Absent those signatures, Senate Bill 1 is now in effect in Ohio as of today.
• MORE ON THE BILL: DeWine signs law to ban DEI at Ohio public colleges
The legislation cleared the GOP-led Legislature and was signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in March. Supporters say it will protect “intellectual diversity,” including welcoming more conservative voices on campuses.
Among the provisions of Senate Bill 1, the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act:
• Bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on public college and university campuses and force current DEI initiatives to close, despite offering no definition of what actually constitutes a “DEI” initiative;
• Allows the state to withhold funds for non-compliance with the bill;
• Requires universities to “Affirm and declare that the state institution will not encourage, discourage, require or forbid students, faculty, or administrators to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology, political stance, or view of a social policy, nor will the institution require students to do any of those things to obtain an undergraduate or post-graduate degree”;
• Requires students to take a state-designed American civics or history class before being awarded a bachelor’s degree;
• Automatically eliminates any university degree program that awards fewer than five degrees per year on a three-year rolling average;
• Prohibits full-time university faculty from striking;
• Requires state training for university trustees and reduce trustee terms from nine years to six.
Opponents of the legislation numbered in the thousands. Educators and students delivered hours of opposition testimony and staged protests at the Statehouse, decrying the measure as an anti-labor government encroachment on academic freedom.
Schools that violate the measure would risk losing their state funding.