Ohio State University

About the Ohio State University

The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State or OSU, is a public university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and ninth university in Ohio with the Morrill Act of 1862, the university was originally known as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (Mech). The college began with a focus on training students in various agricultural and mechanical disciplines but was developed into a comprehensive university under the direction of Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, and in 1878 the Ohio General Assembly passed a law changing the name to "The Ohio State University". It has since grown into the third largest university campus in the United States. Along with its main campus in Columbus, Ohio State also operates a regional campus system with regional campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster.

The university is home to an extensive student life program, with over 1,000 student organizations; intercollegiate, club and recreational sports programs; student media organizations and publications, fraternities and sororities; and three active student governments. Ohio State athletic teams compete in Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision for football) of the NCAA and are known as the Ohio State Buckeyes. Athletes from Ohio State have won 100 Olympic medals (44 gold, 35 silver, and 21 bronze). The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference for the majority of sports. The Ohio State men's ice hockey program competes in the Big Ten Conference, while its women's hockey program competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In addition, the OSU men's volleyball team is a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA). OSU is one of only fourteen universities in the nation that plays Division I FBS football and Division I ice hockey.

As of August 2015, a total of 714,512 degrees had been awarded since the university was founded. Alumni and former students have gone on to prominent careers in government, business, science, medicine, education, sports, and entertainment.

History of the Ohio State University

The initial idea of a manufacturing and agriculture university in central Ohio had been hindered in the 1870s by hostility from the state's agricultural interests and competition for resources from Ohio University, which was chartered by the Northwest Ordinance, and Miami University; although, these issues were dismissed by Republican stalwart Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. The Ohio State University was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university in with the Morrill Act of 1862 under the name of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The school was originally situated within a farming community located on the northern edge of Columbus. While some interests in the state had hoped that the new university would focus on matriculating students of various agricultural and mechanical disciplines, Governor Hayes manipulated both the university's location and its initial board of trustees towards a more comprehensive end.The university opened its doors to 24 students on September 17, 1873. In 1878, the first class of six men graduated. The first woman graduated the following year. Also in 1878, in light of its expanded focus, the Ohio legislature changed the name to the now-familiar "The Ohio State University", with "The" as part of its official name.

Ohio State began accepting graduate students in the 1880s, and in 1891, the school saw the founding of its law school, Moritz College of Law. It would later acquire colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, veterinary medicine, commerce, and journalism in subsequent years. In 1916, Ohio State was elected into membership in the Association of American Universities.

Michael V. Drake, former chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, assumed the role of university president on June 30, 2014.

In an attack against the campus on November 28, 2016, an unrelated fluorine leak was called in for Watts Hall, resulting in the evacuation of the building to an outside courtyard. As firetrucks began to depart, Abdul Razak Ali Artan drove into the crowd, then emerged and began stabbing those nearby. The attack was stopped in under two minutes by OSU Police Officer Alan Horujko, who witnessed the attack after responding to the reported gas leak, and who shot and killed Artan. The university's Buckeye Alert system was triggered and the campus was placed on lockdown. Ten were transported to local hospitals and one suspect was killed according to multiple sources. Local law enforcement and the FBI launched an investigation. According to authorities, Artan was inspired by terrorist propaganda from the Islamic State and radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Accreditation

• Institutional Accreditation or Recognition - The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
• Year of first Accreditation - 1913

Rankings

• In 1916, Ohio State became the first university in Ohio to be extended membership into the Association of American Universities, and remains the only public university in Ohio among the organization's 60 members. The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2000) by Howard and Matthew Greene listed Ohio State as one of a select number of public universities offering the highest educational quality.
• In its 2016 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked Ohio State as tied for the 16th-best public university in the United States, and tied for 52nd among all national universities.
• The Academic Ranking of World Universities placed Ohio State 42nd nationally and 79th globally for 2016.
• In its 2015-16 rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it tied for 90th in the world. In 2016, QS World University Rankings ranked the university 88th in the world.
• The Lombardi Program on Measuring University Performance at Arizona State University detailed analysis and rankings of American universities in 2007 placed Ohio State as the 24th ranked university in America, the 10th ranked public university in the country and the top overall university in Ohio.
• Of their nine ranking criteria, Ohio State ranked in the top-25 in four categories and between 26–50 in an additional four categories.
• The Washington Monthly college rankings, which seek to evaluate colleges' contributions to American society based on factors of social mobility, research, and service to the country by their graduates, in 2016 placed Ohio State 69th in the nation.
• Ohio State is also the only public university in Ohio to which the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has given both its highest overall classification of R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity and highest undergraduate admissions classification of more selective.
• Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the undergraduate business program at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business as the 14th best in the nation in its 2016 rankings.
• U.S. News & World Report ranks the MBA program tied for 30th in America.
• Fisher's Executive MBA program was ranked 3rd nationally for return on investment by The Wall Street Journal in 2008 citing a 170 percent return on an average of $66,900 invested in tuition and expenses during the 18-month program.
• The Ohio State law school is ranked by U.S. News & World Report tied for 34th overall in America for 2016, with the nursing school tied for 22nd, public affairs tied for 25th, and the medical school ranked tied for 31st for research and tied for 40th for primary care; the graduate engineering program was ranked 32nd best and the College of Education ranked 15th in America.
• Nineteen Ohio State graduate programs or specialties were rated among the nation's top ten for 2016.
• The Ohio State political science department is ranked 15th in the country by U.S. News & World Report for 2016, with the international politics section 8th, American politics 10th, and political methodology 10th.
• Professor Alexander Wendt was ranked the most influential scholar of international relations in the world in a 2011 survey of American professors of international relations.
• The history department was recently ranked 18th in the nation (6th among public universities) by the National Research Council.
• U.S. News & World Report ranked the graduate program in interior design 2nd in the nation for 2016.
• Overall, U.S. News & World Report ranked the graduate art program 18th, with the ceramics program at 4th.
• In its 2008 edition of "America's Best Architecture & Design Schools, the journal DesignIntelligence ranked the undergraduate Industrial Design program #3 nationwide, and the graduate program in Design #10 nationwide. The DFC conducted their research by polling 270 corporations regarding how design schools were preparing their students for the future of professional practice in design. OSU was in the top ten rankings of the corporate leaders' assessments in all regions (#4 in the south, #2 in the midwest, #7 in the east, and #4 in the west). The graduate program placed at #3 in the south and #2 in the east, resulting in 10th overall in the nation.

Student life @the Ohio State University

The Office of Student Life is responsible for many of the outside-the-classroom aspects of student life at Ohio State. It has more than 30 departments. Among these are student housing; dining services; health, wellness and counseling offices; the Ohio Union, student activities, organizations and leadership development; recreation and intramurals. The Office of Student Life has partnership affiliations with the Schottenstein Center, the Blackwell Inn, and the Drake Events Center. Services supporting student wellness include the Wilce Student Health Center, named for university physician John Wilce, The Mary A. Daniels Student Wellness Center and the Counseling and Consultation Service and the Recreational and Physical Activity Center (RPAC).

The Office of Student Life also oversees the operation of. The RPAC is the main recreational facility on campus, and offers over half a million square feet of recreation, aquatic, fitness, and meeting space. The RPAC features two on-campus dining locations, a 50-meter competitive pool, 12 wood courts, 10 racquetball courts, 4 squash courts, a four-lane jogging/walking track, five multipurpose rooms, and approximately 27,500 square feet of fitness space with state-of-the-art equipment. is also located inside of the RPAC. The Wellness Center within the (RPAC) offers services such as nutrition counseling, financial coaching, HIV and STI testing, sexual assault services, and alcohol and other drug education. The Outdoor Adventure Center (OAC) is another recreational facility on campus. The OAC features the Tom W. Davis Climbing Center with a 4,000-square-foot, 35-foot tall climbing structure and bouldering cave. The OAC also has an outdoor equipment rental office and a trip-planning resource center.  The marching band is also a longstanding tradition at Ohio State. It is the largest all-brass and percussion band in the world. The traditional school songs from "Carmen Ohio" to "Hang on Sloopy" to "Fight the Team Across the Field", are arranged to fit this instrumentation. The band is famous for "Script Ohio", during which the band marches single-file through the curves of the word "Ohio", much like a pen writes the word, all the while playing the French march "Le Regiment de Sambre et Meuse." At the end of the performance, the "i" in "Ohio" is "dotted" by a high-stepping senior sousaphone player.

Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement and convocation, and athletic games are: Across the Field, the Ohio State University fight song and "Buckeye Battle Cry".

The tradition of high quality bands is not limited to the football field. OSU's School of Music contains several high quality concert bands consisting of graduate and undergraduate music majors and non-music majors. The OSU Wind Symphony, frequently receives praise on the national level, recently having been selected to perform at the 2003 College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Convention and at the Ohio Music Educators Association Conference in 2001, 2004, 2006, and 2008; the OSU Symphonic Band performed in 2007. The OSU Wind Symphony has recently released its newest album, "Southern Harmony," the Naxos Label in 2009. The Ohio State Jazz Ensemble performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975, 1978, 1986, 1996, and 2001. It has also appeared at the Mexico City International Jazz Festival in 1990 and the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1986, 1996, and 2001. In addition there is also an OSU Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to strong bands, the university is also recognized for outstanding choral performance. The Ohio State University Men's Glee Club was formed in 1875. In 1990, led by Professor James Gallagher, the Men's Glee Club participated in the International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangolen, Wales and won the male chorus competition by an unprecedented 20 points before, in a unanimous decision of the judges, being named "Choir of the World"—the first American choir to win such an honor. The Glee Club is under the direction of Dr. Robert J. Ward. The Ohio State Women's Glee Club was established in 1903. In the group's recent past, under the leadership of Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt, the Glee Club has been selected to sing for state and regional conferences of the Ohio Music Education Association and the American Choral Directors Association. Beginning its season under the direction of Dr. Richard Schnipke, the OSU Women's Glee Club was honored to have the opportunity to sing for the Ohio Choral Directors Association annual conference in June 2010.

Ohio State's "Buckeye Bullet" electric car broke the world record for the fastest speed by an electric vehicle on October 3, 2004 with a speed of 271.737 mph (437.3 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.The vehicle also holds the U.S. record for fastest electric vehicle with a speed of 314.958 mph (506.9 km/h), and peak timed mile speed of 321.834 mph (517.9 km/h). The vehicle was designed, built and managed by a team of engineering students at the university's "Center for Automotive Research-Intelligent Transportation" (CAR-IT). In 2007, Buckeye Bullet 2 was launched. This follow-up effort was a collaboration between Ohio State engineering students and engineers from the Ford Motor Company and will seek to break the landspeed record for hydrogen cell powered vehicles.

A unique aspect to Ohio State's multibillion-dollar endowment is the Student Investment Management Program. Upperclass finance students taking Business Finance 724 are given the opportunity to manage a twenty million dollar investment fund. Returns from the student managed funds often outperform the S&P 500 and frequently even the university's own professional fund managers.

Jon Stewart hosted The Daily Show's "Battlefield Ohio: The Daily Show's Midwest Midterm Midtacular" from Ohio State's Roy Bowen Theatre during the week of October 30 to November 2, 2006.

Diversity

Ohio State's main campus has been lauded in recent years for the racial diversity of its student body. In various surveys and rankings it has been included among the best campuses in the nation for African Americans. Additionally, Ohio State ranked 10th in the nation in 2006 for the numbers of African American doctors graduated. The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students lists Ohio State as one of the 20 best campuses in America for LGBT students.

Ohio State, despite selective admissions, has also maintained a high amount of socio-economic diversity among its students. The 2007 freshman class contained 22.7% of first generation college students, which far exceeded the national norm on American campuses of 15.9%.

Services of the Ohio State University

University housing

Ohio State operates 38 on-campus residence halls divided into three geographic clusters: South Campus (site of the university's original dormitories) (currently include joint dorms known as Smith-Steeb and Park-Stradley), North Campus (largely constructed during the post-war enrollment boom) and West Campus or "The Towers." Within the residence hall system are 40 smaller living and learning environments defined by social or academic considerations. Ohio State also offers three honors residence halls: Bradley Hall, Lincoln Tower, and Taylor Tower.

Separate housing for graduate and professional students is maintained on the Southern tier of campus within the Gateway Residential Complex and the William H. Hall Student Residential Complex. Family housing is maintained at Buckeye Village at the far northern edge of campus beyond the athletic complex.

Student Life University Housing also administers student residential housing on the OSU Newark, OSU Mansfield and OSU Agricultural Technical Institute (ATI) campuses.

The Residence Hall Advisory Council (RHAC), which is a representative body of all students living in the University's residence halls, helps evaluate and improve the living conditions of the residence halls.

Activities and organizations

The Ohio Union was the first student union built by an American public university. The Ohio Union is dedicated to the enrichment of the student experience, on and off the university campus. The first Ohio Union, located on the south edge of the South Oval, was constructed in 1909 and was later renamed Enarson Hall. The second Ohio Union was completed in 1950 and was located prominently along High Street, southeast of the Oval. It was a center of student life at Ohio State University for more than 50 years, providing facilities for student activities, organizations and events, and serving as an important meeting place for campus and community interaction. In addition, many student services and programs were housed in the union, along with dining and recreational facilities. The second Ohio Union was demolished in February 2007 to make way for the new Ohio Union, which was finished in 2010. During this time, student activities had been relocated to Ohio Stadium and other academic buildings.

Student organizations

Student organizations at The Ohio State University provide students with opportunities to get involved in a wide variety of interest areas including academic, social, religious, artistic, service-based, diversity and many more. There are over 1,000 registered student organizations that involve many thousands of students. The university's debate team has won the state National Forensics Association tournament several times.

Block "O" is currently the largest student-run organization on the campus of Ohio State. With over 2,400 annual members, Block "O" serves as the official student cheering section at athletic events for the University. According to the Student Organization Office in the Ohio Union, Agricultural Education Society is the oldest student organization on campus. That claim is often disputed by Men's Glee Club, but after consultation with Ohio Union Staff, Agricultural Education Society was named as the university's oldest organization.

Each year, students may sign-up to participate in BuckeyeThon, Ohio State's student-led philanthropy. The organization hosts events throughout the year to support the hematology/oncology/bone marrow transplant unit at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Although BuckeyeThon is operated entirely by student volunteers, it is embedded within Student Life and the Ohio State University Foundation.The organization receives support, advising, and specialized leadership training from the University. Each February, thousands of students and community members attend BuckeyeThon's signature event, a Dance Marathon consisting of two separate 12-hour shifts. In the past 15 years, students have raised over $5 million to support treatment, research, and various therapies at the hospital. Unique to BuckeyeThon is the use of an operational fund separate from the main philanthropic cancer fund. As a registered non-profit, BuckeyeThon is subject to University audit and issues gift receipts through the Foundation. An annual operational fund relies on University grants, outside sponsors, and event registration fees. This allows the entirety of donations made to the cancer fund to solely support patients without hindrance from outside costs.

Ohio State has several student managed publications and media outlets. The Makio is the official yearbook.The Makio's sales plummeted by 60% during the early 1970s; the organization went bankrupt and stopped publication during the late 1970s. The book was revived from 1985 to 1994 and has since been revived again in 2000 thanks to several student organizations. The Lantern is the school's daily newspaper and has operated as a laboratory newspaper in the School of Communication (formerly the School of Journalism) since 1881. Mosaic is a literary magazine published by Ohio State, which features undergraduate fiction, poetry, and art. The Sundial is a student written and published humor magazine. Founded in 1911 it is one of the oldest humor magazines in the country. After a 17-year hiatus in which no magazine was published it has recently been revived, first in print form, and now in an online humor blog, as well as multiple social media outlets. Ohio State has two improvisational comedy groups, The 8th Floor Improv and Fishbowl Improv, who regularly perform long and short-form improv around campus and across the U.S.There are two student-run radio stations on campus. OHIO.FM is the music station and Scarlet and Gray Sports Radio broadcasts eleven different Ohio State sports. Both stations broadcast on an Internet audio stream (no broadcast signals are available in Columbus). Students also operate a local cable TV channel known as Buckeye TV, which airs primarily on the campus closed cable system operated by the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).

Leadership and service

The Union's vision is to prepare students to be responsible, engaged leaders committed to community participation for social action and change. Programs with which students can get involved include are the Leadership Collaborative, Leadership Ohio State, Residence Halls Advisory Council, LeaderShape, Buckeye Service Council, Community Commitment Day, SERV team, Service Squad, ImpactOSU, and BUCK I SERV alternative break trips. Additionally, the Service-Learning Institute offers courses that educate students while also helping the greater community. All of these programs have the ultimate goal of making students better leaders, people, and citizens of Ohio.

In 1914, with the approval of President William Oxley Thompson and under the watchful eye of Dean Caroline Breyfogle, Ph.D., Mortar Board Senior Honor Society was established by seven senior women. Four years later, the members of the group then became one of the four founding chapters of Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society, which now has charters at 231 campuses in the U.S. For more than 100 years at Ohio State, members of Mortar Board have been selected for their significant contributions in scholarship, leadership and service.

Student government

At The Ohio State University, three recognized student governments represent their constituents.

• Undergraduate Student Government (USG), which consists of elected and appointed student representatives who serve as liaisons from the undergraduate student body to university officials. USG seeks to outreach to and work for the students at Ohio State.
• Council of Graduate Students (CGS), which promotes and provides academic, administrative, and social programs for the university community in general and for graduate students in particular. The Council provides a forum in which the graduate student body may present, discuss, and set upon issues related to its role in the academic and non-academic aspects of the University community.
• Inter-Professional Council (IPC), which is a representative body of all professional students in the colleges of Dentistry, Law, Medicine, Optometry, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine. Its purpose is to act as a liaison between these students and the governing bodies of the University.