athletic teams.

Joining me for the roundtable from Ideastream, Public Media reporters Anna Huntsman and Matt Richmond in Columbus.

Statehouse News bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

Republican State Senator Gerry Serino of Kirtland has reintroduced his bill aimed at combating what he calls liberal bias.

Wokeness in higher education.

Serrano's bill, which stalled in the last session, would outlaw most diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Now the bill is known as Senate Bill one, and Serino has restored some of the provisions that were stripped out of SB 83 before it languished.

Serino expected to move quickly through the state House.

And Karen, this is what I was talking about by the fangs.

There were a couple of provisions that were taken out after introduction.

One of them was that faculty could not strike.

Another was involving some of the D-I programs.

Those are back.

Right.

And this is not a surprise to see him come back.

He said several times he would bring this back.

He would not be willing to make those concessions.

And a reintroduction of a bill that didn't pass in the last session is pretty typical as well.

But this one, of course, being that it's Senate Bill one, has gotten a lot of attention because, as he said, it's a top priority for the Senate and it does ban most diversity, equity and inclusion or D-I programs with some federal grant exemptions.

The ban on faculty strikes, shorter trustee terms, a performance review for faculty, including those who have tenure, and a ban on universities taking public positions on controversial issues.

So there's a lot in here.

It does add one new thing, though.

It adds that there is going to be a review by the chancellor of the possibility of three year bachelor's degrees for some courses of study.

It's interesting that DEA is being targeted in this instance.

We've been hearing news now in the first week of the Trump presidency about DEA programs being canceled for federal contractors.

It seems as though it's it's obviously a target that DEA programs are not favored by the current administration.

However, it's part of the culture in some organizations, not just doing it because there is a federal law or something of that nature, but they find the value in it.

What about these colleges and universities?

And will we see some sort of a loggerheads between what Serino wants to dictate and what the universities and colleges think are good for their student body?

Well, Serino and I talked to him for our TV show, the State of Ohio this week.

He has said that he has met with the university trustees.

He says some universities have already started making changes.

He says the federal ban on D-I programs could be involved here in some way, but he doesn't think it's going to be a problem.

And he also made a comment that if indeed universities refuse to comply, if the law passes, then the legislature has what he called the power of the purse.

And he said the legislature's always had that power to go ahead and start pulling back on funding state funding for universities.

But he said this was really intended to be a red flag warning for universities that they need to follow the law should it pass.

Also, as part of this, there's a threat to tenure right now.

When a professor reaches tenure, they're essentially protected in their job.

He'd like that to end, right?

Yeah.

The performance review process for faculty, including those with tenure.

The performance review process also includes an element of student evaluations.

And so this is really concerning for faculty.

And faculty have been pushing back on this.

Unions are expected to push back on this, not only unions representing teachers and educators, but also unions representing other groups because they feel that this is an attack on collective bargaining and unions.

The bill includes some things that are not allowed to be included in union negotiations like this post tenure review and so it's it's concerning in at least those folks.

In addition to those things, there's there's curricula, there's all kinds of other issues.

What students will be taught, how controversial topics will be addressed, how the universities or colleges take positions on controversial policies.

A lot of this stuff seems a little squishy, like how do you how do you police that?

Well, there is a required civics course that includes American history, key foundational documents and the fundamentals of free market capitalism.

Now, already high school students are required to take that from a law that passed in the last session.

So there are opportunities for students to be exempt if they've somehow taking a college credit course on that.

But there's a real belief among the sponsors of this bill that studying that, studying those documents and studying that helps you no matter what your major is.

Though I did ask, well, if you're majoring in something where you don't feel that that is an appropriate or needed course, why should you have to take it?

But they they've pushed back and said this is important.

And also this comes as five so-called independent academic centers are civic centers have been set up at Cleveland State and Ohio State and three other public universities.

And these area these civic centers are intended for the study and research of constitutional issues.

When I looked at the people who've been appointed to the boards of those, overwhelmingly it's conservative scholars or people with conservative credit.

So you know, it's it's it's a Sabrina says it's a balance.

But it sure feels to some and certainly those who came and protested that this is pushing back in an unpleasant way.

So that's something I'd like to know about.

You said protests.

In addition to that, we have obviously members of the legislature who would be opposed to this.

So that all in the face of a change in leadership.

You now have Matt Huffman, who's leading the House and new leadership in the Senate as well.

What are the chances that this one goes through in general and to goes through with the restored provisions that were taking out taken out last session?

Well, I don't ever want to predict 100%, but this one is, I think, pretty close because you have a Senate president, Rob McAuley and House Speaker Matt Hoffman.

Both of them voted for Senate Bill 83 when it was in the Senate in the last session, and now they're leading those chambers.

So it seems likely that this will be pushed forward.

And I it was promised to be on a fast track this week.

I don't see a whole lot of opposition, even though there were hundreds of protesters last time around, people who came out and spoke and filed written testimony, who came in and demonstrated at the state house various times when the bill was being heard last session.

Serino says that they've listened to them and they've heard their concerns, but this bill is the one that's going forward.

You mentioned Matt Hoffman, who's leading the House and talking about whether this would be fast tracked.

One of the new provisions in the House is if they want to put it on the agenda, There is no 24 hour notice as there is now before a floor vote.

Hoffman says this is for efficiency.

Opponents say it rolls back transparency because you can talk about something on a Wednesday morning, put it up for vote on a Wednesday afternoon and the public doesn't have that time than it does now.

Usually it would be about a week to take a look at it and to muster some sort of response.

Yeah, I mean, the House rules are kind of inside baseball for a lot of folks because it doesn't feel like it affects people.

But this is the kind of thing that does because if you've got a piece of legislation you're watching and you want to come to the state house and protest or you want to make sure that your voice is heard.

This gives you a smaller window in which to do that.

Now, Hoffman says this is about timing and moving things forward, but certainly people who are opposed to legislation are going to be looking at this, saying this, this gives us less time.

One of the things I want to add, too, is the House has there have been several number of bills that have been filed in the House.

And House Bill six is this one the companion to Senate Bill one.

So, again, priority list bills.

It's near the top of both the House and Senate priorities.

And the board of trustees of Cleveland State University voted Thursday to cut three NCAA sports programs.

Gone are men's wrestling, women's golf and women's softball.

The cuts come as the university, like many institutions of higher education, wrestles with budget woes.

University President Laura Bloomberg said the school has no plans to sunset any of its more than two dozen other athletic or more than a dozen I'm sorry, more than a dozen other athletic programs.

The move comes as CSU has already laid off More than a dozen employees reached voluntary buyout agreements with more than 50 others.

They're trying to close a projected $40 million deficit by 2029.

It's tough times for colleges.

You've got to think athletic programs would be looked at if academic academic programs, as we've mentioned already, are being hit.

Right.

And this comes after a review that has been going on since 2023 of the athletic program they were that included athletic staff, the Cleveland community and other people.

So the university came out and said this was a tough, a difficult decision.

I'm sure any sport being cut is going to be, you know, really sad and and, you know, worrisome for many different students.

So it's just it is sad to see.

But as you mentioned, cuts are going to be expected in several different areas when you're looking at this kind of deficit.

My daughter, who played softball in high school, was incensed by this.

And so how can you think softball is something that you could cut and I was thinking about that.

They didn't say, why write these programs to cut?

But I imagine that there's not a whole lot of paying crowd to go to softball, wrestling and girls golf, perhaps even men's golf, perhaps, anyway.

And I don't know, I'm just speculating.

But maybe they're not getting a lot of interest from high school athletes.

It could be something like that perhaps.

I'm not really sure, because as you mentioned, they didn't say the reason.

And, you know, they did say they're going to be cut after this season.

So for all the hard working athletes, they can still keep going on for this season.

But, you know, it's more than a sport.

This is your community.

I'm sure your daughter was sharing that with you, too.

It's a it's a community.

It's your friends, it's your passion.

And so I can see where this would be really devastating.

Likely, though, a lot of those athletes will transfer.

They'll go to another place that'll be in the meanwhile, their scholarships are going to be honored, according to Cleveland State, and it's in the middle of the wrestling season this year.

So mostly tough, I think, on those athletes.

And one of the other.

Yeah, go ahead, please.

Yeah.

This is the kind of thing, though, that is also specifically laid out in Senate Bill one and House Bill six that cannot be included in union negotiations.

This idea of retrenchment, where colleges and universities can make changes to programs because they're they're dealing with financial issues or whatever.

That's not allowed to be part of union negotiations here.

And I think that's kind of important as universities have struggled with financial issues and President Trump has made it clear there will be mass deportations of immigrants who do not have legal status in the United States.

On Monday, he signed sweeping executive orders that declare a national emergency at the southern border, suspending refugee settlement.

Some immigration advocates are calling on county sheriffs to stand down, refuse to participate in mass deportations, which are prescribed.

Matt Trump says he'd need help from local authorities to pull off the mass deportations.

But the American Civil Liberties Union says don't do it.

Why?

Well, so in an article of Here on Ideastream, Abigail Botter spoke with Frida Levinson from the ACLU of Ohio.

And the point that she made is at first, you know, if you overstay a visa or you just found to be in the country without proper documentation, that's a civil charge.

And she's just saying that, you know, a sheriff or police department don't need to go in and enforce civil penalties.

And then beyond that, you know, I mean, nobody knows exactly how this is going to work.

But let's say that the federal government sends a list of people to a sheriff who they would like to have picked up to sort of start deportation proceedings.

I mean, the sheriffs and police department are in these communities and are they going to be expected to go and take parents out of houses and to kind of pick up community members and just sort of remove them?

It will have a negative effect on those communities and will likely, you know, lead to backlash among sheriffs and police departments.

That costs money, too, and it costs manpower who are being pulled away from other things.

It's another of the arguments and unfunded mandate.

Right?

Right.

Additionally, though, when I listen to the the officials from the Trump administration, they said it would be safer if cities will cooperate.

If people who are already in local jails, for example, are turned over, who are on the list for ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement that then they wouldn't have to go out into communities themselves, try to arrest somebody that's on the violent list.

And in doing so, they said, if you're also somebody who is not here with legal papers, even if you're not violent, you're going to like this will affect more people if you don't cooperate as a local community.

Yeah.

And I mean, they've they've done the sort of the program where they put where they asked for people in jails to be held for immigration purposes if they've been picked up for other crimes.

I mean, that's been going on for for a while and that just creates problems then for the local authorities because, you know, how long is the federal government want this person to be held on?

What charges?

Like are you just holding them for weeks while they sift through paperwork or maybe wall, you know, proceedings and in federal immigration court, you know, wind out.

So, you know, that also creates an expense.

And then, you know, the the local authorities have to explain why they're holding people and you can't just hold them indefinitely.

So that is also a complicated proposal.

Catherine, send us a note.

Kate, actually, this is why does this impact sheriffs but not police departments?

I think the request was for law enforcement in general, but specifically sheriffs.

I think in most of these cases, sheriffs are the ones employed to help because it's throughout an entire county.

Yeah, And usually sheriffs like these would be sort of like warrants.

Usually when a court issued a warrant to have somebody picked up that goes to the sheriff's department.

So it might be kind of, you know, building on that role.

Some cities in Ohio are acting like the ACLU wants the sheriffs to act and these other law enforcement by calling themselves sanctuary cities, saying they're not going to abide by these federal immigration laws.

Attorney General Dave Yost in Ohio, though, is looking to ban sanctuary cities, saying basically you don't get to choose what immigration laws you follow.

That's what the immigration law is.

You got to get in line.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, this is you know, this is tricky that they're there.

So, first of all, it's not again, it's not clear how this is going to play out.

What the federal government might might be asking local law enforcement to to to do.

So I think, you know, the ACLU is just kind of asking them to not to do whatever they're asked.

And, you know, I think there has been warnings from the from the Justice Department about not kind of standing up and saying that you're a sanctuary city, that you're going to disobey these orders.

So, you know, that probably won't won't happen this this time around.

So in addition to the attorney general trying to ban the sanctuary cities, the Justice Department is warning local governments that you've got to comply.

Yeah.

And and it sounded like there, you know, in addition to don't don't bother with these sanctuary city laws this this time around, you know, there's also requests for for information.

So for instance, if the federal government wants a list of kids in a school or looking to see if particular kids are going to schools, you know, the federal government saying the school officials should not get in the way of us kind of knowing who's who's there.

And if they do, the Justice Department directed its prosecutors to investigate state and local officials who hinder the crackdown on immigration.

So not just we want to outlaw it, but we're coming after you if you don't cooperate.

Yeah, And, you know, I mean, maybe that has to have a chilling effect.

So where there isn't this big movement and they are every county is not asking their sheriff to stand up and say, we don't believe in this.

I would be very surprised if the federal government started investigating, you know, local police departments for for these sorts of things.

But again, we have no idea what's going to happen.

Definitely keep on that story here at Ideastream and certainly NPR as well.

Jon Husted took the oath of office this week in the U.S. Senate, taking Vice President J.D.

Vance's old seat.

Governor Mike DeWine tapped his lieutenant governor for the Senate seat last week.

The move upends the forthcoming Ohio governor's campaign.

DeWine is term limited.

Husted had long been viewed as the likely successor at least candidate on the Republican side.

Karen, what happens now to the lieutenant governor position?

Does DeWine get to fill that, too?

And are there a lot of contenders?

Well, I will say that it's not nearly as anticipated.

And the the buzz around it isn't nearly as big as it was with the U.S. Senate race, though.

Somebody who was appointed lieutenant governor has a little bit of a leg up if they want to run statewide because they'll have that title, they'll be able to do that.

And so I think some of the contenders from the Senate list have fallen off, like Jane Timken, who we've mentioned earlier.

I think you mentioned it in the lead in that she has been appointed to the Ohio Senate.

But I think you're going to be looking more at people who maybe want to run statewide or maybe just want to fill out the position and move on.

I think a likely contender is Lydia Mihalic, who heads the Department of Development.

She's the former mayor of Finley.

I think that's there's a possibility there.

Other than that, you know, it's kind of up in the air.

Hmm.

Dave Yost made it official.

What we all knew yesterday is running for governor.

I don't know how anyone can signal anything more clearly before, again, getting in the news cycle.

Hey, by the way, it really I'm doing it.

But he's running for governor on the GOP side.

We also expect that Vivek Ramaswamy may run.

He's looking for that.

Obviously, somebody is now working with the Trump administration to reduce the size of government, the cost of government.

In addition to that, the Treasurer, Robert Sprague.

Any other names and what are we hearing otherwise in the Republican circles?

Well, I think it's been reported that Vivek Ramaswamy has actually left Doge and cutting the staff of that, the two person staff there and half, I guess, if you want to look at it that way.

Well, they hired their way.

They hired dozens and dozens of people.

I don't think they were getting it right.

They weren't getting paid, but it's still their numbers.

Yes.

So so he is reportedly left doge with the idea that he would run for governor.

We keep hearing about him.

He's not filing the paperwork yet, so we're waiting for that one there.

You got to give it to us, though.

I mean, he hinted and hinted and hinted and he got into the news cycle every time he hinted.

And so, you know, he kind of kind of got a a jump on this even before he officially announced.

I think Robert Sprague, the treasurer, he's filed some paperwork about indicating a statewide run.

I think those are the ones that we're looking at primarily.

I think there is another woman named Heather Hill who's in the race.

But yeah, that's it could potentially be a pretty crowded Republican primary.

What about Democrat?

We know Amy Acton, the former health director, has announced she's interested in running.

Who else?

That's a really good question.

I mean, certainly a lot of people are looking at people like Sherrod Brown, who has not ruled it out.

You talked to my colleague Joe Ingles.

I talked to Tim Ryan this week and that's for our TV show, the State of Ohio next week.

And he says that he's not ruling it out either, but he likes his life right now.

So, you know, Democrats, though, need to start thinking about who they want to put in these statewide executive offices, because it takes a lot of time to raise the money and get your name out there and time is ticking away.

I do want to say and I think everyone here would agree, I'm not ruling out running for either the Democratic or the Republican primary nod.

I'm not ruling it out.

Are you ruling it out, Matt?

No, And I've started fundraising hasn't moved in.

Are you really?

All the headlines are going to come out, Karen, you're not.

I am ruling it out.

Okay?

I'm not running for office.

Well, wait a minute.

With the person who rules it out is the one that's running.

So the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, Jane Timken, will be serving in the Ohio Senate after a high profile appointment.

Anna, we heard her name as a possible U.S. Senate appointee that obviously went to Jon Husted.

And now Jane Timken is going to be taking a state Senate seat.

Yes, And this is the 29th District.

And it is the so it covers most of Stark County, all of Canton.

And I think this is not overly surprising that she's following in the footsteps of Kirk Sherring, who represented that area for 30 years, was very well known in the community, very well liked among colleagues as well.

And Jane Timken, you know, she's kind of a it's not she's not really a rising star because she's kind of been on the up and up for a while.

But head of the Republican Party.

Exactly.

But I guess this is one of the more high profile positions that she's had in, you know, a legislative office.

And again, you know, very well known.

She was also very well-liked among Republicans.

You know, Republicans have done really well in Ohio since she was the chair starting around 2016.

So, yeah, again, especially for that area, no surprise, Karen, Frank Rose is not going to be a senator, not appointed in this instance.

We haven't heard his name in terms of running for governor.

Clearly, he's been positioning himself for the next step.

What is it?

That's a good question.

I mean, he's been active on Twitter praising other Republicans, praising President Trump.

So there may be a possibility that he's looking at some sort of appointment with the federal government.

But, yeah, he's one to watch.

And that's part of the issue here.

When you've got Republicans in every office and they're term limited.

At some point they have to leave that office and find another office to run for if they want to stay in elected office.

And so that's what we're seeing right now, is the kind of jockeying for position among state officials and statewide elected officers, because they're trying to figure out where is the next place that they're going to land.

And there there are a lot of openings, but there are more candidates than there are openings.

And you'd expect the governor's race to be crowded.

There's also a contest then for secretary of state.

Yeah, absolutely.

And this time we have two people so far involved.

We have a former state senator, Niraj Anthony, who is on the Republican side.

He left the Senate after his district was redrawn and a Democrat ended up winning his district.

He ran for Congress last year, came in 10th in an 11 person race.

But that once again shows you how crowded these primaries, these Republican primaries are, because the person who wins the primary tends to win the election.

And then on the Democratic side, a leukemia doctor from Cincinnati, Doctor Brian Hanley, is running.

He says he's running because he didn't like the way the secretary of state handled last year's redistricting amendment.

And so he wants to get involved.

So the Democrats have two two doctors on their ticket so far.

I think it's interesting.

And Ohio State University will celebrate its freshly minted national championship this Sunday with an event at the Horseshoe.

Karen, I think lives where you live at the 50 yard line.

No, but my son does.

Now he goes to Ohio State.

The gates open at 1030.

Your son, I'm sure, will be there.

Maybe he'll join them on Sunday.

Admission and parking are free, but it's first come first serve.

Governor DeWine, Coach Ryan day among the speakers.

The Buckeyes won the title Monday night defending defeating Notre Dame 34 to 23.

It should have been bigger.

It was a blowout.

It's the first title awarded under the newly expanded 12 team college playoffs and the ninth in program history.

And it wasn't a blowout.

It was a little bit of a nerve racking game, Karen.

It looked like it was going to be.

And then and then things got tight.

Yeah.

Notre Dame's real I mean, you know, it was not a given going into this game and it really had looked bad and we lost to Michigan, you know, And it's just amazing how we came back and people who believe the whole time could say that.

They believe the whole time.

But of course, everybody says that now, even though a lot of us didn't believe I wore my hat and where I was on a vacation, I'm not telling you where, although I was at the Truman Little White House.

If you can guess from that, then.

Hmm.

Hmm.

Okay.

So nobody knows.

Good.

Anyway, and I wear my hat.

That's just.

It's gray with red letters.

It says the and a few people got it.

Some people are like, What is this guy?

He's really interested in the article.

The one Monday on the Sound of Ideas on 80 97w KSU.

We'll bring you a recent City Club of Cleveland conversation moderated by ideas Dreams Marlene Harris Taylor on Cleveland's infant mortality rate and programs that have emerged to address the problem.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

And stay safe.