SB 1 Implementation Update: Registered student organization guidance, Board of Trustees meeting, faculty policies

Dear Colleagues:

The start of a new academic year has arrived, and we want to provide you with several updates as we prepare to welcome new and returning students and colleagues.

As we shared in our last update, we are transitioning in regard to SB 1 implementation work to more broadly engage in change management. This means that leadership in colleges and administrative units should now be making decisions on their programs, initiatives, events and more based on the guidance provided by the implementation committee throughout the summer and continuing this fall. While the committee will continue to ensure a process for compliance – including those parts of the law that have delayed effective dates (see implementation timeline) – we have reached a point at which change management efforts will be most effective if led by the college, unit or leadership organization with the closest relationship to the potentially impacted groups. This approach will ensure that colleges, units and leadership organizations as a whole will successfully adapt to the law’s requirements.

Our aim is to continue to provide college and unit leaders with a complete picture of their organization's compliance needs and the resources to manage them, rather than the committee fielding individual and often localized questions from faculty, staff and students within the broader university community. The following are recent examples of these efforts that we encourage you to review.

• The Office of Faculty Affairs will hold a series of open office hours this fall for faculty and instructors to answer questions on a variety of issues, including SB 1-related topics. Each session will include representatives from faculty affairs, the Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning and the Center for Ethics and Human Values (CEVH). These sessions are open to all faculty and instructors, including graduate teaching associates.
• CEHV has also created a guide for Facilitating Civil Discourse in the Classroom offering instructors confidence and resources to ensure that their discussions with students reflect the mission of the university by being open, rigorous and constructive. It follows the center’s 4Cs methodology for leading challenging conversations in the classroom.
• The SB 1 Compliance website will continue to be updated and serve as a central resource for the university community. To support the faculty and students returning to campus who may have questions about the implementation efforts over the summer, we have posted each of our past updates to this group in the News and Updates section of the SB 1 Compliance website – along with the Faculty/Instructor Resources and Support message that was distributed to all faculty and staff last week.
• University Communications has established a SB 1 communications subcommittee with representatives from multiple colleges and administrative units. The purpose of this group is to increase engagement through institutional-level communications and provide resources for colleges and units to issue appropriate communications within their own areas. You will begin to see these communications in various forms, including a one-page summary that you can distribute.

Moving forward, we are committed to supporting and facilitating presentations, tool kits or other resources so that deans, department chairs and other leaders can lead this work in their areas. Please urge your teams to take advantage of all of the above tools and resources.

In turn, we need and expect you to engage with this material, communicate its importance to those you lead, and embrace the shared accountability we all have for compliance with SB 1.  

Below are a series of additional important updates. As always, thank you for your commitment to compliance and continued contributions to our university, and we look forward to sharing more throughout the fall.

Thank you,

Ravi Bellamkonda, Anne Garcia and Stacy Rastauskas

Invited speakers

As a reminder, SB 1 requires the university to post publicly a list of speakers who were invited to participate in university-sponsored events and were paid speaker fees, honoraria or other emoluments more than $500 in the past month. Events sponsored by registered student organizations are not included in the list, consistent with state law.

This information is being shared publicly on a monthly basis – and the university recently published the list of speakers for July. Visit this website for more information.

Registered student organization guidance

The SB 1 Compliance website has been updated with more robust guidance for registered student organizations and for faculty and staff advisors to these organizations along with a link to frequently asked questions on the Student Activities webpage. Last week, the Office of Student Life also shared this and additional information with student organization advisors prior to the start of the academic year. 

Board of Trustees meeting

In our previous communication, we included information about the board’s Academic Affairs and Student Life Committee approving several actions related to required policies pursuant to SB 1. Those policies related to DEI, intellectual diversity, controversial beliefs and the complaint process as prescribed by law, and interim revisions to faculty policies regarding annual review, post-tenure review and reappointment, as well as changes to the faculty rules, appointments, tenure and retrenchment were approved on the full board consent agenda at its August 20 meeting. These policies are in effect as of August 25.

Faculty workload guidelines

Faculty workload policy requirements related to SB 1 are largely covered in the university’s preexisting Faculty Workload Guidelines. Under SB 1, these guidelines will be updated to include some additional items and referenced in the existing Faculty Appointments policy.

OAA reviews and approves each unit-level workload structure, which is integrated into each unit’s Pattern of Administration. OAA’s review is triggered every time a new academic leader (dean and chair/director) is appointed or reappointed. Target reviews can also accelerate the incorporation of new elements.

The Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) has indicated that they will provide additional guidance by the end of September regarding these new requirements, with expected submission of materials by December 31.

Faculty annual reviews 

The university has long required academic units to provide all compensated faculty (including tenure-track, clinical/teaching/practice, research and associated faculty) with “an annual written performance review that examines performance over the prior year and sets goals for future performance.” The full requirements for such reviews are set forth in the Faculty Annual Review, Post-Tenure Review, and Reappointment policy.

SB 1 outlines a series of minimum standards for faculty annual reviews, some of which are already outlined in the above policy, and some of which are new. Information on annual reviews is available on the Office of Academic Affairs website. Specifically, SB 1 provides that such reviews must:

• Be “comprehensive and include standardized, objective, and measurable performance metrics”;
• Separately assess performance in every category of work (e.g., teaching, research, service, clinical care, etc.) where the faculty member performed at least 5% of their overall effort;
• Include the parameters “exceeds,” “meets,” or “does not meet” performance expectations;
• Base at least 25% of teaching assessments (where applicable) on student evaluations, which must include questions determined by the university as well as those provided by the Chancellor of Higher Education; and
• Provide faculty with the projected distribution of their work for the coming year in accordance with the university’s workload policy and with college leadership approval, and use that distribution to conduct the faculty member’s next annual review.

In addition, SB 1 requires a written system of peer evaluations to support professional development. It also provides that faculty have the right to a review and appeal process for their annual reviews, including the ability to appeal to their dean, with the provost having final decision-making authority if there is disagreement between a chair and dean.  SB 1 further required the university to adopt a process for post-tenure reviews for tenured faculty.

The university updated the Faculty Annual Review, Post-Tenure Review and Reappointment policy to address each new requirement, and the Board of Trustees approved it on August 20, 2025; the new policy went into effect on August 25, 2025. In addition, the Board approved edits to Faculty Rules 3335-5-04 and 3335-5-04.1 and added a new Faculty Rule 3335-5-04.5 to address the post-tenure review processes and related SB 1 complaint procedures.

University report regarding federal foreign gifts

On August 1, the university made its first report regarding foreign gifts to the chancellor of ODHE, pursuant to section 3345.591 of SB 1.

The U.S. Department of Education requires foreign gift reporting to comply with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. Institutions that receive a gift from or enter into a contract with a foreign source (including through intermediaries such as a foundation), the value of which is $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with that foreign source within a calendar year, must file a disclosure report. SB 1 requires that Ohio universities share such federal reporting with the chancellor to be made available to any member of the Ohio General Assembly upon request. Please see this website for additional background, including a FAQ, about this compliance requirement.