Okla. will require college students to take free speech training, bars discrimination against religious groups

June 10, 2026

Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a law barring its public colleges and universities from discriminating against student organizations based on their viewpoints and requiring students to take free speech training during their first year of enrollment.

The Christian Post reports that Stitt signed Senate Bill 1725 into law last month after the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate approved it in a 40-7 vote and the Republican-controlled Oklahoma House of Representatives passed it in a 78-15 vote.

The legislation prohibits Oklahoma public colleges and universities from classifying students’ expression as harassment unless the expression “meets the definition of harassment” outlined in existing state law.

Oklahoma state law defines harassment as “expression that is unwelcome, so severe, pervasive, and subjectively and objectively offensive that a student is effectively denied equal access to educational opportunities or benefits provided by the public institution of higher education.”

The measure also amends state law to require institutions of higher education to provide professors, adjunct professors, teaching assistants and other faculty with training to understand protections for student free speech, in addition to school administrators.

According to the Christian Post, the Oklahoma Free Speech Committee, authorized under state law, will “develop a free speech training that shall include information on the expressive activities that are protected by the First Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution.

Sara Beth Nolan of the conservative legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom said Senate Bill 1725 is “encouraging a culture of open expression on college campuses,” in a statement published Friday.

Nolan said, “This bill helps ensure that Oklahoma’s public universities remain places where intellectual diversity flourishes and all students can engage in the exchange of ideas rather than being censored.”

ADF has previously raised the alarm about the prevalence of viewpoint-based security fees on college campuses.

Photo: top, Credit: pcess609/iStock