Ohio State University

The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollment in the United States, with nearly 50,000 undergraduate students and nearly 15,000 graduate students. The university consists of sixteen colleges and offers over 400 degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". As of 2024,^[update] the university has an endowment of $7.9 billion. Its athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I as the Ohio State Buckeyes as a member of the Big Ten Conference for the majority of fielded sports.

It is a member of the Association of American Universities. Past and present alumni and faculty include 6 Nobel Prize laureates, 9 Rhodes Scholars, 7 Churchill Scholars, 1 Fields Medalist, 7 Pulitzer Prize winners, 64 Goldwater scholars, 1 Costa Rican president, 1 U.S. vice president, 7 U.S. senators, 15 U.S. representatives, and 104 Olympic medalists.

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. Championed by the Republican governor Rutherford B. Hayes, the Ohio State University was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university under the Morrill Act of 1862 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College.

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, the Ohio legislature recognized an expanded scope for the university by changing its name to "the Ohio State University".

In 1906, Ohio State segregationist 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. In 1916, Ohio State was elected into membership in the Association of American Universities.

In 1911, president Thompson wrote in a letter, "the race problem is growing in intensity every year, and I am disposed to doubt the wisdom on the part of the colored people of taking any move that practically forces the doctrine of social equality." At the same time, Ohio State "practiced racial segregation" that was widespread across the country at the time against Black students, and "there is no known evidence [Thompson] saw benefits in addressing it". In 2024, after attempts were made to remove Thompson's statue from the Oval, university spokesperson Ben Johnson stated "the naming review process is thoughtful and thorough and therefore could take several years", but the statue has not been removed.

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.