The architect of Ohio’s state-funded university civics centers wants to expand their influence, even as student demand looks modest and uneven from campus to campus.
Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) is backing legislation that would give the centers “sole authority” over faculty and curriculum while also making them “exclusive providers” of an American civics course that most public university students now must complete in order to earn a bachelor’s degree following Senate Bill 1.
Cirino’s latest proposal, Senate Bill 461, arrives three years after lawmakers first created civics centers at five Ohio universities and one year after Senate Bill 1 overhauled higher education – banning diversity, equity and inclusion programming, among other things – in an effort to curb “liberal bias” on campus.
Enrollment figures at the universities with civics centers – Ohio State University, Cleveland State University, Miami University, the University of Toledo and Wright State University – paint a mixed picture as they prepare for the first academic year in which all five will have civics courses available to students. Records obtained by The Dispatch show enrollment in center courses ranging from nearly full classrooms at Miami to just 12 students spread across five courses at Toledo.
Cirino said some centers have been slower to gain traction due to both the challenges of launching new academic programs and what he described as faculty resistance that has impeded their growth.
Senate Bill 461, titled the “Strengthening Ohio Civics Act,” would give the five centers the rights and privileges of independent colleges within their universities, guaranteeing funding protections and placing hiring, firing and curriculum decisions under the control of center directors.
It would also create an Ohio Civics Board made up of the five centers’ directors, giving them authority over the American civic literacy course required under Senate Bill 1. Beginning this fall with the spring class of 2029-2030, the state’s public university students must complete the course to earn a bachelor’s degree.
Cirino said he introduced the bill in part to protect the centers as new governors, higher education leaders and lawmakers take office.
“There is still a very large and passionate resistance to the establishment of the centers and what their mission is,” Cirino said. “I wanted to protect the five centers in the future, what their role is going to be and how they’re going to be financed.”
But to Jill Galvan, an associate professor of English at Ohio State, giving these intellectual diversity centers such authority is problematic.
“This is really kind of shockingly a state-controlled curriculum, and it strikes me as very undemocratic,” said Galvan, an executive board member of Ohio State’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “This is a moment, I think, when we want to be really aware of developments like this; they’re rather alarming.”
Class enrollment data paints a varied picture
Across the five centers, the number of students signed up to take courses varied substantially. Fill rates ranged from roughly 7% of available seats at Toledo to 94% at Miami.
At Ohio State’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, Columbus campus enrollment grew from 28 students across three courses in fall 2025 to 84 students across eight courses the following spring, filling 52% and 58% of available seats, respectively.
“It’s important to remember that Chase Center courses were in active development, as was the center’s first major program, and that the center was still building awareness of its offerings,” Ohio State spokesperson Chris Booker said in a statement, adding that more than 480 students are enrolled across 10 Chase Center courses this fall, some of which are already at capacity.
The Chase Center is also planning for its first major in Civics, Law and Leadership to begin in the fall, which Booker said is expected to be “a significant driver of enrollment.”
Cleveland State’s Center for Civics, Culture and Society enrolled 28 students in its lone spring 2026 course, filling about 47% of available seats.
Wright State’s Center for Civics, Culture, and Workforce Development differs from the other four centers in that its mission extends beyond civic education to include aviation, workforce development and defense-related programming tied to the nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. As of July 31, it reported 1,920 students enrolled across 56 U.S. civic literacy-specific courses for the fall 2026 semester, exceeding a combined capacity of 1,890 seats.
A Wright State spokesperson said in an email that students will be shifting their schedules until the first day of classes, meaning enrollment numbers will adjust as the start of the semester nears.
Miami University’s Center for Civics, Culture, and Society came closest to filling its available seats, enrolling 117 students across five courses in fall 2025 and 233 students across seven courses in spring 2026. That’s roughly 94% and 88% of capacity, respectively.
The University of Toledo’s Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership, enrolled 16 students across four courses in fall 2025 and 12 students across five courses in spring 2026. With average course enrollments capped at 33 students, according to a university spokesperson, those figures represent roughly 12% and 7% of available seats.
“These are new courses in a new program,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Student engagement in a new program often takes time to develop.”
‘A monopoly on civics’
Though Cirino said much of the need for higher education reform stems from “the wokeness of our public universities,” he added that he does not view these centers as the right-leaning centers many say they are.
“A lot of media folks that I talk with continue to characterize these centers as conservative centers. They are not,” Cirino said. “They are meant to be what the universities should be in the first place, and that is to be places where all viewpoints can be discussed and debated respectfully.”
But Galvan said creating an Ohio Civics Board to have sole authority over the state’s civics curriculum cuts against the goal of intellectual diversity. The bill, she argued, would establish “a state-mandated monopoly on civics.”
“Civics is a concept,” she said. “To say that there’s only one brand of civics, and that is the one that must be taught, is quite strange and alarming.”
Senate Bill 461 was introduced in the Ohio Senate June 22 and remains under consideration.
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: As enrollment varies, Ohio senator seeks more power for university civics centers
Reporting by Emma Wozniak, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Emma Wozniak, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
