OHIO responds to academic requirements in recent legislation

Executive Vice President and Provost Donald J. Leo is working with academic leaders and faculty members to comply with the academic provisions of the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act (SB 1) and budget bill (HB 96). Summaries of the required actions and a timeline of deadlines are provided below. 

Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, SB1

The Advance Ohio Higher Education Act (AOHEA) went into effect on June 27, 2025. Five faculty work groups met over the summer to provide guidance about its academic provisions, including low-conferral programs, student and peer evaluations of teaching, annual evaluations and post-tenure review, intellectual diversity in course approvals, and the American civics literacy course. Their recommendations are available at www.ohio.edu/workgroups. The Publicly Accessible Course Syllabus group began meeting in August and will submit its recommendations during fall semester. All syllabi for undergraduate courses must be posted on a publicly available website starting with Fall 2026 courses.

In addition, Provost Leo met with the Deans’ Council and incoming and outgoing Faculty Senate executives to discuss the AOHEA’s tenure, workload, and retrenchment provisions. The Ohio University Board of Trustees approved resolutions for six interim AOHEA policies during its scheduled June 2025 meeting. Drafts of the policies are currently under review, and the Board is expected to vote on them during its October meeting.

Throughout the summer, Provost Leo and members of his leadership team also participated in statewide discussions with academic leaders from the Ohio public universities. They have provided feedback to the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) as it develops AOHEA implementation guidance. 

AOHEA’s Key Deadlines

Aug. 26: Low-conferral program waiver requests were due to ODHE.  To date, the university has not received a response from the state on our waiver requests.  

Sept. 30: American Civics Literacy course plan must be submitted to ODHE. Statewide workload guideline expected to be released by ODHE. 

Dec. 31: OHIO must submit final Board of Trustees–approved university policies for faculty annual performance evaluation, faculty workload, faculty tenure, post-tenure review, and retrenchment.

Fall 2025: All credit-bearing undergraduate and graduate course evaluations will include three state-mandated questions.

Fall 2026: All undergraduate course syllabi must be posted publicly by the first day of the 2026-27 academic year.

Academic Year 2026-2027: OHIO must implement the peer evaluation of teaching, annual evaluation, post-tenure review, and peer evaluation of teaching policies.

State Operating Appropriations for FY 2026-27, HB 96

The current state budget bill went into effect on June 30, 2025, and contains four academic provisions. The first requires the Board of Trustees to review general education by December 2026 and ensure it addresses civic culture and society; AI, STEM and computational thinking; entrepreneurship and innovation; and workforce readiness by March 2027. ODHE is expected to provide additional guidance. 

The second requires state universities to offer at least one accelerated 90-credit-hour degree program that is aligned to an in-demand career area by the 2026-2027 academic year. University College Dean David Nguyen will work with academic leaders and faculty to develop our initial accelerated program offering. 

The third requires the Board to pass a resolution about exemptions to AOHEA’s American civics literacy requirement. The American Civics Literacy faculty working group is developing exemption recommendations for the Board’s consideration.

The fourth requires the Board to adopt curricular approval processes that clarify the role of Faculty Senate and Board authority. The provost will work with board members and the University Curriculum Council leadership to develop the necessary processes for the Board’s consideration.