State Sen. Jerry Cirino and Mary Anne Franks speaking on a panel on Sept. 9 in Washington, D.C. Credit: Courtesy of Mary Anne Franks
State Sen. Jerry Cirino is sponsoring legislation that would give Ohio State’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society more independence from the university, as the center reports enrollment above its goal this fall.
Cirino, R-Kirtland, is known as one of the primary sponsors of? Senate Bill 1 — which banned diversity, equity and inclusion programming and faculty strikes at state universities. His new proposal would build on a separate bill he sponsored that created the Chase Center and others like it.?
Specifically, it would make these centers the exclusive providers of civics courses at their universities and give center directors authority over faculty hiring, rank, salary and tenure.
“I introduced [the bill] as a means of further protecting the independence of the civic centers and making sure that there were always going to be budget dollars available to keep them going,” Cirino said.
The bill is currently in the Senate’s Higher Education Committee, where it awaits a hearing.
The Chase Center is one of five civics centers the Ohio legislature established alongside centers at the University of Toledo, Miami University, Cleveland State University and Wright State University. Cirino said Ohio State’s is the largest and furthest along in development.
The Chase Center was created by Senate Bill 117, proposed by Cirno and Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napolean and passed in Ohio’s 2023 operating budget. Housed in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs building, it teaches the historical ideas, traditions and texts that shaped the American Constitutional order, according to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.?
The Ohio State University’s Senate voted against approving the center, but it opened as legally required in fall 2025.
“I just wanted to make sure with [this bill] that future legislators or future governors would have a very difficult time changing the mission or changing the funding of the Chase Center and the other four centers as well,” Cirino said.
Cirino said some faculty members have opposed the centers since their creation, including efforts by faculty organizations like the Faculty Senate to influence the Chase Center’s hiring and curriculum.
“We wanted to make sure that there was a proper independence from the faculty organizations,” Cirino said.
The center is not fully independent, Cirino said, because Chase Center Executive Director Lee Strang remains responsible to Ohio State’s provost and president.
Mary Anne Franks, a law professor at George Washington University who debated Cirino on a recent panel, said the bill’s approach to tenure is one of her main concerns.
“One of the things that I considered to be one of the real red flags is the attempt to take over the tenure process and make it completely separate from the actual faculty who are teaching at these universities,” Franks said.
Franks said SB461 conflicts with academic freedom, which she said depends on universities governing themselves.
“The idea is that universities are valuable precisely because they are not under the control of the state,” Franks said.
Supporters of the centers have argued they bring intellectual diversity to campuses. Franks said that argument lacks a clear definition of the problem it aims to solve.
Cirino said the centers are not meant to push a political agenda.
“The Chase Center is not a right-wing indoctrination center,” Cirino said. “I want students to hear all sides of issues. Let the students decide as part of their educational process.”
Cirino said professors should not try to steer students toward particular views.
“It’s not their job to convince students of a specific point of view,” Cirino said.
Franks described the centers differently.
“It is an attempt to borrow from the credibility and the valor of the university, but not allow the university to have any control over what happens at these centers, ” Franks said.
Franks is a member of the advisory board of UNCIVIL, a consortium of scholars that released “The Civility Files” Tuesday, a report examining the donors and organizations behind campus civility and civics programs.
“The Civility Industry is a shell game,” Franks said in a press release. “Universities are not in crisis because of a lack of ‘viewpoint diversity’; they are in crisis because academic freedom is under assault by authoritarians, bureaucrats and billionaires.”
Meanwhile, the Chase Center’s enrollment has grown. Current enrollment across the Columbus and regional campuses is 481 students, 20% above the center’s goal of 400, according to university spokesperson Chris Booker.?
The center also hosted its second annual Civic Thought Conference this month, bringing more than 100 scholars from 47 institutions to Ohio State, Strang said in an email.
The university is currently assessing the bill.?
“Ohio State has been carefully reviewing the bill to evaluate its potential impact on the university,” Booker said in an email. “We have been talking with legislative partners to understand their intent behind this legislation and explain our operations and processes at the university.”
Cirino said he has met with Ohio State trustees and administrators about the bill and plans to introduce a revised version when lawmakers return in November.
“We’ve listened to some of their thoughts, we’ve incorporated many of them and I think we’re going to have a good accommodation for a bill that they will like,” Cirino said.
The bill’s immediate fate is unknown. Because it has yet to receive a hearing and because Ohio’s legislative session ends in December, bills that do not pass by the end of the year must be reintroduced. Cirino said he hopes to pass the bill before then, and will reintroduce it in January if it does not pass.
“Everything in Senate Bill 1, and in this bill and in the establishment of the centers, I have done for the students,” Cirino said.
