Senate Bill 1, also known as the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, was signed by Governor Mike DeWine on March 28, 2025, and took effect on June 27, 2025. The bill has led to many changes within Ohio’s public universities including the requirement of a mandatory civics course, as well as a review of faculty post-tenure.
While many of the changes were already implemented, the 2026-27 school year is the first to take place with a new major change, the mandated posting of course syllabi.
Ohio University adhered to those changes with the use of Concourse Syllabus, a public course syllabus search engine enabling access to undergraduate course syllabi.
According to Samantha Pelham, media relations manager for OU’s University Communications and Marketing, the university provided training, workshops, consultations and other resources to support the new implementation.
Senate Bill 1 requires each posted syllabus to include the instructor's name, their professional qualifications, an outlined course calendar and any required or recommended readings. OU also requires the syllabus to have a religious accommodations statement.
Some professors have grown concerned with the new requirement. Brian Stephens, assistant professor of African American Studies at OU, has worries regarding the intention of the mandate.
“I think the intent of this legislation is to create a culture of intimidation and fear,” Stephens said. “It’s intended to have faculty self-police their work.”
Stephens added that along with an intention to intimidate, the mandate promotes surveillance among departments and courses that cover what some may deem as controversial material.
“Everything that educators and intellectuals do within the university is an articulation of an ideology," Stephens said. “What I'm concerned about is those in power pretending that what they advocate is not an ideology.”
According to Stephens, he has not redesigned or revised his syllabus since the implementation of the mandate. He did so because he believes being transparent and unapologetic about your teachings is the best way to confront the state’s surveillance.
John O’Keefe, associate professor of history at OU’s Chillicothe campus, faced similar struggles when working to comply with the syllabi mandate, stating it has become harder to teach while being threatened by the state government.
“As a professor, I’ve had less time to review everything carefully,” O’Keefe said. “So I think on a practical level it means more time and resources taken away from the teaching”
Professors at OU have also voiced concerns regarding the proposed Senate Bill 461, which has been introduced in the Senate.
The legislation would strengthen the state's power on college campuses as well as increase the power within intellectual diversity centers that are currently at five universities in Ohio. Those universities include, The Ohio State University, University of Toledo, Cleveland State University, Wright State University and Miami University.
The five intellectual diversity centers are state-mandated academic units established in 2023.
According to a press release from the Ohio Senate, the centers were created to “embrace the mission of civics, government and open debate without fear of being labeled an outcast by what has become a campus cancel culture of group think.”
Proposed Senate Bill 461 would expand the mandated intellectual diversity centers into colleges of their own at their assigned universities.
Professor Stephens believes the bill is another example of governmental oversight.
“It’s creating a culture of silence, intimidation, fear; forcing people to be potentially dishonest about the work that they do,” Stephens said.
Although OU is not one of the universities that hosts an intellectual diversity center, it has complied with previously stated requirements under SB 1, mandating all students enroll in a minimum three credit hour civics course, starting with the graduating class of 2030.
Those civics courses are required to teach subject matter such as capitalism and the American economic system. Course readings are outlined by legislation including materials like the U.S. Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address and more.
The subject matter being dictated by legislation has posed additional concerns among faculty.
“If every student in the university has to read this,” O’Keefe said. “We need to ensure adequate background and preparation…it can be a challenge to do that when you’re mandated something that does not fit in with the context of the other documents.”
