SENATE BILL 83


​Summary of Senate Bill 83
​​
​TARGETS
State and Private Higher Education 
Chancellor of Higher Education
Boards of Trustees, Faculty, Staff, Students

​​​DESCRIPTION​
Creates policies for "intellectual diversity"
and controversial concepts;
Bans mandatory DEI ​programs and training;
Bans affinity groups and affirmative action policies; 
Bans public positions on controversial issues;
Bans relationships with China;
Requires US history and government courses;
Requires online posting of course syllabi;
Establishes criteria for performance evaluations;
​Bans striking and forms of collective bargaining;
Revises faculty workload policies;
Requires discipline for violations
SPONSOR
Sen. Jerry Cirino, District 18
​
COMMITTEE
House Higher Education Committee
Senate Workforce and Higher Education
​
INTRODUCED 
March 14, 2023

HEARINGS
Read Testimony | Watch Hearings

BILL 
General Info |  Sub Bill | Analysis

​
​What does Senate Bill 83 do?​


**​IMPORTANT**
​A substitute bill was introduced May 9, 2023.  Changes and revisions are reflected below.
Read more about the substitute bill HERE
Senate Bill 83, (and its companion House Bill 151) the "Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act" is a higher education bill directly impacting academic freedoms and instruction on "controversial beliefs and policies". The bill bans mandatory DEI training and programs, hiring and education around "controversial beliefs and policies", affinity groups, affirmative action practices, academic partnerships with China, and collective bargaining. Violations impact performance evaluations, tenure, and state funding.

DEFINITIONS
"Intellectual diversity": Multiple, divergent, and opposing perspectives on an extensive range of public policy issues widely discussed and debated in society at large, especially those perspectives that reflect the range of American opinion, but which are poorly represented on campus

"Controversial belief or policy":  Any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including issues such as climate change, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion

"Specified concept": A concept such as allyship, diversity, social justice, sustainability, systematic racism, gender identity, equity, or inclusion

"Specified ideology": Any ideology that classifies individuals within identity groups, divides identity groups into oppressed and oppressors, and prescribes advantages, disadvantages, or segregation based upon identity group membership.

STATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Changes to Mission Statements
Institutions must incorporate the following into their mission statements:
  • Institution will educate students by means of free, open, and rigorous intellectual inquiry to seek the truth
  • Institution affirms that its duty is to equip students with the intellectual skills they need to reach their own, informed conclusions on matters of social and political importance
  • Institution will ensure that "no aspect of life at the institution, within or outside the classroom, requires, favors, disfavors, or prohibits speech or action to support any political, social, or religious belief"
  • Institution affirms its dedication to "an ethic of civil and free inquiry, which respects the autonomy of each member, supports individual capacities for growth, and tolerates the differences in opinion that naturally occur in a public higher education community"
  • Institution affirms that "its duty is to treat all faculty, staff, and students as individuals, to hold them to equal standards, and to provide them equality of opportunity"

Adoption of New Policies
Boards of trustees must adopt a policy with the following provisions within 90 days of passage of the bill:
  • No DEI: Institution may not require mandatory DEI programs or trainings; exemptions must be approved by the chancellor and be required for compliance with federal law, licensure, accreditation, grants, or cooperative agreements
    • Exemptions include programs/courses that: 
      • Comply with state and federal laws or regulations
      • Comply with professional licensure requirements
      • Obtain or retain accreditation
      • ​​​Secure or retain grants or cooperative agreements​
    • The chancellor must prepare a report that summarizes all exemptions sought during that six month period, including how many exemptions were granted and rejected; report must be submitted to the chairs of the Senate and House higher education committees
  • No Public Positions: Institution may not not endorse, oppose, comment, or take action on public policy controversies of the day, or any other ideology, principle, concept, or formulation that requires commitment to any controversial belief or policy, specified concept, or specified ideology, although it may endorse the congress of the United States when it establishes a state of armed hostility against a foreign power
  • No Boycotts: Institution may not participate in boycotts, disinvestments, or sanctions
  • No "Ideological Litmus Tests": Institution may not use political and ideological litmus tests in hiring, promotion, admissions, work, or study, including diversity statements and any other requirement that applicants describe their commitment to a specified concept, specified ideology, or any other ideology, principle, concept, or formulation that requires commitment to any controversial belief or policy
  • Primary Function: Institution's "primary function" must be "to practice, or support the practice, discovery, improvement, transmission, and dissemination of knowledge by means of research, teaching, discussion, and debate"
  • "Intellectual Diversity": Institution must ensure the fullest degree of "intellectual diversity"
  • No Indoctrination: Institution must encourage students, faculty, or staff to form their own conclusions about "controversial matters"; faculty and staff must not "inculcate any points of view"
  • Campus Speakers: Institution must bring intellectually diverse speakers to campus; speaker fees in excess of $500 must be posted on the institution's website within 3 clicks to home page
  • Discipline and Reporting
    • Institution must implement a range of disciplinary measures for violations and inform all students, faculty, and staff members of their protection under these policies
    • Institution must submit annual report of violations of "intellectual diversity rights" and post the report on their website within three clicks from the home page

Treatment Based on "Membership to Group": Affinity Groups, Affirmative Action, Controversial Concepts
  • Institutions must treat all faculty, staff, and students as individuals, hold every individual to equal standards, and provide every individual with equality of opportunity
  • No Segregation/Affinity Groups: Institutions must not treat, advantage, disadvantage, or segregate any faculty, staff, or students by membership in groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression
  • No Advantage/Affirmative Action: Institutions must not provide any advantage or disadvantage on the basis of membership in groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression in admissions, hiring, promotion, tenuring, workplace conditions, or any other program, policy, or activity
  • No Policies: Prohibits any policy designed explicitly to segregate faculty, staff, or students based on those individuals' race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression in credit-earning classroom settings, formal orientation ceremonies, and formal graduation ceremonies. 
  • No Controversial Concepts: Prohibits any training, professional development, or hiring to learn about concepts that relate to inherited guilt or being advantaged or disadvantaged based on race or sex
    • Concepts include:
      • One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex
      • An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously unconsciously
      • An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual's race
      • Members of one race cannot nor should not attempt to treat others without respect to race
      • An individual's moral standing or worth is necessarily determined by the individual's race or sex
      • An individual, by virtue of the individual's race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex
      • An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex
      • Meritocracy or traits such as hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race
      • Fault, blame, or bias should be assigned to a race or sex, or to members of a race or sex because of their race or sex
  • Reporting & Discipline
    • Institutions must submit an annual report with statistics on academic qualifications of accepted and matriculating students, including academic qualifications and retention rates; report must be published on the institution’s website within three clicks from the home page
    • Institutions must implement a range of disciplinary sanctions on any employee who authorizes or engages in such a training; Institution must submit an annual report detailing the violations and sanctions

Online Posting of Undergraduate Course Syllabi
  • Institutions must publish syllabi for undergraduate courses receiving course credit on the institution's website within 3 clicks of the home page; syllabi must be searchable by keywords and phrases
  • Syllabi must contain the instructor’s name and professional qualifications, description of course requirements and major assignments/exams, required and recommended reading, and a description of each lecture or discussion
  • Institutions must submit an annual report to the chancellor of higher education detailing compliance with these requirements, which the chancellor must then submit to the governor, House Speaker, Senate President, and Chairs of the Higher Education committees in the House and Senate

Mandatory American Government and History Courses
Beginning in 2026-2027, undergraduate students must complete three credit hours in American government or American history

Students must read and be assessed on:
  • US Constitution
  • US Declaration of Independence
  • At least 5 essays from the Federalist Papers
  • US Emancipation Proclamation
  • Gettysburg Address
  • Letter from the Birmingham Jail by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Students may be exempt if they completed an equivalent course.

Ban Academic Relationships with China
  • Institutions may not accept gifts, donations, or contributions from China or any organization or individual who may be acting on behalf of China
  • Institutions may not enter into any academic partnership (including study abroad programs) with an academic institution located in China, or located in another country but associated with China
  • Institutions may not renew existing academic partnerships with an academic institution located in China may renew that agreement
  • Institutions must report all existing relationships and any past or future gifts, donations, or contributions exchanged with an entity directly or indirectly affiliated with China
  • Chinese students may attend and pay tuition and fees to Ohio institutions.
  • Ohio institutions must seek approval from the Chancellor in consultation with the Attorney General to enter into a relationship with new or renewed academic partnership with China; relationship must have sufficient safeguards in place

FACULTY AND STAFF

Changes to Faculty Workload Policy
Institutions must update, get Board of Trustee approval, and submit their faculty workload policy to the chancellor of higher education every five years beginning in 2024

The workload policy must include:​
  • An objective and numerically defined teaching workload expectation 
  • A definition of all faculty workload elements in terms of credit hours with a full-time workload minimum equal to 30 credit hours. Full-time faculty shall have a workload minimum equal to 30 credit hours. 
  • Faculty with less than a full-time appointment will have their workload prorated based on the 30 credit hour formula. 
  • A definition of justifiable credit hour equivalents for activities other than teaching, including research, clinical care, administration, service, and other activities.
  • Administrative action that a state institution of higher education may take, including censure, remedial training, for-cause termination, or other disciplinary action, regardless of tenure status, if a faculty member fails to comply with the policy's requirements. 

Changes to Performance Evaluations of Faculty
  • Student Evaluation:
    • Institutions must establish a written system of faculty evaluations by students with a focus on teaching effectiveness and student learning
    • Chancellor must develop a minimum set of questions for the student evaluation, including "Does the faculty member create a classroom atmosphere free of political, racial, gender, and religious bias?"
    • Institutions must publish the “average annual numerical score” from the student evaluations for each faculty member beginning August 1, 2024 and the same date annually​
    • Evaluation accounts for at least 50% of the teaching area  annual faculty performance evaluation
  • Peer Evaluation:
    • Institutions must establish a written system of peer evaluations for faculty that focuses on professional development of teaching responsibilities​

Changes to Annual Faculty Performance Evaluation
Boards of trustees must adopt an annual faculty performance evaluation policy for every faculty member compensated by the institution and submit the policy to the chancellor of higher education every three years beginning in 2024
  • Evaluation must:
    • Be conducted by the department chairperson or equivalent administrator, reviewed and approved or disapproved by the dean, and submitted to the provost for review; if there is disagreement between the chairperson and dean, the provost shall have final decision authority
    • Use “standardized, objective, and measurable performance metrics” covering teaching, research, and other categories
    • Measure faculty based on “exceeds performance expectations,” “meets performance expectations,” or “does not meet performance expectations”
    • Student evaluations must account for at least 50% of the teaching component 
    • Establish a projected work plan for the following year
​
Tenured Faculty & Post-Tenure Review Process
Boards of trustees must adopt a post-tenure review policy and submit to the chancellor of higher education every five years beginning in 2024
  • The school must conduct a post-tenure review if a tenured faculty member receives a "does not meet performance expectations" evaluation within the same evaluative category for a minimum of two of the past three consecutive years on the faculty member's annual performance evaluation
  • The school must subject any faculty member who maintains tenure after a post-tenure review and receives an additional "does not meet performance expectations" assessment on any area of the faculty member's annual performance evaluation in the subsequent two years to an additional post-tenure review
  • The department chairperson, dean of faculty, or provost of a state institution of higher education may require an immediate and for cause post-tenure review at any time for a faculty member who has a documented and sustained record of significant underperformance outside of the faculty member's annual performance evaluation; for this purpose, for cause shall not be based on a faculty member's allowable expression of academic freedom as defined by the state institution of higher education or Ohio law
  • The post tenure review due process period, from beginning to end, shall not exceed six months, except that a one-time two-month extension may be granted by the state institution's president
  • The school’s provost shall submit a recommended outcome of the post-tenure review process to the institution's entity that is responsible for the final decision of post-tenure review pursuant to the institution's policy; the administrative action that a state institution of higher education may take includes censure, remedial training, or for-cause termination, regardless of tenure status, and any other action permitted by the institution's post-tenure review policy
  • Each public college/university must also develop policies on tenure and retrenchment and submit those policies to the chancellor of higher education; the board of trustees shall update those policies every five years

Restrictions on Collective Bargaining
​Prohibits the following public employees from striking and forces parties into a conciliation process:
  • “Employees of any state institution of higher education”
  • Law enforcement officers including police, state highway patrol, and deputy sheriffs
  • First responders including dispatchers and fire department members
  • Employees in correctional facilities, including corrections officers, guards, and youth leaders

ENDOWMENTS
Outlines a detailed process by which an institution can be punished and/or lose endowments if the institution violates a restriction laid out under the endowment agreement 

GOVERNANCE
Boards of Trustees
  • Changes the term lengths for trustees of public colleges and universities
  • For “trustees appointed on or after January 1, 2024, except for the terms of student members, terms of office shall be for four years (current terms are nine years), commencing on the fourteenth day of May and ending on the thirteenth day of May. “
  • The bill also removes current law requiring a four-year gap between trustee terms.

Community College Trustees
For trustees appointed by the board of county commissioners or boards of county commissioners on or after January 1, 2024, the term shall be for five years.  1552 
For trustees appointed by the governor on or after January 1, 2024, the term shall be for four years.
​
Financial Reporting 
  • For each biennial state operating budget and capital budget cycle, institutions must submit a 5-year cost summary of its institutional costs, including:
    • Instructional, staff, or maintenance costs, 
    • DEI initiatives or programming
    • Tallies of faculty, staff, and administration
  • Chancellor of higher education must present a cumulative report to the General Assembly

Education Programs for Boards of Trustees
  • Chancellor of higher education must develop and deliver a education programs for boards of trustees
  • Training must include prescribed curriculum on the trustees’ role, duties, responsibilities, and current higher education issues
  • New trustees must participate in a program at least once in their first two years on the board

Feasibility Study for 3-Year Bachelor's Degree
  • Ohio Department of Higher Education must publish a study that investigates reducing requirements in a variety of fields of study to see if programs can be reduced to three years without impacting accreditation


What is our position on Senate Bill 83?

OPPOSE

The Higher Education Destruction Act
BAD for Students. BAD for Higher Education. BAD for Ohio.
The so-called "Higher Education Enhancement Act" is another sweeping attempt by Ohio legislators to mimic the worst impulses of the Florida government by importing extremist gag orders intended to DESTROY, not ENHANCE higher education. Deeply rooted in Culture War ideology, this attack on academic freedom can harm students, cause irreversible damage to our institutions of higher education, and devastate Ohio. SB 83 is an affront to all who believe in honest, inclusive education and Ohio's future.

SB 83 is bad for students. This attack is a series of contradictions on freedom of speech, claiming to promote intellectual diversity while simultaneously dictating the content and manner in which certain topics can be discussed. It would ban the types of training that ensure all students, no matter their backgrounds, can succeed.

Rather than cultivating learning environments that help students understand complicated aspects of our shared history, uncomfortable truths, and complex systems of power, SB 83 whitewashes history, sanitizes the truth, and reduces lived experiences around race and identity to "controversial beliefs and policies".
​
SB 83 is bad for higher education. The bill restricts instruction in diversity, equity, and inclusion in public and private colleges and universities; prohibits public colleges and universities from speaking out on important issues and forces them to turn campuses into safe spaces for hate speech; and prohibits faculty and staff at public colleges and universities from striking, taking away a powerful tool to advocate for themselves and their students. 

Onerous administrative mandates in this bill will ensure that more of Ohio’s higher education funding goes to bureaucratic compliance and less goes to academic programs. The legislative micromanagement of academic programs will also make it harder for Ohio’s public universities to compete with those in neighboring states. 

SB 83 is bad for Ohio. The untenable mandates in SB 83 would shift money, time, and attention from student learning to bureaucracy. It would make it harder to attract students and faculty to Ohio institutions of higher learning, and in the long run, Ohio will become even less competitive economically.


What have coalition partners said about SB 83?

Check out video clips from the Wednesday, April 19 hearing of opposition testimony:

"[A]re big employers like Intel still going to want to be here? Are we going to be able to provide these employers with employees that can think for themselves, that can communicate, that are well-rounded, that are adaptable? That’s the things that faculty help students to hone when they’re at an institution. That’s why college graduates earn more than people that only have a high school education.... We’re putting up a big red flag to faculty around the country that you don’t want to come to Ohio.”
--Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of the Ohio conference of the American Association of University Professors​

"There are many local and specific reasons, but the orchestrated wave of attacks against ethnic studies, gender studies and the like is clearly associated with an attempt to roll back the changes in K-12 and higher education, and in society at large, that have taken place since the 1960s.... Ohio Senate Bill 83 isn’t just trying to roll back a few programs, but an entire legacy of protest and transformation. And by banning strikes at public universities and bringing greater political surveillance over faculty teaching and retention, the bill wants to undercut our very ability to resist such draconian changes in policy."
--Pranav Jani, Director of the Asian American Studies Program and Associate Professor in the Department of English at Ohio State University

"It’s essentially a gag order that would have a chilling effect on learning in Ohio’s public and private colleges and universities. It’s broad enough that if it were to pass, it would make people nervous, more nervous about what they can say and do, and it would inhibit the ability to really have honest conversations about the complex history of this country and this state.”
--Piet van Lier, senior researcher, Policy Matters Ohio

TAKE ACTION​​

Testimony Needed


​​HOW TO SUBMIT TESTIMONY

STEP 1:
PREPARE YOUR TESTIMONY
Read tips for preparing and submitting testimony HERE


STEP 2:
EMAIL TESTIMONY DOCUMENTS TO COMMITTEE
Email a PDF of your testimony & this completed Witness Slip to 



​ **IMPORTANT**
Do NOT send your testimony until the appropriate hearing is announced.
You must submit your testimony 24 hours ahead of the scheduled hearing.
Indicate in your email that you are submitting testimony and ask for a confirmation of receipt.
All testimony will be uploaded HERE


STEP 3:
ARRIVE EARLY FOR IN-PERSON TESTIMONY
Arrive at least 1 hour prior to the scheduled hearing 
There is convenient parking in the Statehouse Parking Garage