Ohio Senate Bill 1 and Its Limits on DEI Programs at Public Universities
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 04, 2026 • US Higher Ed News & Policy
Ohio Senate Bill 1 banned DEI offices, training, and hiring at the state's 14 public universities, and most schools closed their DEI offices by the end of September 2025.
🎓 The law took effect June 27, 2025, after a repeal campaign fell short by about 53,000 signatures.
📩 Public universities must post full syllabi with instructor qualifications and contact information online starting in the 2026-27 academic year.
🏠 Starting with the class of 2030, you need a 3-credit American civic literacy course to graduate from an Ohio public university.
💵 Schools that do not comply risk losing or having their state funding reduced.
What Senate Bill 1 does
Senate Bill 1 rewrote how Ohio's public universities operate. It bans diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, orientation and training programs, and outside DEI consultants at all 14 of Ohio's public universities, including Ohio State University and Ohio University. It also ends post-tenure review protections, prohibits full-time faculty strikes, and requires instructors to present multiple viewpoints on controversial topics in class. The law took effect June 27, 2025, according to Signal Akron .
DEI offices, training, and hiring rules
The law prohibits public universities from opening or keeping DEI offices, running diversity training or orientation sessions, and hiring outside DEI consultants. Most of Ohio's 14 public universities closed their DEI offices by the end of September 2025, citing Senate Bill 1 as the reason. At the University of Cincinnati, president Neville Pinto announced the closure of the school's DEI offices and acknowledged the change would affect how some students experience belonging on campus.
If you attend an Ohio public university, expect identity-based clubs and cultural centers to keep running as independent student organizations, but without the dedicated staff, university branding, or targeted funding a DEI office used to provide.
New academic requirements
Starting with the graduating class of 2030, Ohio public university students need a 3-credit-hour course in American civic literacy to graduate. Starting in the 2026-27 academic year, instructors must publish a full syllabus online for every course, including their professional qualifications and contact information.
Compliance timeline and penalties
Senate Bill 1 does not set one universal compliance date. Ohio's Department of Higher Education tracks nearly a dozen separate deadlines running from August 2025 through June 2026 for different parts of the law, covering everything from DEI office closures to post-tenure review policy. Universities that fail to comply risk losing state funding or having it reduced.
The repeal effort
Faculty at Youngstown State University led a campaign to put Senate Bill 1 to a statewide referendum vote. The group collected about 195,000 signatures, short of the roughly 248,092 needed, and withdrew the effort before the deadline, clearing the way for the law to take effect.