Ohio State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced Senate Bill 1 on Jan. 22, 2025. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).

Republican state Sen. Jerry Cirino claims his higher education overhaul bill that would prevent faculty from striking, set rules around classroom discussion, and ban diversity and inclusion efforts, would lead to more academic freedom at Ohio’s public universities.

Cirino introduced Senate Bill 1 last week and it is the top priority for the Senate Majority. 

“S.B. 1 is about more speech, not less,” Cirino said Wednesday during his sponsor testimony in the Ohio Senate Higher Education Committee. “It is about eliminating what has become institutional discrimination through the establishment and economic support of DEI programs.”

The bill would ban diversity and inclusion efforts and courses, block faculty from striking, require post-tenure review, and has a retrenchment provisions that block unions from negotiating on tenure. It would also shorten university board of trustees terms from nine years down to six years, require students to take an American history course, and set rules around discussion of “controversial beliefs” in the classroom.

S.B. 1 defines “controversial beliefs” as “any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including issues such as climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion.”

The bill stipulates classroom discussion allows students to “reach their own conclusions about all controversial beliefs or policies and shall not seek to indoctrinate any social, political, or religious point of view.”

This piece of legislation would affect Ohio’s 14 public universities and 22 community colleges.

“Opponents have accused S.B. 1 of stifling academic freedom,” Cirino said in his testimony. “This is patently untrue. In actuality, restoring and ensuring academic freedom at our state institutions of higher education is one of the main objectives of this bill.”

State Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, asked Cirino about Holocaust deniers expressing their opinions in the classroom. 

“I’m deeply concerned in light of the growing prevalence of Holocaust denial and the rise of hate groups in our state, and this topic being fair game in your words, again, how does this bill protect students from encountering and having to be taught Holocaust denial in the classroom?” Weinstein asked.

Cirino responded by saying we “have been down this rabbit hole before.” 

Weinstein first posed this question to Cirino in May 2023 when the bill was in front of the Ohio House Higher Education Committee.  

“You had attempted at that time to mischaracterize my view as being sympathetic to Holocaust deniers, which I am clearly not,” Cirino said during Wednesday’s meeting. “There is nothing in this bill that promotes or seeks in any way to justify people who believe that the Holocaust did not happen. … I am not sympathetic to Holocaust deniers.” 

More than a dozen members of the Ohio Student Association silently protested during Wednesday’s committee meeting by putting tape over their mouths and later chanting “higher ed will be dead” when the meeting adjourned.  

Proponent testimony 

Fourteen people submitted supporter testimony and 12 spoke at Wednesday’s committee meeting. Most of their testimony focused on the bill’s diversity and inclusion ban. 

“DEI is a cynical bait and switch operation,” George Dent, director of the Ohio affiliate of the National Association of Scholars and President, said in his sponsor testimony. “DEI is widely used as a tool for racial and political discrimination. … There’s no good evidence that DEI actually improves race relations, and there’s considerable evidence that it makes them worse.”

S.B. 1 would essentially ban all diversity and inclusion offices, training, orientations and scholarships on college campuses. The exception is if such training is required to comply with state and federal law, professional licensure requirements or receiving accreditation or grants. 

State Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania, spoke in favor of the bill by sharing his experience as a law student at the University of Toledo and said diversity and inclusion programming “is a way of erasing societal guilt.” 

Gabe Guidarini, a 20-year-old student at the University of Dayton, was the only Ohio college student who spoke out in favor of the bill. However, S.B. 1 only applies to public universities, so private universities like the University of Dayton would not be impacted by the bill.

“S.B. 1 provides the legal clarification necessary to ensure that Ohio public colleges remain neutral and unbiased in what they teach, ensuring that students are taught how to think, not what to think,” he said. “It also ensures that Ohio students are not subject to so-called ‘DEI’ programs that judge them based on what they are instead of who they are.”

The committee will also have opponent testimony on S.B. 1 at a later date.

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.