Ohio's Public Universities
The Origins of Public Higher Education in Ohio
The utilization of Ohio as a microcosm for understanding public universities relies upon their complexity and variety. With 14 public institutions of vastly different sizes and missions, Ohio can be representative of many of the institutions across our country with significant and interesting histories. As Ohio University, Miami University, and Ohio State University emerged, so too did similar institutions across the United States.
Ohio University
(Ohio University, Athens)[1]
Ohio University, launched in February 1804, made its mark as the first college in the United States to be founded on a land grant and as the oldest college in the Northwest Territory.[2] A consistent theme in the United States revolves around individuals conquering the wilderness, establishing their shelter, then establishing the churches and schools that would make their lives meaningful. Ohio University’s story was not much different; it was simply the first to be done on a land grant. Settlers from New England knew an institution of higher learning would be necessary for their newfound community to subsist. Luckily, the Northwest Ordinance had included funding for higher education, although it clearly expressed the intention for the university to be more “directly and organically connected with the State than a college on a private foundation.”[3] Ohio University was thus born out of the pioneering spirit of the day in the pursuit of educational opportunity within our newfound communities.
Miami University
(Miami University, Oxford) [4]
When the first government was set up in Ohio, the University of Miami was on the forefront of planning. Intentions of the university go back as far as 1787. The act establishing the university was passed in 1809, but the first classes were not taught until 1824 due to a lack of funding and irresponsible planning.[5] The institution had serious religious ties from the beginning (the first few Presidents were ministers in the Presbyterian church), although it always remained nondenominational because of its status as a public university. Miami University attracted students from across the nation and eventually was seen as one of the most elite public institutions in the United States, providing a public education that rivaled Ivy League universities.
Ohio State University
(Ohio State University, Main Building)[6]
For over forty years Ohio University and Miami University served the state of Ohio as the only public institutions. Yet, in 1870, the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College was started in Columbus Ohio. Today we call that institution The Ohio State University. There was heavy discussion pertaining to whether the funds set aside by the State could be utilized more effectively by Miami University, Farmers’ college in Cincinnati, or by the establishment of a public university in the northern part of the State.[7] Yet, the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College was created and charged with the responsibility of educating Ohio’s youth about agriculture and mechanical arts while still providing education on the liberal arts. The University expanded over the following years and was renamed Ohio State University in 1878.[8]
Next Week's Post: The Expansion of Higher Education in America
Sources:
[1] Knight, History of Higher Education in Ohio, 18.
[2] Ibid., 13.
[3] Ibid., 14.
[4] Ibid., 32.
[5] Ibid., 31.
[6] Ibid., 1.
[7] Ibid., 37.
[8] Ibid., 44.
About the Author:
Lukas Wenrick spends his days working to develop innovative solutions to the most complex issues universities face. He does so to ensure that the most marginalized students may pursue an alternative trajectory than the one laid out by their zip code. He believes that universities and other educational enterprises have the duty to expand educational opportunity to as many individuals as possible and that excellence should be judged by the students that an institution includes, rather than those that it excludes.
Lukas holds a Master's of Education in Higher Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science Education from Wright State University. His experiences at both an open access public university and an elite private institution inform the work he does every day. Currently, Lukas serves as a University Innovation Fellow at Arizona State University where he works to leverage the ASU enterprise to resolve educational and social inequities in the world.
If you'd like to know more about Lukas you can find him on the following sites:
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