Censorship or protection? Kent State students react to Senate Bill 1 

By Mallory Hughes/Kent State NewsLab

After Senate Bill 1 took effect in June 2025, Mariana Quinones, a senior fashion merchandising major at Kent State University, noticed a shift in her peers’ willingness to speak up. One of her classes focuses on numerous real-world issues, like tariffs and import rates, but she felt that her professor may have been hesitant to connect the textbook content to current world events.

“I feel like I find her not really trying to ask us questions regarding it. 
She’s just like, ‘OK, this is what it is,’” Quinones said. “I feel like in the past it would have been like, ‘What’s your guys’ opinion on what is happening now?’ But it’s like she’s kind of avoiding even mentioning anything.” 

In Quinones’ class, the students get extra credit for participating in class discussions. But Quinones said her classmates seem afraid to talk about news topics. One day, she raised her hand to talk about the Epstein files, and she noticed her professor started to get uncomfortable and ultimately asked her what the issue had to do with the class. 

“Everybody seemed uncomfortable that I brought it up…, but it is still something that we should be talking about,” Quinones said. “Even when the Iran stuff was first going on, like, nobody raised their hand that week to be like, ‘Hey, we bombed Iran.’ The teacher’s also hesitant to bring that up and talk about how it’s gonna affect the supply chain.”

Richard Skains, the director of governmental affairs for Kent State’s Undergraduate Student Government, said that because of recent policies like SB1, some students might feel it’s harder to express their beliefs. 

“When students ask questions related to their beliefs, there are professors and faculty who will say that they can’t or don’t feel comfortable answering,” Skains said. “There’s so much gray space… That’s certainly not helping students to express their opinions and beliefs.”

Intent vs. Reality

SB1, which went into effect at Ohio public universities in June 2025, was meant to promote intellectual diversity, eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion and to increase accountability by limiting bias in the classroom. Supporters believe the bill does a sufficient job of promoting intellectual diversity and protecting students, while opponents argue that it is an attack on academic freedom. 

Sixty-six percent of the 47 students surveyed by the Advanced Magazine Writing class in Spring 2026 had negative impressions of SB1 overall, with nearly half expressing that SB1 has limited free speech, has taken away resources or was unnecessary. A psychology student described SB1 as a “direct attack on education, freedom of speech and democracy.” 

Approximately 45% of surveyed students feel less comfortable expressing their opinions and beliefs on campus since SB1 has come into effect: 11% fear offending someone, 9% fear social isolation, 6% fear reputational harm on social media, and 9% fear someone filing a complaint against them to the university.

Of the 47 surveyed students, zero reported any personal positive effects of SB1. 

“I feel like I can feel a lot of professors… holding back on their opinions on things,” said Grace Calvin, a senior zoology major. “I feel like that just also kind of affects me in being more wary of what I can say on campus and in class.” 

Skains said the undergraduate student government is nonpartisan, but it disapproves of SB1 because it’s representative of the majority of Kent State’s student body. 

“The fact that a majority of surveyed students had negative impressions of Senate Bill 1 does not surprise me,” Skains said, “and because our faculty cannot answer these questions and we can’t have those conversations in the classroom, I think it’s a big hamper on free speech.”

Nica Delgado, a graduate student at Kent State and digital political organizer for the Ohio Student Association, has noticed a shift in the way Kent State is supporting students.

She lost the Oscar Ritchie Memorial Scholarship, which was created to support students who were underrepresented in higher education. It granted $3,000 per year to more than 300 students at Kent State.

“[Senate Bill 1] is preventing so many students of color and international students from attending higher education,” Delgado said. “It is preventing our professors from having a good quality working environment, which prevents us from having a good learning environment. It’s preventing us from taking the classes and getting the scholarships that we need to have a good, well-rounded education.”

Self-censorship online and on campus

There had not been any SB1 complaints filed against students on Kent’s campus as of March 9, according to records provided by the university’s legal counsel.

“Part of the concerns that we shared in the Statehouse were that Senate Bill 1 would allow students to go to a history class and say they didn’t believe the Holocaust was real. And the professor would have to allow them to have the same amount of debate time as a student who was like, ‘No, actually, there’s a lot of evidence of the Holocaust,’” Delgado said.

Still, Delgado has spoken with numerous sociology students who feel they cannot speak up online, especially social work majors, as they are seen as a “DEI major.” 

“I work with a lot of sociology students, and they are not only choosing to withhold, but are being told to withhold, especially online, their political opinions for fear of it reflecting poorly on the department, but also for their future careers,” Delgado said. 

Quinones runs a popular Instagram account amongst fashion students at Kent State called @KSUFitzz. The account was created to spotlight students’ outfits around campus and to bring the community together through fun content. 

Quinones is passionate about her political beliefs and has shared posts before on political and world events. But she now fears having her reputation tarnished when it comes to networking and applying to jobs, and how her followers may perceive her.

Calvin also said she’s careful not to share too much of what she thinks and believes when talking about certain topics on campus. 

“I definitely feel like there’s an air of like, you kind of are walking on eggshells and trying to say the right things and not going too deep into your own opinions,” Calvin said.

Campaigning for a change

At an institution where so many go to learn about the world from multiple perspectives and to decide who they are and where they stand, Delgado feels SB1 has hindered students from receiving the full experience of higher education. 

“It’s a very clear separation between a Kent State that we knew, cared for and supported us, and a Kent State that pushes everything onto its students and prevents us from really getting a lot of the quality institutional support that we got early in our career,” Delgado said. 

Delgado also feels the future of higher education lies in the hands of the students. In fall 2025, OSA hosted a funeral for the death of higher education and for the loss of the identity centers on campus. They have been participating in pro-free speech activism.

OSA also recently kicked off the “Save Our Scholarships” campaign, which is helping to fill gaps for students who had their scholarships cancelled by the bill. 

“It would be a $5 charge to tuition for all students, but it would allow about 250 students to get $500 of emergency money for housing, healthcare, transportation, anything like that,” Delgado said. “We’re pretty close. We’re at about 1,500 signatures, so hopefully we will get there by the end of the semester, we can turn it in, and then next fall we can have an election.”

Once OSA reaches 2,000 to 3,000 signatures, they plan to turn them into the Undergraduate Student Government and then in the fall, they will have an election to decide on the motion.

“Students are on the right side of history. Kent State students are on the right side of history. We always have been, and we always will be. And we cannot let bad legislation eat our education away. And we must fight back,” Delgado said. 

Grace Claxon contributed to this story. It was originally published by the Kent State NewsLab, a collaborative news outlet publishing journalism by Kent State students.