Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy sparked conversation – and pushback – early in the midterm campaign when he floated the idea of consolidating some of Ohio’s 14 public universities amid declining enrollment as a way to save the state money.
The attention lingered, even though Ramaswamy downplayed the plans during the remainder of the campaign.
Now, Republican State Sen. Jerry Cirino, the architect of 2025’s controversial and sweeping higher education law known as Senate Bill 1, believes discussions about remaking the state’s colleges and universities should continue.
“We’re either going to react to it when things get really bad, or we can get ahead of the curve a little bit, be proactive and make changes into how we deliver post-secondary education in Ohio,” he told Signal Statewide this week.
But, he said, he doesn’t know “precisely” what potential consolidation efforts could look like or if the issue will be a priority for Democratic Gov.-elect Amy Acton’s administration. Acton vowed to “fight to protect our public universities” in a rebuttal to Ramaswamy on the campaign trail.
No related legislation has been introduced in Columbus. Any that gets proposed in the future will now happen in a more divided legislative environment.
Beginning in January, Republicans will no longer have a supermajority in the Ohio House. That means they lack the votes to override vetoes from the governor and will have to win over Democrats to pass some legislation. Both chambers will need to agree on final versions of any bill before it becomes law.
“Passing legislation on higher education is going to be a little bit more challenging,” Cirino said.
Cirino eyes community colleges, regional campuses as potential consolidation opportunities
Cirino said Ramaswamy wasn’t the first politician to bring up consolidation. The longtime senator said he’s also talked about it with the state’s chancellor of higher education and fellow lawmakers.
That’s because, he said, Ohio’s higher education footprint – one that largely expanded in the 1960s – doesn’t reflect its current reality. The state is producing fewer high school graduates. Workforce needs are shifting.
It’s why Cirino said the state’s universities need to transform now, “regardless of who the governor is, regardless of who’s campaigning and promising whatever.”
He said a reimagined higher education system could take many forms. He broadly pointed to the state’s 22 community colleges and 24 regional university branch campuses as one area to look at, though he didn’t name any institution specifically.
“Are there consolidation opportunities there to change programs, to reduce administrative bloat, which we have a lot of in our universities, and maybe get rid of some footprint?” he asked.
Many public campuses are filled with older facilities that are costly to repair or replace. Those updates come as most institutions are already facing financial challenges, including a declining share of institutions’ budgets coming from state funding.
Cirino acknowledged that any type of big consolidation would take money. He also said there needs to be “concerted effort and direction and support” across both parties as well as from university leaders.
“We need a roadmap of what our university system is going to look like, what our community colleges are going to look like and how they interact with each other,” he said.
Consolidation plan continues to draw criticism
The leader of Ohio’s largest faculty union called the consolidation conversation “a dead discussion, as it should be.”
Jennifer Tisone Price, executive director of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors, said closing campuses would have a big impact on Ohio’s workforce. Universities are often among a city’s and region’s biggest employers.
“I don’t think there was ever any support for his idea from those who understand Ohio, higher education, or economics,” she wrote in an email to Signal Statewide.
And Brian Weinblatt, the founder of the higher education consulting firm HCS Strategy, said he doubts any university leaders started making real plans based on Ramaswamy’s proposals.
“Institutions are very reluctant,” Weinblatt said in an interview with Signal Statewide. “They don’t like when you have politicians and others telling them what they need to do.”
Weinblatt’s group works with institutions on mergers and related moves. He’s also an Ohio native and University of Toledo graduate. He points to his alma mater’s 2006 merger with the Medical University of Ohio as one that he said worked well. That’s because it stemmed from institutions coming together themselves versus obeying a political mandate, he said.
“It’s that whole notion of having something done to you or having something done by you,” he said.
How Ohio’s public universities could work together in the future
Weinblatt said Ramaswamy’s loss could now shift the conversation from one centered on how many universities the state operates in total to how the existing ones can better work together.
There’s already a track record of examples – to varying degrees – across the state.
Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) opened in the 1970s as a medical school for Kent State University, the University of Akron and Youngstown State University. Leaders at Cleveland State University and UA explored potentially merging the institutions’ law schools in 2020, though the plan eventually fizzled out.
Ohio State University’s regional campus in Newark has shared resources with Central Ohio Technical College for 55 years.
The state’s universities also collaborate through a shared lobbying group. The Inter-University Council kicked off a joint campaign touting the benefits of all of the state’s universities – calling them “independent and distinct, yet united” – earlier this year.
