Ohio Senate Bill 1 is often described with big words: Sweeping. Wide-ranging. An overhaul.
All are true. The state law, which took effect in June 2025, ushered in new rules that revamped how public colleges and universities operate in Ohio. Republican lawmakers said it was needed to combat what they saw as a “woke” culture at the state’s 14 universities and 22 community colleges.
The law ended most diversity, equity and inclusion (or DEI) work, stripped faculty members’ right to strike and instituted a host of new policies and procedures, among other moves.
This meant the 106,000 employees working across Ohio’s public campuses – including faculty members, some of the legislation’s loudest critics during record-setting Statehouse hearings – would need to make many specific changes.
More than a dozen faculty and students from institutions across Ohio responded to a recent online callout from Signal Statewide to share if and/or how the law has affected their daily professional lives over the past year.
Collectively, the educators said the law is transforming their jobs. They described implementing new approaches to research, watching colleagues “quietly disengage,” and navigating rules they say remain unclear.
How Ohio Senate Bill 1 reshaped DEI
Ohio State University was one of several public colleges that closed its DEI office before Senate Bill 1 became official.
The move forced several changes for Nick Denton, a senior lecturer in the university’s College of Pharmacy.
He said the work he did as part of a DEI task force, including identifying roadblocks that prevented students from completing their classes, had to stop. Some of his Black and LGBTQ+ colleagues “have gotten into the habit of recording all their lectures in case a bad actor tries to take their lecture out of context,” he said.
Plus, he said, the law makes his research work more difficult.
“My colleague scrubbed language like ‘diverse’ and ‘inclusive’ from my faculty bio webpage that I use to advertise my research to potential collaborators. I also can’t participate in any DEI committees at professional organizations that I would otherwise use to find collaborators and lead national scale projects to make pharmacy more inclusive.”
Denton
Nearly 90 academic programs cut across the state
Dayton’s Wright State University is cutting 15 academic programs as part of Senate Bill 1’s requirement to end offerings that enroll and graduate few students. The state’s universities are ending about 90 programs in total, according to reporting from Ohio Capital Journal.
Wright State’s health and physical education program landed on the chopping block.
This meant Kevin Lorson, an award-winning professor and coordinator of the program, was out of a job. He – along with his wife, an elementary school teacher for nearly three decades in Ohio – left the state after he found a new position at Mississippi State University.
“We have found Starkville [home of Mississippi State’s campus] and the state of Mississippi to be a place that values public education and the teaching profession. We feel welcomed, safe, supported, and re-energized to help our students be successful.”
Lorson
‘Quietly disengaging’ at Cleveland State
Linda Quinn isn’t sure how many faculty have left Cleveland State University, where she heads up the faculty union, specifically due to Senate Bill 1.
Concerns over waves of faculty resignations were among the loudest concerns coming from the legislation’s critics.
Quinn said at least two educators recently resigned for other opportunities “largely due to the LGBTQ climate.” But she said the law seems to still be lingering over the campus and its culture.
“More than a dozen faculty have said to me that they are disappointed with SB1. Some are looking for an escape but it is not easy depending on discipline and even the national environment. Others have stated that they are quietly disengaging.”
Quinn
University of Cincinnati’s complying confusion
David Niven, a professor at University of Cincinnati’s School of Public and International Affairs, said Senate Bill 1 delays how long it takes new classes to get proposed and approved.
He said that’s because it’s difficult to prove whether a course is demonstrating “intellectual diversity,” one of Senate Bill 1’s requirements. The law defines that term as having “multiple, divergent, and varied perspectives on an extensive range of public policy issues.”
Critics say Senate Bill 1’s language is vague, though State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, refutes that claim about the legislation he authored.
“That is one of several Orwellian aspects of the law. No one can be sure if they are complying, even if they want to comply. Under the cloak of freedom of speech and expression, the law effectively means that whatever Jerry Cirino thinks is good is good, and whatever he thinks is bad is bad.”
Niven
What comes next for Ohio Senate Bill 1
Cirino recently celebrated Senate Bill 1’s first year as a success. At a June 24 press conference, the senator “ticked through a long list of dire predictions made by opponents, calling them by name,” the Ohio Statehouse News Bureau reported.
Those forecasts, he said, didn’t come true. Instead, he said the law means conservative educators and students are no longer self-censoring their views. He also touted some fall 2025 enrollment upticks.
“Students are not leaving Ohio in droves,” he said.
More changes are coming under Senate Bill 1. The requirement for faculty to publicly post their syllabi begins this fall. Students graduating in spring 2030 and beyond will need to take a new American civics course.
And in February, Republican lawmakers introduced enforcement legislation that would further tie institutions’ funding to their compliance with the law. That bill has yet to make it out of the Ohio House Workforce and Higher Education committee.
