Dear Colleagues,
The “Advance Ohio Higher Education Act” (Senate Bill 1) was signed by Governor Mike DeWine in March and goes into effect on June 27, though a number of provisions in the bill have delayed effective dates. I write to provide you with an update on where we are with implementation and to share some initial guidance in various areas.
Implementing a new higher education law at an institution with the scale and complexity of Ohio State is no small task. I also know that many in our community have questions around what impacts the legislation will have at Ohio State. While there certainly are changes to navigate as we fully comply with the law, our commitment to academic freedom, rigorous intellectual pursuits, scholarly research and innovation is unwavering.
To guide this work, the university set up an implementation committee in April with representatives from multiple units that work across our campuses. This group was set up to be lean by design so its members could engage with university stakeholders across the law’s various provisions. A description of the implementation committee and its members can be viewed on the SB 1 Compliance website.
The committee has been working diligently this summer across multiple workstreams to ensure implementation can be completed by the time the law’s various provisions go into effect. The committee has prioritized several complex and time-sensitive provisions, including DEI prohibitions/commitment to intellectual diversity (3345.0217), faculty workload (3345.45) and annual performance of faculty (3345.452), post-tenure review (3345.453), and several more.
Many unit leaders and faculty, staff and student representatives have been engaged throughout the workstream process. Some of the groups providing input through the workstreams include University Senate (through its Government Affairs committee and faculty leaders); college and regional campus curricular and associate deans; the Research Security Governance Board; the university’s Faculty Ombuds; and the University Policy Review Committee, which includes representatives from all policy-owning offices, University Senate, staff as well as USAC leadership, the Wexner Medical Center and regional campuses. Faculty participating in these workstreams represent a variety of departments and disciplines across several colleges and academic centers. Every college and regional campus has representation, and students have been in sessions with some workstreams and are being engaged through other facilitated conversations. Engagements with faculty, staff and students will continue to expand as implementation work continues.
The implementation committee has also been sharing updates with deans, chairs, college faculty affairs leaders, University Senate faculty leaders, USAC leaders and other university stakeholders, as well as broadly through the SB 1 compliance website and the On Campus newsletter.
As the law’s June 27 effective date draws closer, below you will find an initial set of updates from this implementation process. Additional work continues, and I look forward to being in touch with you again soon. In the meantime, the SB 1 Compliance website will continue to be updated, and if you have questions, you can contact legislativequestions@osu.edu.
Ravi V. Bellamkonda
Executive Vice President and Provost
Timeline
SB 1 goes into effect on June 27, though a number of provisions in the bill have delayed effective dates. For example, the syllabi requirements and American civics literacy course requirement need to be implemented by autumn semester 2026. The implementation team has established a timeline for addressing aspects of the bill based on when they will become effective. They are as follows.
- By June 27: Ohio State trustee terms (3335.02, 3335.09); statement of commitment (3345.0216); complaints and disciplinary sanctions (3345.0218); reporting guidelines (3345.0219); partnerships with China (3345.591); treatment of all faculty, staff and students (3345.88); striking prohibition (4117.14, 4117.15); and all other program, position and DEI-related activity changes and work must be completed.
- By autumn 2025: statutorily required policy-related updates (3345.0217); student and peer evaluations of faculty (3345.451); summary of costs (3345.8)
- By autumn 2026: syllabi (3345.029); required American government or history course (3345.382)
We anticipate releasing additional guidance related to faculty performance, post-tenure review, faculty workload, and additional related policies on the centralized web resource for SB 1.
Implementation guidance
The university has published initial implementation guidance regarding changes to programs, websites and materials required by SB 1. This information includes details on the requirements of the law, evaluation guidelines and criteria to determine if programs or activities are in compliance and information about compliance requirements by topic. The guidance will be continually updated as more detail is available leading up to and after the initial implementation date of June 27. It is important to note, and the guidance makes clear, that wording and name changes alone do not create compliance – corresponding, substantive programmatic changes must also occur where appropriate. The focus should also be on rethinking scope and impact to expand programming and services that will make a difference for all or any Ohio State students, faculty and staff.
Ohio Department of Higher Education Guidance
The university has been in touch with the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) regarding the provisions of SB 1 for which they administer processes and approvals. ODHE has released its formal guidance and has posted some of the required forms and templates on its website, which is also linked on the university’s SB 1 Compliance website. Please note that much of ODHE’s guidance centers on the state-administered process for exceptions in SB 1. Ohio State is finalizing the internal steps required before submitting an exception request to ODHE and will share that information when available. No exception requests may be submitted to ODHE without following Ohio State’s internal process first. Until Ohio State’s internal process is in place, please review the information ODHE is sharing and begin gathering what you may need.
Intellectual Diversity/Classroom Discussion
SB 1 does not prohibit controversial issues from being discussed in classes but requires the university to “ensure the fullest degree of intellectual diversity” in courses and allow students to reach their own conclusions around controversial issues. To identify these protections for students and to support faculty in structuring classroom instruction appropriately, faculty, staff and students representing multiple disciplines, colleges and units met and developed a standard syllabus statement and a series of FAQs around what is and is not permitted under the law. These FAQs are also available on the university’s SB 1 website.
The implementation committee is also collecting and will provide a series of existing university resources about how to conduct open discussions for faculty. These resources will be published on the SB 1 website.
Political/Ideological Restrictions in Hiring/Admissions
The university has worked over the last several years to update its admissions and hiring policies in a way that complies with SB 1. Following the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the university’s admissions practices and guidance documents used by admissions reviewers were updated. The Office of Human Resources, the Office of Academic Affairs, and the Office of Legal Affairs have also worked to review and update faculty and staff hiring processes (e.g., removal of diversity statements in hiring) to reflect the additional requirements in these sections. Model language is being developed for use in Patterns of Administration and other documents to ensure that SB 1 requirements are reflected properly in all required university documents. This language will be shared with faculty leadership groups for broad distribution and included on the implementation portion of the SB 1 website, when available.
Complaint and Reporting Process
SB 1 requires the university to have a process to address complaints regarding violations of the Campus Free Speech Policy and inform students and employees of its protections. The university’s current process already fulfills the requirements for a process to investigate complaints about alleged intellectual diversity violations. The university will amend the Campus Free Speech Policy’s Complaint Investigation, Hearing, and Resolution Process to reference the rights SB 1 affords to members of our community and describe how they can file a complaint. As required by the law, all current employees and students will be informed about SB 1 protections and related policies via email linking to the SB 1 website; through new employee materials; and in future student orientation materials.
SB 1 also requires ODHE to issue guidance on “the form and manner by which the state institution shall submit a policy or report to the chancellor when the institution is required to do so,” that applies to this section of the law. Ohio State will closely evaluate this forthcoming guidance to determine if there are any additional reporting requirements related to this provision.
Statement of Commitment
Each state institution of higher education is required to post a statement of commitment – the language of which is provided in the bill – “on its publicly accessible web site and alongside the state institution’s mission statement in any place in which the mission statement appears, including when it is published or posted. Each institution shall include the statement of commitment in any solicitations and offers of admission to students and any offers of employment to faculty.” Related to faculty offers of employment, the Office of Academic Affairs and Human Resources are updating the Strategic Hiring Initiative for Faculty Talent (SHIFT) faculty hiring framework to be compliant with this provision. Regarding students, the committee is engaged with Strategic Enrollment Management to update offers of admission. The statement of commitment is publicly available in compliance with the law on the SB 1 website and has also been added to the university’s mission, vision and values webpage.
Controversial Issues
SB 1 requires that the university declare that it will not “endorse or oppose” any controversial belief or policy “except on matters that directly impact the institution's funding or mission of discovery, improvement, and dissemination of knowledge.” The university is developing guidance regarding the activities that may be impacted by this provision and will be updating the Philosophy on Statements based on that guidance.
Cultural and awareness recognitions and events
The implementation team has received a variety of questions regarding cultural and awareness recognitions and events such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Pride Month and Juneteenth. Cultural and awareness recognitions and observance of federal holidays are permitted under federal guidelines as well as SB 1 and university guidance is available on the SB 1 website. However, communications or messaging that take a position or engage in advocacy for a cause or issue – either via university channels (including email and social media) or when speaking or making a statement in a university capacity are paused as additional portions of SB 1 related to university statements on controversial topics or issues are analyzed.
It is important to note that this guidance does not prohibit any individual person’s ability to make statements or represent their own, individual views, or the freedom of faculty to teach, conduct research and publish research findings.
Partnerships with China
SB 1 requires the university to develop processes and/or guidance for limiting gifts and donations from China and for evaluating and reporting academic partnerships with Chinese institutions. In alignment with federal guidance, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) includes Hong Kong and Macau, but excludes Taiwan.
Minor updates will be made to the university’s Gift Acceptance Policy to reflect SB 1’s prohibition on gifts, donations, and contributions from the PRC. Additionally, faculty will no longer be allowed to accept federal funding from the PRC, including research grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Under SB 1, there is an exemption for philanthropic and unrestricted grants as well as tuition from Chinese citizens from the prohibition. Screening processes are already in place to determine if a donation or gift is from the PRC government.
Academic partnerships have been defined internally as a formal agreement between Ohio State and an academic or research institution located in China. Of the types of agreements listed by Office of International Affairs (OIA), the workgroup determined that any new or renewed Memorandum of Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, International Cooperative Graduate Degree Agreement, Service Agreement, Affiliation Agreement, and Student Exchange Agreement must be reported to the Chancellor of ODHE if the partnering academic or research institution is located in China. OIA will be responsible for reporting any new or renewed partnerships to the Chancellor.
Additionally, the ERIK Innovation and Commercialization Office has formal agreements that meet this definition, which include License Agreements, Inter-institutional Agreements, Confidential Disclosure Agreements, Material Transfer Agreements, and Data Use Agreements with academic and research institutions in China.
The university is also ensuring the effectiveness of current safeguards in place to ensure compliance with SB 1 requirements related to conflicts of interest/commitment, export controls, visiting scholar agreements and foreign visitor processes. Additional information will be shared on the SB 1 implementation website.