It’s been a year since Senate Bill 1 became law, banning mandatory diversity training and faculty strikes at Ohio’s public universities. The Republican behind that law, which sought to crack down on what conservatives view as liberal bias at public universities, has introduced a bill to fulfill a requirement in that law.
That requirement: students must complete a three-credit hour course in American civic literacy to graduate. And he wants them to do that through another proposal he spearheaded a few years ago.
Senate Bill 461 from Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) requires students at five public universities with so-called independent academic civics centers—also called intellectual diversity centers—to take that civics course at those centers, which he helped create three years ago.
Cirino said he’s been concerned about courses used in other states with similar requirements.
“Some of the course descriptions that I have reviewed are rather—they're a joke. And it would never meet the intent of the Ohio legislation that we passed," Cirino said in an interview. "So we felt it would be appropriate, very appropriate for these centers. If you have a center at your university, you should take your that required class from the center."
The academic civics centers, also called intellectual diversity centers, are at Ohio State (The Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society), the University of Toledo (the Institute for American Constitutional Heritage and Civic Leadership) and at Cleveland State, Wright State and Miami University.
Students not attending those universities must take a civics course approved by a board composed of the directors of those centers.
"We know from the past that coursework and course content can be manipulated in order to skirt around the concerns of the legislature. We want to make sure that that doesn't happen. And that is not to suggest that these courses are supposed to be extremely conservative. That's not it at all," Cirino said. "This is not a conservative indoctrination program."
The centers were created in 2023, and enrollment has been low so far. Cirino's bill also requires that tuition, state share of instruction and other revenue associated with the required course goes to the civics centers, to ensure their survival.
"We know there is reluctance and downright tactical things being done to try to frustrate these centers from being successful. We're not going to let that happen. We want to make sure that they have the student body necessary," Cirino said. “We want to make sure that they are financially viable, and that they are not taken advantage of by those that would like to frustrate the implementation of the laws that we passed."
The University of Toledo said in a statement its Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership offered five course sections with a total enrollment of 12 during Spring 2026. Course registration is ongoing for Fall 2026, with approximately 60 students registered for seven course sections as of early July.
The Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors is strongly opposed to the bill, which the group said mandates the state and students spend money on "ideological think tanks".
“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,” OCAAUP Executive Director Jennifer Tisone Price wrote in a statement. “This absolutely drives up tuition costs for every other student at that university.”
