COLUMBUS, OH — SEPTEMBER 02: On the campus of The Ohio State University, September 2, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio.
SB 117 originally created the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership at the University of Toledo’s College of Law. State Sens. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, and Rob McColley, R-Napoleon,An amendment to SB 117 — added on the Senate floor days before the budget was signed into law — tacked onto get centers for civics, culture and society.
The state’s budget allocates $24 million for these centers — $5 million each fiscal year to Ohio State, $1 million each fiscal year to Toledo and $2 million each fiscal year for each center at Miami, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. The centers at Miami, Cincinnati, and Cleveland State will be housed within the college of arts and sciences. The bill requires those universities to have at least 10 faculty members in the centers and to have an academic advisory council appointed by Dec. 31, with the consent of the Senate.
The plan is to offer more classes in the coming years and some of the other classes being considered by the institute include the Federalist Papers, American constitutional history, transformational Supreme Court cases, and a civil discourse class, among others.