Rule 3357:15-13-51 | Advance Ohio education act policy.
Stark state college (SSC) is dedicated to fostering a learning and teaching environment where students, faculty, and staff can thrive and succeed. Our primary function is to support the practice of intellectual diversity, discovery, improvement, transmission, and dissemination of knowledge and citizenship education through teaching, discussion, and debate in accordance with the advance Ohio education act.
(A) Definitions:
(1) Controversial belief: any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including issues such as climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion.
(2) Intellectual diversity: multiple, divergent, and varying perspectives on an extensive range of public policy issues.
(B) SSC affirms the following practices:
(1) Orientation and training on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) concepts:
The college prohibits any orientation or training course regarding DEI, unless SSC submits a written request for an exception to the chancellor of higher education because the college determines the orientation or training course is exempt from this prohibition because all aspects of the orientation or course are required to:
(a) Comply with state or federal laws or regulations;
(b) Comply with state or federal professional licensure requirements; or
(c) Obtain or retain accreditation.
(2) DEI office or departments
The college will not continue existing DEI offices or departments nor will we establish new DEI offices or departments.
(3) DEI in employment and/or admission practices
(a) The college will not use diversity, equity, and inclusion in position descriptions.
(b) The college will not use political and ideological litmus tests in any hiring, promotion, and admissions decisions, including diversity statements and any other requirement that applicants describe their commitment to any ideology, principle, concept, or formulation that requires commitment to any controversial belief or policy.
(c) The college will ensure that hiring, promotion, and admissions processes or decisions do not encourage, discourage, require, or forbid students, faculty, or administrators to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology or political stance.
(d) The college will not use a diversity statement or any other assessment of an applicant's political or ideological views in any hiring, promotion or admissions process or decision.
(4) Third-party contractors
The college will not contract with consultants or third parties whose role is to promote hiring, admissions, or promotion based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
(5) Scholarships
(a) The college will not create new institutional scholarships using any DEI criteria.
(b) The college will discontinue existing DEI-based scholarships where possible. If donor restrictions prevent changes, no new funding for such scholarships will be accepted.
(6) Replacement with equivalent structures
The college shall not replace any orientation, training, office, or position designated for the purpose of DEI with an orientation, training, office, or position under a different designation that serves the same or similar purposes, or that uses the same or similar means.
(C) Research grants
(1) If grant compliance conflicts with DEI prohibitions, the college will seek legal guidance to comply as far as possible while retaining grant eligibility.
(2) If unable to comply, the college must submit a written exception request to the chancellor. The request must include an explanation of the circumstances and the effort made by the college to comply with the advance Ohio education act's DEI prohibitions while retaining eligibility for the research grant.
(D) Speakers
(1) The college will seek out invited speakers who have diverse ideological or political views.
(2) The college will post prominently on its website a complete list of all speaker fees, honoraria, and other emoluments of over five hundred dollars for events the college sponsors.
(3) That information shall be all of the following:
(a) Accessible from the main page of the institution's website by use of not more than three links;
(b) Searchable by keywords and phrases;
(c) Accessible to the public without requiring user registration.
(E) College affirmations
(1) The college's primary function is to support discovery, improvement, transmission, and dissemination of knowledge through teaching, discussion, and debate.
(2) The college will ensure intellectual diversity, encouraging students to reach their own conclusions regarding controversial issues.
(3) Faculty and staff shall allow and encourage students to reach their own conclusions about all controversial beliefs or policies and shall not seek to indoctrinate students into any political, social, or religious ideologies.
(4) The college will demonstrate intellectual diversity for course approval, approval of courses to satisfy general requirements, student course evaluations, common reading programs, annual reviews, strategic goals for each department, and student learning outcomes.
(a) College affirmations do not apply to the exercise of professional judgment about how to accomplish intellectual diversity within an academic discipline, unless that exercise is misused to constrict intellectual diversity. They also do not apply to the exercise of professional judgment about whether to endorse an academic discipline's consensus or foundational beliefs unless that exercise is misused to take a prohibited action.
(b) The college will not endorse or oppose any controversial belief or policy, except where on matters that directly impact the college's funding or the mission of discovering, improvement, and disseminating knowledge. This does not include the recognition of national and state holidays, support for the Constitution and laws of the United States or the state of Ohio, or the display of the American or Ohio flag.
(5) The college will not encourage, discourage, require, or forbid students, faculty, or administrators to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology, political stance, or view of social policy, nor will the institution require students to do any of those things to obtain a degree.
(6) The college will ensure that processes or decisions regulating conditions of work or study, such as committee assignments, course scheduling, or workload adjustment policies, don't encourage, discourage, require, or forbid students, faculty, or administrators to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology or political stance.
(F) Academic freedom
This policy does not restrict:
(1) Faculty or students from classroom instruction, discussions or debates, so long as faculty members allow students to express intellectual diversity;
(2) Compliance with disability accommodations or recognition of national/state holidays, U.S. or Ohio law, or the display of the American or Ohio flag; or
(3) Student organization operations.
(G) Complaint process
The college will respond to complaints from any student, student group, or a faculty member about alleged policy violations: student complaints will follow the student complaint(s) policy (policy 3357:15-19-08). If the complaint is against a student and it is determined that the student violated college policies and procedures, disciplinary action will be based on that defined in the student code of conduct policy and procedure (See student code of conduct policy, rule 3357:15-19-10 of the Administrative Code). The student will be notified in writing of the decision.
Alleged violations involving employees will be investigated following the internal complaint process. If the complaint is against an employee and it is determined that the employee violated college policies and procedures, disciplinary action will be based on that defined in the corrective action and discipline policy and procedure (corrective action and discipline policy, rule 3357:15-14-18 of the Administrative Code).
(H) Reporting requirements
In accordance with the guidelines established by the chancellor, the college will issue a report regarding:
(1) All violations of the disciplinary sanctions implemented for violation of the training prohibition.
(2) Statistics on the academic qualifications of accepted and matriculating students, disaggregated by race and sex. The statistics must include information correlating students' academic qualifications and retention rates, disaggregated by race and sex.
(3) The report will be posted on the Ohio department of higher education's website.
(I) Non-compliance
The college will refer to the corrective action and discipline procedure (rule 3357:15-14-18 of the Administrative Code) and the student code of conduct (rule 3357:15-14-10 of the Administrative Code) for appropriate disciplinary interventions. Additionally, failure to comply with this policy may result in state funding loss or reduction, as determined by the general assembly.
Last updated September 16, 2025 at 9:06 AM
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