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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Just three people' took on Ohio education law — and sparked a movement
Some Ohio colleges and universities fell in line before Senate Bill 1, the 'Advance Ohio Higher Education Act,' even passed through the state legislature. And when it finally did in March, it had a chilling effect. Universities shirked diversity, equity and inclusion programs to comply, and the silence from once-outspoken opponents was striking. Those early signs of kowtowing were bad indicators that the members of Youngstown State University's faculty union just couldn't get behind. 'There was such passion against SB 1 whenever it was being pushed through the legislature, so why isn't that passion still there?' Mandy Fehlbaum, a sociologist and the grievance chair for YSU's chapter of the Ohio Education Association, recalled wondering in a phone interview. 'Some people were saying, 'Oh well, we worked so hard. Now we're tired, and we just have to accept it.' And like, no, we don't have to accept it.' So they set out to reverse it. While other education unions are weighing legal action to overturn the law, which aims to overhaul the state's higher education system, Fehlbaum, YSU-OEA president Mark Vopat and union spokesperson Cryshanna Jackson Leftwich chose to go political. They began an effort in April to get a referendum on the November ballot, starting with gathering signatures from the 1,000 registered Ohio voters necessary to have their petition certified to the secretary of state. They collected over 6,200 signatures from registered voters in just over a week and certified the petition in early May. Now, the petition committee is taking on its greater challenge: gathering more than 250,000 signatures in at least 44 of the state's 88 counties by June 25 — just two days before the law is set to take effect. If their grassroots cause is successful, the law will be paused until Ohioans vote in the general election on whether SB 1 remains law or is ultimately repealed. 'There were three of us that said we are fed up, three individuals… who said, 'We want to do the right thing, and we want to do something,'' Jackson Leftwich, who also serves as a political science professor at YSU, told Salon. Sometimes you just have to do something, she added. 'You can stop or fight against [something] — and you might not always win, but you can make your voice heard. You can have some opposition. You can give these people some pushback to make them think twice.' Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill into law on March 28, less than 48 hours after it hit his desk. The legislation, a 42-page revival of previous legislation taken from model bills devised by the conservative National Association of Scholars, implements regulations on classroom discussions on 'controversial beliefs,' including climate policy, marriage, immigration and electoral politics. It also strikes diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies and scholarships as well as related spending; prohibits faculty strikes; and blocks unions from negotiating tenure among other provisions. Proponents of the bill, including Republican sponsor state Sen. Jerry Cirino, argue that it enhances freedom of speech and academic freedom, promotes intellectual diversity, and 'installs a number of other worthwhile provisions,' including establishing post-tenure periodic review and banning political and ideological litmus tests in hiring, promotions and admissions decisions. 'Our Founders treasured diversity of thought so highly they made free speech our very first guaranteed right,' Cirino said in a January news release announcing the bill's introduction. 'It's time to bring that right back to campus.' But that's where the petition committee's qualms come in. They argue the legislation is actually a censorship bill, replete with union-busting measures and a vague maze of anti-DEI stipulations that stymie students' access to social support, financial resources and needed accommodations. Meanwhile, course regulations said to bolster diversity in thought place professors in a confusing bind over the content they can teach and problematic ideas they must entertain in class. 'Students who want to hold views like, 'Slavery was good,' — I shouldn't have to take class time to seriously entertain certain ideas like that,' Vopat, a philosophy professor , told Salon. Vopat, Fehlbaum and Jackson Leftwich also flagged other glaring issues. The law, they argued, effectively ends tenure by folding tenure policy into the purview of each public institution's board of trustees. Plus, it requires the inclusion of a question about whether a professor creates an unbiased classroom environment on student evaluations, the answer to which they fear could spur investigations into faculty as the law regulates discussion of controversial subjects. Altogether, they say the law has the potential to drive students away from Ohio's public universities. 'This bill... at least in my experience, in my 20-plus years at Youngstown State and higher ed, it just dismantles what higher ed's supposed to be,' Vopat added in a phone interview. It makes the university into a business where profit is king and faculty are 'just replaceable.' The term-limited governor's signature began a 90-day timeline for any interested Ohioan to launch an effort to challenge the legislation. After consulting with other education unions and hearing nothing about a ballot referendum in the works, Vopat, Jackson Leftwich and Fehlbaum — with the support of YSU-OEA's executive committee — decided that they would be the ones to take up the charge. Their effort felt like a race against time, one that Vopat said they knew from the beginning they wouldn't be able to win alone. They drafted the initial petition language, had it reviewed by a former YSU student-turned-lawyer and sent calls out to their network of unions to set the process in motion. As more and more people requested access to it, their work to certify the petition to stay SB 1 and get the law on the ballot gained momentum. In just 10 days, they obtained 6,253 signatures across 423 part-petitions, according to the Ohio SB 1 petition website. While Vopat said he initially pegged the ballot referendum a 'long shot' and a 'Hail Mary,' he now regrets that characterization. 'Now, I think we're actually in the game, like there's time, because once we announced, we've had a huge groundswell of support. I mean, it was shocking how many people,' Vopat told Salon. Since their petition was certified on May 5, the group has secured a cohort of more than 1,500 volunteers statewide to help with signature gathering and garnered the backing of more than a dozen organizations, including Blue Ohio, Indivisible and the Ohio Democratic House Caucus. They've also fundraised just under $40,000 and founded the Labor, Education, and Diversity ballot issue political action committee to support the referendum effort. All of the money they've raised thus far goes toward materials, mainly printing the 18,000 petitions and counting currently in circulation across the state. While Fehlbaum said the process has presented a 'steep learning curve' — relying on volunteer help, navigating the particulars of scanning each copy of the petition and starting a PAC for the first time — she, Vopat and Jackson Leftwich have been blown away by the support their effort has received from Ohioans thus far. Fehlbaum, who leads the petition committee's outreach and organizing arm, declined to share exactly how many signatures they've collected since certification because the organizers don't want the numbers to encourage their opposition to push harder. Fehlbaum did say, however, that they've collected signatures in 82 of Ohio's 88 counties — blowing one of the requirements out of the water — and saw huge returns from Memorial Day weekend. Pride events throughout June and Juneteenth present other ripe signature-gathering opportunities they hope to capitalize on. 'It's an uphill battle for sure,' Fehlbaum said, describing the challenge of informing voters about the bill and their petition. 'We realize we are underdogs in this, but we are doing our best to put a concerted effort there, and I think that it's very feasible we'll be able to do it.'Ohio's public academic institutions have been rolling out changes to comply with the law as the state closes in on the deadline for SB 1 to take effect. Much to the dismay of its students and faculty, Ohio State University was ahead of the curve, announcing diversity office closures and staffing cuts in February in compliance with federal directives to slash DEI programs and in preparation for a then-progressing SB 1. In late April, the University of Toledo discontinued nine undergraduate majors — including Africana studies, Asian studies, disability studies, Spanish and Women's and Gender Studies — to adhere to SB 1's low conferral rate requirements. Ohio University also announced a week later that it was sunsetting its Division of Diversity and Inclusion, which housed its Women, Pride and Multicultural Centers, and established six working groups to implement the law's new requirements. The southeastern Ohio institution also generated backlash when it paused a Black Alumni Reunion event in an apparent reaction to the bill. Jackson Leftwich, Vopat and Fehlbaum see these changes in a broader context. The state's upending of Ohio colleges through SB 1, they said, is a microcosm of the Trump administration's battle against higher education, cowing public and private universities into compliance with anti-DEI, anti-immigration and anti-protest measures or slashing funding from institutions that refuse. 'If the federal level held strong, then the state couldn't get away with it, because people could file federal lawsuits against the state,' Jackson Leftwich said. 'But the state sees the weakness in the federal government, and so they're like, 'We can get away with doing the wrong thing.'' But Vopat said he also sees possibilities for nationwide change in that connection. He hopes that seeing their effort to protect higher education — no matter how successful it ends up — will show other Americans that they have the power to fight back, too. 'I'm hoping that people realize that there is a chance that you can do this, that there are other people who feel the same way — that things have gone too far — and [that] we need to pull back and stop some of these things that are happening, not only in Ohio, but in Florida, Indiana, other places across the country.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
South Range softball knocks off Champion in extra innings
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – South Range has ended Champion's playoff run for the third straight season with a 1-0 victory in extra innings in the Division V Regional Semifinals on Wednesday. A throwing error by Champion at the top of the 9th provided the game's only run. Watch the video above for highlights and post game interviews. Both starting pitchers were outstanding in the circle at YSU's Covelli Sports Complex. South Range was led by junior Ashley Rupert. She threw nine scoreless innings and allowed only one hit. Champion senior and Penn State recruit Gabby Gradishar recorded 18 strikeouts and allowed three hits. The Raiders, who finished as the Division III State Runner-Up last season, improve to 22-9 overall this year. They will now advance to play the winner of LaBrae and Akron Manchester in the Division V Regional Championship on Friday. Champion's season comes to an end with an overall record of 20-6. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Valley native now college coach opens basketball clinic
BROOKFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) – Brookfield native and current University of Findlay men's assistant basketball coach Nate Smoot is opening two youth basketball clinics over the next week. The first clinic is on May 24 and the second is on May 31. Both clinics are at Brookfield Middle School. Boys and girls ranging from grades 5 through 12 are invited. Admission is $25 for each session. The session for grades 5 through 7 will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m, and the session for grades 8 through 12 will take from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Working the camp with Smoot will be former YSU men's basketball star-turned professional player Brandon Rush, and current Division I College of the Holy Cross player Will Alijancic. Smoot said more players and coaches will be added to help with the workouts. The Valley native graduated from Brookfield in 2018 and played both varsity basketball and golf. Smoot graduated from YSU in 2023, where he spent time as a student assistant and volunteer graduate assistant on the men's basketball team. Findlay men's basketball is a Division II program in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. The Oilers finished last season at 24-5 and were the number one seed entering the Great Midwest Men's Basketball Championship. Reach out to Smoot at 330-979-1506 to reserve a spot. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Conductor ready to pass baton for community band
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The Youngstown Area Community Concert Band has been performing around the Valley since 1984. It's the final season for the conductor, who's been around for all but six of them. Joe Pelligrini remembers taking the baton in 1990 and giving his first signal for the band to start playing.'And when I gave that down beat, the sound was just incredibly good, and I knew I was going to enjoy conducting this group of people,' he said. Pelligrini has hung around, and this will be his 35th and final season. He enjoys piecing together the summer season schedule. This is his last chance to visit the big venues, Austintown and Boardman parks, YSU and Stambaugh Auditorium — and conduct while being out in front of the band.'As a musician and as a conductor, you just get so much enjoyment from the performance, from the audience. And it's, it's just a wonderful thing,' Pelligrini said. He is excited that 'Broadway Classics' is the theme for his final round of performances. There are around 65 band members, including some who have been playing since the band's first show in 1984. 'You know the old saying, practice makes perfect. It's practice makes better, and you continually get better,' Pelligrini said. All of the band's concerts are free. Pelligrini is proud of its annual Holiday Concert of Giving, which raised $4,000 in December, bringing its total over $60,000 donated to Second Harvest. The band's biggest strength lies right in the name. 'It's a community band. It's made up of members of the community all over several counties, and they perform for the community,' Pelligrini said. The band's summer schedule will be an emotional run. Pelligrini knows his final concert will be December 21. 'I'm looking forward to this year, but I don't want it to go by too quickly,' he said. The Younstown Area Community Concert Band has already started interviews to find Pelligrini's replacement. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cafaro Foundation donates millions toward YSU Kilcawley Center renovation
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — The Cafaro Foundation has jumped to the top of a growing donor list Thursday with a $3 million donation to the Kilcawley Centered on the Future campaign. Kilcawley Center closed Monday, just after graduation weekend, for the start of renovations, which are expected to take more than two years to complete. Some updates include a new black-box theater, a revamped Chestnut Room for large gatherings, flexible meeting rooms, a new dining area, and indoor and outdoor areas. The project is anticipated to come with a $50 million price tag, covered by loans and aided by donations that keep coming. This donation puts the Cafaro family into YSU's highest notable giving society, the Penguin Pinnacle, which accounts for contributions to the university from donors of $5 million or greater. 'We are thankful and deeply grateful for the Cafaro family's continued support of our university,' said YSU President Bill Johnson. 'This gift reflects their dedication to YSU's student community and further acknowledges their belief in the critical role YSU plays in the social, cultural, and economic vitality of our region.' The Cafaros' support for YSU dates to the 1960s. William M. Cafaro was a key advocate for Youngstown University becoming a state public university in 1968. He also was one of the founders and one of the first board members of the YSU Foundation. Other significant contributors include former university president Jim Tressel and his wife Ellen, alumnus Dr. George Young, The Hynes Finnegan Foundations, Board of Trustees member Joe Kerola and his wife Pam, The John S. and Doris M. Andrews Memorial Fund, and more. YSU's website includes a breakdown of the project, a timeline of what will be closed when and where offices have been relocated. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to
