The Ohio State University: A Land-Grant Institution

The Ohio State University (OSU), a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio, stands as one of the largest universities in the United States by enrollment. With a rich history and a broad range of academic programs, Ohio State has become a prominent institution in the state and the nation. However, like many land-grant universities, its history is intertwined with complex issues of land acquisition and its impact on Native American communities.

Origins and Establishment

Ohio State was established in 1870 as a land-grant university, initially known as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. This was made possible by the Morrill Act of 1862, which provided federal land grants to states to establish colleges focused on agriculture and mechanical arts. The proposal of a manufacturing and agriculture university in central Ohio was initially met in the 1870s with hostility from the state's agricultural interests, and with competition for resources from Ohio University, which was chartered by the Northwest Ordinance and Miami University. The university opened its doors to 24 students on September 17, 1873. In 1878, the first class of six men graduated.

The Morrill Act aimed to make higher education accessible to a wider segment of the population, and Ohio State played a significant role in this mission. In 1906, Ohio State president William Oxley Thompson, along with the university's supporters in the state legislature, put forth the Lybarger Bill with the aim of shifting virtually all higher education support to the continued development of Ohio State while funding only the "normal school" functions of the state's other public universities. Although the Lybarger Bill failed narrowly to gain passage, in its place the Eagleson Bill was passed as a compromise, which determined that all doctoral education and research functions would be the role of Ohio State, and that Miami University and Ohio University would not offer instruction beyond the master's degree level - an agreement that would remain in place until the 1950s.

Historical Developments

Throughout the years, Ohio State has faced various challenges and transformations. With the onset of the Great Depression, Ohio State would face many of the challenges affecting universities throughout America as budget support was slashed, and students without the means of paying tuition returned home to support families. By the mid-1930s, however, enrollment had stabilized due in large part to the role of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and later the National Youth Administration. By the end of the decade, enrollment had still managed to grow to over 17,500. In 1934, the Ohio State Research Foundation was founded to bring in outside funding for faculty research projects. In 1938, a development office was opened to begin raising funds privately to offset reductions in state support. In 1952, Ohio State founded the interdisciplinary Mershon Center for International Security Studies, which it still houses. The university jointed several other grants in the late 1980s. The 2020s were marked by internal divisions over politics. In 2020, Kristina M. Johnson took office as the 16th president. Her tenure was marked by the university incorporating various diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, which led to criticism from conservatives. Along with other public universities in the state, DEI policies were banned in 2025 with the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, which passed the Ohio State Legislature and was signed by Governor Mike DeWine. In 2023, Walter E. Carter Jr.

The university has grown to include sixteen colleges, offering a wide range of degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It also has five satellite campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster.

Campus and Facilities

Ohio State's 1,764-acre main campus is located approximately 2.5 miles north of downtown Columbus. The historical center of campus is the Oval, a quad of about 11 acres. The original campus was laid out in the English country style with University Hall overlooking what would become the Oval. From 1905 to 1913, the Olmsted brothers, who had designed New York City's Central Park, were contracted as architectural consultants. Under their leadership, a more formal landscape plan was created with its center axis through the Oval. This axis shifted the university's street grid 12.25 degrees from the City of Columbus' street grid.

The university boasts an extensive research library system with a combined collection of over 5.8 million volumes. Along with 21 libraries on its Columbus campus, the university has eight branches at off-campus research facilities and regional campuses, and a book storage depository near campus. In all, the Ohio State library system encompasses 55 branches and specialty collections.

Significant collections include:

The Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program: Archives of Admiral Richard E. Byrd and other polar research materials.
The Hilandar Research Library: The world's largest collection of medieval Slavic manuscripts on microform.
The Ohio State Cartoon Library & Museum: The world's largest repository of original cartoons.
The Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute.
The archives of Senator John Glenn

Anchoring the traditional campus gateway at the eastern end of the Oval is the 1989 Wexner Center for the Arts. Designed by architects Peter Eisenman of New York and Richard Trott of Columbus, the center was funded in large part by Ohio State alumnus Les Wexner's gift of $25 million in the 1980s. The center was founded to encompass all aspects of visual and performing arts with a focus on new commissions and artist residencies. Part of its design was to pay tribute to the armory that formerly had the same location. Its groundbreaking deconstructivist architecture has resulted in it being lauded as one of the most important buildings of its generation. Its design has also been criticized as proving less than ideal for many of the art installations it has attempted to display. The centerpiece of the Wexner Center's permanent collection is Picasso's Nude on a Black Armchair, which was purchased by Wexner at auction for $45 million.

To the south of the Oval is another, somewhat smaller expanse of green space commonly referred to as the South Oval. At its eastern end, it is anchored by the Ohio Union. To the west are Hale Hall, the Kuhn Honors House, Browning Amphitheatre (a traditional stone Greek theatre) and Mirror Lake.

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Knowlton Hall, dedicated in October 2004, is at the corner of West Woodruff Avenue and Tuttle Park Place, next to Ohio Stadium. Knowlton Hall along with the Fisher College of Business and Hitchcock Hall form an academic nucleus in the northwestern corner of North campus. Knowlton Hall was designed by Atlanta-based Mack Scogin Merrill Elam along with WSA Studio from Columbus. The Hall is home to the KSA Café, the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, city and regional planning, and about 550 undergraduate and graduate students. Knowlton Hall stands out from the general reddish-brown brick of Ohio State's campus with distinctive white marble tiles that cover the building's exterior. This unique wall cladding was requested by Austin E. Knowlton, the namesake of and main patron to the creation of Knowlton Hall.

Regional Campuses

Ohio State also operates several regional campuses:

The Ohio State University at Lima: Established in 1960, the Lima Campus Library has 76,000 volumes and 200+ journal subscriptions.
The Ohio State University at Mansfield: Founded in 1958.
The Ohio State University at Marion: Founded in 1957, its 187-acre campus is shared with Marion Technical College.
The Ohio State University at Newark: Classes were initially held at old Newark High School.
The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute: Located in Wooster, Ohio, established in 1969.

Governance and Finances

Ohio State is overseen by a 15-member Board of Trustees appointed by the Governor of Ohio. The university's governance system has been criticized for centralizing power in unaccountable institutions and limiting freedom of expression. In 2023, Walter E. Carter Jr.

Ohio State was among the first group of four public universities to raise a $1 billion endowment when it passed the $1 billion mark in 1999. In recent decades, and in response to continually shrinking state funding, Ohio State has conducted two significant multi-year fundraising campaigns. The first concluded in 1987 and raised $460 million, a record at the time for a public university. The "Affirm Thy Friendship Campaign" took place between 1995 and 2000. With an initial goal of raising $850 million, the campaign's final tally was $1.23 billion, placing Ohio State among the small group of public universities to have successfully conducted a $1 billion campaign. At his welcoming ceremony, returning President E. Gordon Gee announced in the fall of 2007 that Ohio State would launch a $2.5 billion fundraising campaign.

Academic Standing and Recognition

Ohio State consistently receives high rankings and recognition for its academic programs and research contributions. 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. In 2026, the Center for World University Rankings ranked Ohio State 29th nationally and 55th out of 21,462 universities globally. The Academic Ranking of World Universities placed Ohio State 39-51 nationally and 82th globally for 2023.

Research and Innovation

Ohio State is a prominent force in biomedical research. The Ohio State College of Medicine is on the southern edge of the central campus. It is home to the James Cancer Hospital, a cancer research institute and one of the National Cancer Institute's 41 comprehensive cancer centers, along with the Richard M.

The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) is a supercomputer facility located on the western end of the campus. Established in 1987, it partners with universities, labs and industries, providing high performance computing, cyberinfrastructure, research and computational science education services. Ohio State is a founding member of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is a consortium of universities and other institutions that operates astronomical observatories and telescopes. universities: California, Chicago, Harvard, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. The first meeting of the board of directors took place in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A team of engineering students from the university's "Center for Automotive Research-Intelligent Transportation" (CAR-IT) designed, built and managed the Buckeye Bullet, which set a world record for fastest electric vehicle with a speed of 314.958 mph (506.876 km/h), and peak timed mile speed of 321.834 mph (517.942 km/h). 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 broke the land speed record once again in 2016. On September 19, 2016, the Buckeye Bullet 3 achieved a new world record with a speed of 341.4 mph (549.4 km/h), beating its own previous record of 308 mph (496 km/h).

In a 2007 report released by the National Science Foundation, Ohio State's research expenditures for 2006 were $652 million, placing it seventh among public universities and 11th overall, also ranking third among all American universities for private industry-sponsored research. Research expenditures at Ohio State were $864 million in 2017.

Student Life and Activities

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. The RPAC is the main recreational facility on campus. The Ohio Union was the first student union built by an American public university. It is dedicated to the enrichment of the student experience, on and off the university campus. The first Ohio Union, 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 prominently along High Street, southeast of the Oval. It was a center of student life 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. The union also housed many student services and programs, along with dining and recreational facilities. The second Ohio Union was demolished in February 2007 to make way for the new Ohio Union.

Land-Grant Opportunity Scholarship

Ohio State offers the Land Grant Opportunity Scholarship to Ohio residents who are Pell-eligible and demonstrate academic merit. Each year, 176 Ohio students are awarded this scholarship, with an effort to select two students from each county. The award covers the full cost of attendance. Ohio residents who apply to the university by February 1 and file the FAFSA by February 1 are automatically considered.

Native American Acknowledgement and Initiatives

In recent months, outrage over racial injustices has sparked protests across the country. This outrage has helped uncover hidden histories and spark new conversations regarding the treatment of minorities in America. Like other universities, OSU is responding to recent concerns of racial inequity with a task force.

In recognition of the complex history of land-grant institutions and their impact on Native American communities, Ohio State has taken steps to acknowledge and address these issues. Part of that commitment has been to create groups and programs on campus centered on Native culture. Native American student groups on campus include the Native American Indigenous Peoples Cohort and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. The university also operates the Newark Earthworks Center. The center researches American Indian cultures and their contributions to architecture and other scientific achievements in the Midwest.

Charles said that an effective way for OSU to recruit more Indigenous students would be to send Native faculty out to the reservations and other large Indigenous communities. “It’s going to have to take initiatives on both ends at the same time to make sure we recruit,” Charles said. Doran spoke of the Society of American Indians, the first American Indian activist group, on campus. They first met in 1911.

Land Acquisition and Indigenous Land Rights

Eye on Ohio mapped all lands that supported Ohio schools, a total of 4,411 parcels spread out over 14 states. (Though only 4,060 could be mapped. paid $35,410 for the land and land sales raised $340,818, creating a return nearly ten times the purchase amount. Lee traced 97.5% of the land sales for Ohio under the 1862 law. Much of the land sold came from several tribes, including several Chippewa, Ottawa, Osage, and Sioux bands. Out of the 162 lands listed in Lee’s research, 96 were taken by unratified treaties, 53 were ceded by treaties, and eight were taken either by executive order or without a treaty.

According to Fall 2019 statistics, American Indian students made up just 0.1% of the student population on the Ohio State Columbus campus, though nationally 0.7% of Americans are Native American alone. But, Charles said research like this can help universities acknowledge more of their history and help them to become allies to current and future Native students.

Controversies

On July 20, 2018, BBC News reported that over 100 male students, including athletes from 14 sports, had reported sexual misconduct by a deceased university team physician, Richard Strauss. The reports dated back to 1978, and included claims that he groped and took nude photographs of his patients. Four former wrestlers filed a lawsuit against Ohio State for ignoring complaints of "rampant sexual misconduct" by Strauss.

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