A Republican lawmaker said she wants to ban Ohio public universities from asking for prospective students’ preferred pronouns on college applications because, she claims, that could indicate their political ideology and possibly affect their admission.
State Rep. Gail Pavliga, R-Portage County, recently introduced House Bill 686, which would also prohibit a public university from asking a job candidate their preferred pronoun on an employee application. Ohio has 14 public universities.
“There is no need for a university to require this information, it is clearly not a sufficient indicator of someone’s college readiness,” Pavliga said in her sponsor testimony at a recent Ohio House Higher Education Committee meeting. “So why should it be included in our applications? Providing an optional field for pronoun usage outrightly distinguishes groups based on their political ideology.”
Anecdotally, she said she has talked to many young Republicans who said they don’t fill out pronoun questions on applications.
“Those who do not respond to the pronoun prompt are much more likely to lean right on a political spectrum and those who do answer the prompt are much more likely to lean left on a political spectrum,” Pavliga said. “Applicants should not be declined admission based on their political ideology, yet without this bill that is a strong reality.”
H.B. 686 addresses bias in higher education, she said.
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“We are trying to assess the readiness of an individual, whether it be for employment at the university or for admission as a student,” Pavliga said. “The usage of a pronoun really provides no indication of that readiness or that qualification.”
State Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna, said people generally prefer to be addressed in the way they identify and said there is sometimes confusion around her name, causing her to sometimes receive correspondence addressed to her as Mr. Piccolantonio.
“Beyond the issue of bias, do you think that there is any purpose to making sure that when we address people, that we’re addressing them in the way that they actually live in the world?” she asked.
Pavliga responded by saying although a person’s preferred pronoun wouldn’t be asked on the application, she said nothing in H.B. 686 would prohibit a question from being asked about a person’s preferred pronouns at any other time.
The Common App, an online portal many students use to apply to several colleges and universities, has an optional pronoun question. More than 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide use the Common App as part of the application process — including 13 of Ohio’s public universities. Northeast Ohio Medical University does not use the Common App.
“I am sure if some of the biggest colleges in the country request for the field to be deactivated for their institution, that wouldn’t be a problem,” Pavliga said.
Even though the bill is introduced by a Republican, Higher Education Committee Chair Rep. Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., said H.B. 686 isn’t a Democrat or Republican bill.
“It’s a matter of choice and options on the applications,” he said.
Nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ young people said it would be helpful for the people in their lives to know about more pronouns, according to the Trevor Project’s 2023 survey of mental health.
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