Sen. Jerry Cirino: Boards of trustees could have proactively made changes that Senate Bill 1 required
The architect of Ohio’s Senate Bill 1 said state lawmakers only acted and advanced legislation addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and diverse opinion on campus when higher education officials in the state would not.
The Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed in March 2025, is a wide-ranging measure that bans DEI programs, bars faculty strikes, and created new guidelines for intellectual diversity.
“The vast majority of things that I included in that bill … could have been done by the boards of trustees on their own,” state Sen. Jerry C. Cirino, R-Kirtland, told Ohio.News exclusively. “They could have [eliminated] DEI. They could have required syllabus transparency. They could have required greater scrutiny of students from communist China. They could have done performance reviews for faculty and administrators.
“They could have done virtually everything on their own, but they didn’t, and they wouldn’t,” Cirino added. “When that happens, it’s time for a third party to come in, which is the legislature, which was me in this case, and say, ‘Okay, you aren’t willing to change. We’re going to help you change. We’re going to motivate you to change.’”
The bill also led to Intellectual Diversity Centers at The Ohio State University, University of Toledo, Miami University, Cleveland State University, and Wright State University.
“We’re not educators in the legislature, and we don’t pretend to be,” Cirino said. “I’d rather it come from them, but so far in the past, history tells me that academia does not really like to reform itself very much.
“It is frustrating, but that’s okay with me. I want to make the changes necessary because I think it’s best for students in Ohio and best for our state,” Cirino added. “And if we have to spend a lot of time and effort and even money to try to make these changes happen, even against the will of the academics, I’m fine with doing that.”
Cirino has also introduced Senate Bill 461, the Strengthening Ohio Civics Act. While it aims to create consistency and clarity for Ohio’s Civic Centers, not everyone is in favor of the new legislation.
“SB 461 requires Ohio’s universities to fund the five new civic centers before anything else—even if they aren’t offering courses that help students graduate or don’t have students enrolled in their programs or courses,” Jennifer Tisone Price, executive director of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors, said in a statement, per Statehouse News Bureau. “This absolutely drives up tuition costs for every other student at that university.”
