History of Ohio State University
The Ohio State University was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university in accordance with the Morrill Act of 1862 under the name of Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The school was originally situated within a farming community located on the northern edge of Columbus, and was intended to matriculate students of various agricultural and mechanical disciplines. The university opened its doors to 24 students on September 18, 1873. In 1878, the first class of six men graduated. The first woman graduated the following year. In 1900, in light of its expanded focus, the college permanently changed its name to the now-familiar "The Ohio State University". Ohio State began accepting graduate students in the 1880s, with the university awarding its first master's and doctoral degrees in 1886 and 1890 respectively. 1891 saw the founding of Ohio State's law school. Presently, the university has reached the ranking of becoming a "Public Ivy", as well as receiving high rankings and awards from many institutions, including "U.S. News", Academic Ranking of World Universities.
History of Ohio State University
Two factors in Ohio State's formative years would hinder the university's immediate development: hostility from the state's agricultural interests and competition for resources from Miami University and Ohio University. The first arose from the curriculum debate. Fueled by the agriculture interests and the Springfield business community that supplied them, the attitude of Ohio farmers towards the university had turned from one of indifference to one of outright hostility. By 1880, this hostility had begun to make its presence felt in the state legislature. The second hindrance came in the form of competition for state allocations from Ohio's two older public institutions. At the time of Ohio State's creation, these institutions had been derided by then Governor Hayes as borderline sectarian colleges that, in over sixty years of history, had failed to provide Ohio with a real state university. It was this view that was fundamental in the decision to found a new university as recipient for the Morrill Act funds, making Ohio unique among Great Lakes states in founding a new university for this purpose, as well as considerably strengthening the hand of those who advocated a broad based curriculum. However, the founding of this new university combined with their own precarious financial positions (Miami would close for a dozen years due to a lack of enrollment) had awakened the older institutions to compete vigorously for the attention of the state legislature. The first of these issues would be resolved by the end of the decade. Resolution of the second would not occur until 1906. Even then, the inherent tension of agricultural interests within the larger context of a comprehensive research university and the competition among state universities in a decentralized higher education system would, to varying degrees, remain permanent issues with which Ohio State would be forced to contend.