Ohio college students – or anyone with an internet connection – will soon be able to find out information about a class before ever enrolling.
This fall marks the first time state institutions are required to publicly post undergraduate course syllabi under Senate Bill 1. The sweeping state law overhauling how higher education operates passed last year.
For every class at Ohio’s 14 universities, officials must produce a calendar detailing what topics will be covered as well as any required readings. Details about the instructor, including their name and professional qualifications, must also be shared.
The state’s 22 community colleges can follow suit or choose to publish only class-related content without information about the educator teaching the course.
Republican state lawmakers said Senate Bill 1 – which also banned diversity, equity and inclusion (or DEI) work and ended faculty’s right to strike – ensures colleges don’t “indoctrinate students with woke ideology and censor opposing views.”
This syllabi requirement is one way the law looks to increase transparency around what’s being taught in college classrooms. Students get more details about classes. The public can see what taxpayer-supported colleges are teaching.
But professors have long said this rule is another example of how the law tramples on their academic freedom – and could open them up to harassment from those who don’t like their teachings.
Steve Mockabee, president of the University of Cincinnati’s faculty union, said he appreciated that the final version of the law doesn’t require institutions to share when or where classes meet. But, he said, it is still “intended to have a chilling effect.”
“The goal of this provision, I think it’s pretty clear all along, has been to try to make faculty afraid to assign readings that might be controversial or to delve into topics that might be deemed controversial,” he said.
Where Ohio colleges stand with Senate Bill 1 syllabi requirements
Public college officials had two choices on how to share this information, according to a form institutions had to complete and return to the Ohio Department of Higher Education by June 30. The ODHE told Signal Statewide each campus submitted their plans by the deadline.
Schools could choose to have educators be in charge of updating and posting their own individual syllabi, though the department said no institution selected this option. Each college and university decided to create and maintain institution-wide databases instead – with the exception of Northeast Ohio Medical University, which is exempt from this requirement because it doesn’t offer undergraduate courses.
A review of state schools’ websites indicates campuses are currently at different levels of implementation. The requirement begins on each institution’s first day of fall classes.
Ohio State University’s syllabi search website is already online. Users can search for information from the university’s main campus in Columbus as well as its seven regional outposts across the state. Databases for Columbus State Community College and Cuyahoga Community College are also live.
Other institutions have guidance and training opportunities for faculty online. An Ohio University website includes a “useful vocabulary definitions” section. Educators can still offer more detailed syllabi documents strictly to students, offering information such as grading procedures and attendance policies.
Cleveland State University lists seven frequently asked questions with corresponding answers online. It tackles conundrums such as what reading materials should be listed on a public-facing syllabus (textbooks, journals and documentaries all make the cut) and how granular a calendar should be (“A week-by-week or topic-block structure satisfies the requirement,” officials wrote).
Senate Bill 1 requires the public-facing syllabi to remain online for two years. The law also says the information must be easily accessible from an institution’s main webpage.
Ohio follows lead of Texas, Florida with syllabi requirements
Posting this information online is a big undertaking. Thousands of undergraduate classes are offered across Ohio every semester. Plus, Senate Bill 1 mandated that these sites must be searchable and easily accessible from a university’s main webpage.
This could be why at least a handful of campuses – including Cleveland State, OU and Kent State University – are all partnering with outside software platforms to abide by the law.
These programs offer templates that give colleges behind-the-scenes technical help to publish and update syllabi online.
Bowling Green State University and OU are using an offering called Concourse. Contracts for these deals were not immediately available, though Signal Statewide submitted public records requests to each institution – along with Ohio State and Kent State – for the documents.
Concourse’s website advertises a “starter” package that begins at $2,000 annually, though rates are based on an institution’s full-time enrollment. Online records show a public university in Texas with about 17,000 students is paying $135,000 to license the software for five years.
The majority of the state’s universities plan to use a similar program called Simple Syllabus. A lobbying group representing many of the state’s colleges and universities secured a group deal for this platform.
A 2025 press release announcing Kent State’s partnership with the company says the platform ensures that “institutions can meet state requirements while also creating a more consistent and accessible experience for students.”
Simple Syllabus’ website touts partnerships with nearly 600 colleges across the country. A handful of other states – including Florida, Texas and Utah – have similar laws requiring public colleges to publicly share syllabi.
UPDATE: This story was updated to include additional information from the Ohio Department of Higher Education about how institutions complied with SB1’s syllabus requirement.
