OHIO — Leaders in the higher education community are looking forward to speaking with the sponsor of the latest higher education reform bill.

Right now, higher education proponents want clarity on Senate Bill 135. So far, Bruce Johnson, the president of the Inter-University Council of Ohio, and Todd Jones, the president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said the bill appears to add up to micro-management and big government. 

Introduced just two weeks ago, it calls for a number of changes and more transparency. With heavy emphasis on public institutions, it includes adding a crime rate "ranking" for each campus and requiring four-year colleges and universities to partially refund tuition to students who didn't graduate. The refund would have to be used by the students to pursue a degree at a community college or career tech school.  

Johnson, who works with public colleges in the state, said the problem is that there isn't a refund to give.

“The state is taking on part of that cost. And so you have a tuition causing you usually to have some type of financial aid, and so you haven't paid for the cost of even that semester.”

But Sen. Jerry Cirino said a new formula has been created to make it possible for schools to provide the refunds. He believes that as money is given to alternative sites ​like community colleges, it would make schooling more affordable and offer Ohioans a second chance. 

Still, two big things in the bill don’t sit well with some lawmakers and school officials. Part of it is the ability for students to opt out of paying non-academic fees and limiting the chancellor’s ability to determine demand for degree programs. Jones believes limiting the chancellor’s current power could devalue degree programs.

“Take away the discretion from the chancellor to maintain quality for one sector, then it's going to spread to the others and all of a sudden, we're back to a situation where you rent a storefront, you call yourself a college, you say you award degrees and voila, you're offering engineering degrees or offering nursing degrees.”

He also said the bill seems to put less scrutiny on bachelor's degrees at community colleges than at four-year institutions, which Jones said would lower the bar. For Johnson, the bill on its face seems to discourage people from getting baccalaureate and master's degrees. 

“The concern is this bill sends the wrong message that universities are the wrong place to go, and cost too much," Johnson said.

However, Cirino sees the bill as a bold and innovative way to get people back into the workforce. Even so, Johnson’s biggest worry is the proposed reduction of academic fees collected each year to cover all activities, including athletics.

“I don't want to overreact or anything but my impression is it's the collapse of athletics in the state of Ohio and every institution except one,” Johnson said, referring to Ohio State. “As people understand that the Ohio State football program funds the entire Athletics Department. That doesn't happen on any other campus because they don't have 110,000 people attending, and television revenue."

So for students at any other school, Johnson said student athletes could end up footing the bill for coaching expenses. Plus, it could cut student leadership opportunities in any other campus clubs.

Regardless of the concerns, both legislators and higher education leaders now look forward to the upcoming debates surrounding the bill. The Ohio General Assembly is currently on break. Hearings on the higher reform bill are expected to begin sometime after legislators return.