January 22, 2025—The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) today commends Ohio State Senator Jerry Cirino, vice chair of the Ohio Senate Higher Education Committee, and the 12 co-sponsors of Senate Bill 1, the “Advance Ohio Higher Education Act.” The bill was filed on Friday, January 17, and is the first bill of the new session. It is the successor of Senate Bill 83, also sponsored by Senator Cirino, which was under consideration in the 2024 session of the Ohio General Assembly.
S.B. 1 is an omnibus bill which, when implemented, will deliver dramatic and overdue improvements to the higher education landscape in the state of Ohio. The University System of Ohio is comprised of 14 public universities and 23 community colleges with 444,000 students. At an 11 a.m. press conference today in Columbus, Senator Cirino remarked that in Ohio, “the students come first,” and that the new bill will codify this ethos into law.
Upon enactment, the bill will require that all Ohio institutions of higher education adopt a policy of institutional neutrality, thereby prohibiting university administrators from taking public positions on behalf of the institution on political and social issues. The bill also requires presidents and boards of trustees at all of Ohio’s public institutions to issue strong public statements committing their universities to the principles of free and open inquiry, civil discourse, and fostering an environment of intellectual diversity for all students and faculty. S.B. 1 also includes provisions mandating high-quality trustee training as well as periodic faculty performance evaluations and post-tenure reviews. And the bill rolls back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) departments, expenditures, and consultants, notably removing mandatory DEI statements from the faculty hiring and promotions process. Its requirement for all students at Ohio’s public universities to pass a course on the fundamentals of United States history and government will put Ohio in the vanguard of states that take seriously their obligation to train the next generation of informed citizens.
S.B. 1 will have a companion bill in the Ohio House of Representatives sponsored by Tom Young, chair of the House Workforce and Higher Education Committee. Senator Cirino and Representative Young indicated that they intend to fast track the legislation and that the first committee hearings will be held next week. ACTA President Michael Poliakoff stated, “This omnibus bill addresses deficiencies in public higher education in a way that no other legislation has yet undertaken. Those opposed to it should take a reckoning of the deterioration of the higher education institutions that were once indisputably the envy of the world. They might then ask themselves whose benefit are they really serving by failing to embrace these long-overdue reforms. This bill provides a model for other states to follow.”
“It is especially promising to see that the bill requires public universities to adopt policies of institutional neutrality,” said Steven McGuire, ACTA’s Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom. “By instructing these institutions to refrain from taking political sides, Senator Cirino and his colleagues are doing a great service for Ohio students, helping to ensure that they are free to express their views and think about political issues for themselves rather than being indoctrinated or silenced by administrators who misuse their offices to suggest that everyone on campus must agree with them.”
MEDIA CONTACT: Gabrielle Anglin
EMAIL: ganglin@goacta.org
ACTA president Michael Poliakoff speaks to Ohio Senator Jerry Cirino, vice chair of the Senate's Higher Education Committee, on his promise to enact legislation to enhance the quality of higher education in the Buckeye State.
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