The latest version of the Ohio Budget Bill contains hidden provisions that will further impact public colleges and universities in Ohio.
House Bill-96 is to become law on September 30, 2025 as Ohio Revised Code (O.R.C.) 3345.457. The Bill currently reads in part:
(B) The board of trustees of each state institution of higher education has ultimate authority
to establish new academic programs, schools, colleges, institutes, departments, and centers at the institution. Notwithstanding anything in section 3333.0420 of the Revised Code to the contrary, the board of trustees may not delegate the board’s authority to adopt a curricular approval process under this section or to approve or reject academic programs.
(C) The board of trustees of each state institution of higher education shall adopt a
curricular approval process to establish and modify academic programs, curricula, courses, general education requirements, and degree programs. The process developed under this division shall do all of the following:
(1) Grant the faculty senate, or comparable representative body, the opportunity to provide advice, feedback, and recommendations on the establishment and modification of academic programs, curricula, courses, general education requirements, and degree programs;
(2) Clarify that all feedback and recommendations by the faculty senate, or comparable representative body, is advisory in nature;
(3) Retain the board’s final, overriding authority to approve or reject any establishment or modification of academic programs, curricula, courses, general education requirements, and degree programs.
HB-96 also expands the power of Ohio’s “intellectual diversity centers” established by the Ohio legislation in 2023 at five universities including The University of Toledo. The Bill gives the centers’ directors the power to approve the centers’ courses that meet general education requirements without faculty senate input or approval. The faculty senates would have no say over the centers’ courses.
HB-96 refers to these centers as “Academic civic centers”. Each university appears to have used other names. At The University of Toledo, the center was named the “Institute of American Constitutional Thought & Leadership”.
There is a tradition of shared governance in Ohio public colleges and universities, but there is no legal basis for it. HB-96 overrides any shared governance traditions, while establishing a carve-out for the “intellectual diversity” centers.
Article 7 ACADEMIC GOVERNANCE appears in all three of the UT-AAUP Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) for the T/TT, Law, and Lecturer faculty. Article 7 in all three CBAs expressly provides for shared governance. Because our three CBAs have two more years, Article 7 also remains in force for two more years. So, there is a conflict between HB 96 and Article 7 of our CBAs for the next two years. Shared governance is gone at most colleges and universities in Ohio and will soon be gone at The University of Toledo.
SB-1 as reported in UT-AAUP newsletters has diminished collective bargaining and DEI. HB-96 is diminishing academic governance and faculty senates.
UT-AAUP Executive Board