Ohio's public colleges, including Cleveland State University here, will see big changes if Senate Bill 1 becomes law. Credit: Jeff Haynes / Signal Cleveland

Ohio’s public colleges and universities will be required to do things they never have before if a sweeping higher education bill known as Senate Bill 1 becomes law. 

On Wednesday, the Ohio Senate officially signed off on some minor changes the Ohio House made to the bill last week. It now heads to Gov. Mike DeWine, who already signaled he will sign the bill into law.  

Supporters of this legislation say the changes are long overdue to combat what they see as a liberal bias on college campuses as well as discrimination resulting from diversity, equity and inclusion (or DEI) programs.

Critics have called some parts of the legislation too vague. One example: The legislation looks to ban that DEI work without actually defining what the term means.  

But a slew of other actions — from posting syllabi online to creating a publicly available database of speakers paid for appearances on campus — are explicitly spelled out in Senate Bill 1’s language. 

Senate Bill 1 means faculty must post class syllabi, outlines tenure review process  

Much attention focused on the legislation ending faculty members’ ability to strike, a relatively rare act. Yet the bill includes several specificities that’ll have a direct impact on educators’ professional lives each semester, including: 

  • Syllabi posting: Instructors will be required to post the professor’s course outline for each undergraduate class beginning in the 2026-27 school year. Each document must include what topics will be covered as well as any relevant readings. Instructors must also share their qualifications and contact information. Class meeting locations or times don’t have to be included. It’s the first time this type of requirement has been broadly implemented in Ohio.
  • Faculty evaluations: Annual student evaluations — already happening at most schools — now must include a question asking if the classroom atmosphere is free of political, racial, gender and religious bias.
  • Post-tenure review: Faculty members who earn tenure at their universities can only be fired for cause or under “extraordinary” circumstances. It’s a big part of academic life. Tenured professors in Ohio are already reviewed by their universities on a regular basis. 

Now, the bill calls for any educator receiving a “does not meet performance expectations” mark in the same category on an evaluation two years in a row to undergo an additional review process to prove they’re doing a good job. 

This process could also start if a university department head, dean or provost notes a “documented and sustained record of significant underperformance.” Ultimately, these reviews could result in “censure, remedial training, or for-cause termination, regardless of tenure status,” per the bill. 

Institutions to offer new civics course 

Some of the most sweeping changes the state’s two- and four-year institutions will need to make include eliminating DEI programs and related offices. There are also additional tasks institutions will need to complete under Senate Bill 1, such as: 

The bill requires a long list of mandatory readings, including the Declaration of Independence, at least five essays from the Federalist Papers and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Students who took a similar college-level course in high school or those who took a different American history or government class in college may be able to waive this requirement.  

  • Speaker transparency: Institutions will create a searchable online database of any speakers who were paid more than $500. Users will need to access this information in three clicks or less from a university’s main homepage. Some campus speakers have received public pushback in recent years. 
  • Five-year cost reports: Universities will produce new comprehensive reports outlining their five-year costs for lawmakers to consider ahead of the state’s operating and capital improvement budgets. These detailed reports will focus on costs related to things such as student instruction and instructor and staff salaries. Institutions will also have to note how many people they employ and how much they spent on diversity, equity and inclusion “or related subjects.”      

ODHE to help develop trustee training, feasibility study on three-year programs

Senate Bill 1 relies on the Ohio Department of Higher Education to help standardize the ways institutions will report back some of the information produced by these new requirements.  

There are also a few action items the department and its chancellor will be part of, including: 

  • Trustee training: Universities will work with the Ohio Department of Higher Education to create new training programs for boards of trustees. The instruction will include outlining board members’ responsibilities and reviewing current higher education trends.

    New trustees will have to participate in these sessions at least once during the first two years of their term, though they can do so virtually. Current trustees will have to participate “at levels to be determined by the chancellor [of higher education],” the bill says.
  • Three-year program study: ODHE will conduct an in-depth feasibility study looking at if colleges could offer some bachelor’s degree programs in three years instead of four. A report must be produced within a year of the study being done. 
Signal background

This story was updated to indicate the bill’s current status on Wednesday, March 26.

Higher Education Reporter
I look at who is getting to and through Ohio's colleges, along with what challenges and supports they encounter along the way. How that happens -- and how universities wield their power during that process -- impacts all Ohio residents as well as our collective future. I am a first-generation college graduate reporting for Signal in partnership with the national nonprofit news organization Open Campus.