OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 151 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for S.B. 83’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Introduced
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Demetriou and Williams
Effective date:
Mike Niemi, Research Analyst
SUMMARY
STATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), intellectual diversity, and
other concepts
Policy
 Requires state institutions of higher education to adopt a policy requiring the institution
to:
 Prohibit any mandatory programs or training courses regarding DEI;
 Affirm and guarantee a primary function to the pursuit of knowledge;
 Affirm and guarantee that the institution will ensure full intellectual diversity;
 Establish and implement intellectual diversity rubrics for courses and evaluations;
 Seek out intellectual diversity in invited speakers;
 Post a complete list of all speaker fees, honoraria, and other emoluments in excess
of $500 prominently on its website.
 Requires each state institution’s policy to affirm that the state institution will not:
 Endorse, comment on, or take action as an institution on current public policy
controversies or controversial beliefs or policies;
 Influence or require students, faculty, or administrators to endorse or express a
given ideology, political stance, or view of a social policy;
 Require a student to endorse or express a given ideology, political stance, or view to
obtain an undergraduate or post-graduate degree;
 Aid or abet activities such as boycotts, disinvestments, or sanctions;
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Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
 Use political and ideological litmus tests in any hiring, promotion, and admissions
decisions, including diversity statements and other requirements that applicants
describe commitment to a specified concept, specified ideology, or controversial
belief;
 Influence or require students, faculty, or administrators to endorse or express a
given ideology, political stance, or view of a social policy in any hiring, promotion, or
admissions process or decision;
 Use a diversity statement or any other assessment of an applicant’s commitment to
a specified concept in any hiring, promotions, or admissions process or decision;
 Influence or require students, faculty, or administrators to endorse or express a
given ideology, political stance, or view of a social policy in any process or decision
regulating conditions of work or study.
Intellectual diversity protections and disciplinary sanctions
 Requires each state institution to do all of the following:
 Implement a range of disciplinary sanctions for anyone under its jurisdiction who
interferes with the intellectual diversity rights of another;
 Inform all students and employees of their intellectual diversity protections and any
applicable policies adopted by the state institution to put the protections into
practice;
 Issue and post to its website an annual report on any violations of intellectual
diversity rights and resulting disciplinary sanctions.
Mission statements
 Requires each state institution to incorporate statements into its mission statement
affirming commitment to free and open intellectual inquiry, independence of thought,
tolerance of differing viewpoints, and equality of opportunity.
Affirmations and policies on equal opportunity
 Requires state institutions to affirm and guarantee that it will:
 Treat all faculty, staff, and students as individuals, hold all individuals to equal
standards, and provide every individual with equality of opportunity;
 Affirm and guarantee that it will not treat differently any faculty, staff, or students
based on membership in groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity,
religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression in any
program, policy, or activity.
Prohibition on support and training for certain concepts
 Prohibits state institutions from funding, facilitating, or providing any support to any
position, material benefit, policy, program, and activity that advantages or
disadvantages faculty, staff, or students based on any group identity.
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As Introduced
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 Prohibits state institutions from training any administrator, teacher, staff member, or
employee to adopt or believe in, or from hiring any employee to instruct others in,
certain listed concepts regarding race or sex.
 Requires state institutions to implement a range of disciplinary sanctions for anyone
who authorizes or engages in a training that violates the above prohibitions.
 Requires state institutions to issue and post on their websites an annual report
regarding violations of the above prohibitions, resulting disciplinary sanctions, and
statistics on the academic qualifications of accepted and matriculating students,
disaggregated by race and sex.
Segregation prohibition
 Requires state institutions to prohibit all policies designed explicitly to segregate faculty,
staff, or students based on group identities such as race, sex, gender identity, or gender
expression.
Higher education employee strikes
 Prohibits state institutions of higher education employees from striking and instead
requires them to submit unresolved collective bargaining disputes to a final offer
settlement procedure.
Faculty evaluations
Student and peer evaluations
 Requires the Department of Higher Education (DHE) to develop a minimum set of
standard questions to be used in student evaluations, including a question about
whether a faculty member creates a classroom atmosphere free of bias.
 Requires each state institution to establish a written system of faculty evaluations
completed by students that uses the questions developed by DHE.
 Requires state institutions to publish each faculty member’s average annual numerical
score from student evaluations on the institution’s website by August 1, 2024, and
annually thereafter.
 Requires state institutions to establish a written system of peer evaluations for faculty
members with a focus on professional development regarding the faculty member’s
teaching responsibilities.
Faculty annual performance evaluations
 Requires state institutions to, by July 1, 2024, adopt and submit to the Chancellor of
Higher Education a faculty annual performance evaluation policy.
Post-tenure review policies
 Requires state institutions to, by July 1, 2024, adopt and submit to the Chancellor a
post-tenure review policy.
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As Introduced
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Other changes
Five-year institutional cost summaries
 Requires state institutions to submit to the Chancellor a rolling five-year summary of
institutional costs to be considered by the General Assembly when evaluating operating
and capital project funding for each biennial main operating appropriations bill and
capital appropriations bill.
 Requires the Chancellor to submit a report to the General Assembly including all state
institutions’ five-year institutional cost summaries.
 Requires that the president of each state institution or the Chancellor have the
opportunity to present in the appropriate hearings conducted by committees
considering higher education legislation regarding the institutions’ five-year summaries.
 Requires the Chancellor to, prior to the enactment of each main operating
appropriations and capital appropriations bill, create and present a report to the
General Assembly including the total institutional costs for state universities and
community colleges separately.
Faculty workload policy
 Requires each state institution, by July 1, 2024, and every three years thereafter, to
update its faculty workload policy.
 Requires each state institution to include in its faculty workload policy a teaching
workload expectation based on credit hours, a definition of all faculty workload
elements in terms of credit hours, justifiable credit hour equivalents, and any
administrative action that the state institution may take if a faculty member fails to
comply with the policy’s requirements.
American government or history course requirement
 Requires state institutions to implement a three credit hour American government or
American history course requirement for all students seeking an associate’s or
bachelor’s degree, beginning with students who graduate in the spring of 2027.
 Requires each state institution to include in its required American government or
American history course mandatory reading assignments including the United States
Constitution, Declaration of Independence, five essays from the Federalist Papers, the
Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, and Letter from Birmingham Jail by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Syllabus requirements
 Requires each state institution to post a syllabus for each undergraduate course offered
for college credit on its website.
 Requires each state institution and the Chancellor to prepare reports regarding state
institution compliance with syllabus posting requirements.
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As Introduced
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Interactions with the People’s Republic of China
 Prohibits state institutions from accepting gifts, donations, or contributions from the
People’s Republic of China or any organization or individual who may be acting on
behalf of the People’s Republic of China.
 Requires state institutions to report to the Chancellor any gifts, donations, contributions
received from any Confucius institute, scholars association, or organization that is
affiliated with, funded by, or supported by the People’s Republic of China in the five
years preceding the bill’s effective date and any time following the bill’s effective date.
 Requires state institutions to report to the Chancellor all existing contracts,
partnerships, affiliations, or financial transactions with such parties.
 Requires the Chancellor to make any reports made by state institutions regarding gifts
received from or existing contracts with such parties available to members of the
General Assembly upon request.
 Prohibits state institutions from entering into academic relationships with academic
institutions located in China or academic institutions located in another country and
associated with the People’s Republic of China.
 Prohibits state institutions from renewing any existing agreements between the
institution and the People’s Republic of China upon the agreement’s expiration.
Board of trustees training
 Requires the Chancellor to develop and provide annual training to the board of trustees
of each state institution.
OTHER HIGHER EDUCATION PROVISIONS
Private institutions of higher education
 Prohibits the Chancellor from distributing state funds to a private institution of higher
education for institutional purposes unless the private institution submits a statement
affirming its commitment to intellectual diversity, free speech, and compliance with
certain policies required of state institutions of higher education.
Three-year bachelor’s degree study
 Requires the Department of Higher Education to conduct a study on the feasibility of
implementing three-year bachelor’s degree programs in Ohio.
Act title
 Entitles the bill the “Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION .............................................................................. 6
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), intellectual diversity, and other concepts .......................... 7
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As Introduced
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
Policy ........................................................................................................................................... 7
Intellectual diversity protections and sanctions ......................................................................... 9
Mission statements ..................................................................................................................... 9
Affirmations and policies on equal opportunity ....................................................................... 10
Prohibition on support and training for certain concepts ........................................................ 10
Segregation prohibition ........................................................................................................ 12
Higher education employee strikes .............................................................................................. 12
Faculty evaluations ....................................................................................................................... 13
Student and peer evaluations ................................................................................................... 13
Faculty annual performance evaluations .................................................................................. 13
Post-tenure review policy ............................................................................................................. 14
Other changes ............................................................................................................................... 15
Five-year institutional cost summaries ..................................................................................... 15
Faculty workload policies .......................................................................................................... 16
American government or history requirement ......................................................................... 17
Syllabus requirements ............................................................................................................... 17
Interactions with the People’s Republic of China ..................................................................... 18
Board of trustees training ......................................................................................................... 19
OTHER HIGHER EDUCATION PROVISIONS ................................................................................... 20
Private institutions of higher education ....................................................................................... 20
Three-year bachelor’s degree study ............................................................................................. 21
DETAILED ANALYSIS
STATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION
The bill makes several changes to higher education. It creates, among other things, new
requirements for state institutions of higher education regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion
policies and training, intellectual diversity, and faculty evaluations. It also prohibits higher
education employees from striking and instead requires employees to submit unresolved
collective bargaining disputes to a final offer settlement procedure.
Throughout the bill, “state institution of higher education” or “state institution” includes
any state university or college, community college, state community college, university branch,
or technical college. Further, when the bill requires that something be posted on a website, that
posting must be: (1) accessible from the main page of the state institution’s website by using no
more than three links, (2) searchable by k