Ohio State University

On July 2, 1862, Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States (1861–1865). Born to a frontier farming family in Kentucky, he had less than a year of formal schooling, taught himself law, and served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives before winning the presidency as the Republican candidate in 1860. During the Civil War he preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and pushed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery through Congress. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, and died the next day.Open the full entry signed the Morrill Act, which gave the states federal land scrip for higher education and made the future agricultural and mechanical college in Ohio possible.⁠[1][2]

In 1865 Ohio legislation authorizing the sale of the state’s land scrip created a five-member commission to plan the new agricultural college; in 1866 a statute created the first Board of Trustees, with seven members including the governor and the president of the State Board of Agriculture.⁠[2]

The Cannon Act of March 22, 1870, created the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, governed by a board of 19 trustees, one from each congressional district. The bill was proposed by Reuben P. Cannon, a General Assembly member from Portage County, whom the University Archives blog calls the “father of Ohio State.”⁠[3][2]

The act required a campus of at least 100 acres in the center of the state with railroad access, and the college had to admit people over 14 and offer four departments: agriculture, mechanic arts, military science and literature. The Neil Farm, between the Olentangy and Worthington Road, was chosen as the site.⁠[3]

The college opened on September 17, 1873, without a formal ceremony. Of 40 applicants, 24 were admitted, including two women, from eleven counties, and seven faculty members greeted them. Edward Francis Baxter Orton Sr. served as the first president from that day until June 21, 1881.⁠[3][4][5]

University Hall, the college’s only building, was still under construction, with an unfinished roof, no interior doors and only a few benches; many of the original faculty lived there with the students. Entrance examinations covered arithmetic, geography, English grammar and elementary algebra.⁠[4]

In 1874 the board was reduced from 20 members to five; in 1877 it was enlarged again to represent each congressional district, a version that lasted just over a year and met only twice.⁠[2]

In 1878 the General Assembly renamed the college The Ohio State University and reduced the board to seven members; the first class graduated the same year.⁠[2][6]

In 1884 Peter H. Clark became the first Black member of the board; in 1890 Charles H. Miller, an 1883 graduate, became the first alumnus on the board; and in 1924 Alma Wacker Patterson became its first woman member.⁠[2]

Ohio Stadium was completed just in time for its planned dedication on October 21, 1922. In the dedication game the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a university founded in Detroit in 1817 that moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1837; it is governed by a statewide-elected Board of Regents and also has campuses in Dearborn and Flint.Open the full entry won 19–0 before more than 72,000 spectators.⁠[7]

Board membership rose from seven appointees to nine in 1964; in 1988 the Ohio Revised Code added two non-voting student members, for a total of 11; in 2005 the legislature enlarged the board to 14 members, and to 17 beginning in 2006.⁠[2]

In 2009 the board created the “charter trustee” position, allowing up to three non-voting members who are not Ohio residents; in 2015 the state allowed student members to vote, a right student trustees have exercised since 2016; and from 2025 terms for newly appointed trustees were shortened from nine years to six.⁠[2]

The Board of Trustees appointed Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. the university’s 17th president on August 22, 2023, and he took office on January 1, 2024. He had previously been president of the University of Nebraska System, superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and president of the U.S. Naval War College, and is a retired vice admiral.⁠[8]

Carter’s presidency ended on March 9, 2026; at a special meeting on March 12, 2026, the board accepted the resignation he had announced earlier that week.⁠[5][9]

On March 12, 2026, the board’s 15 members voted unanimously by roll call to appoint Ravi V. Bellamkonda as the university’s 18th president, effective immediately, for a term running to June 30, 2031.⁠[9][10]

Bellamkonda had been executive vice president and provost since January 14, 2025; earlier he was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Emory University and Vinik Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University.⁠[10]

As of November 2026 the “Meet the President” page of the university’s Office of the President website is devoted to President Bellamkonda.⁠[5]

Autumn 2026 census figures put total enrollment at 68,183, up 1.4% from the previous year, including a record 62,010 on the Columbus campus and 6,173 at the regional campuses; new first-year students numbered 8,585 at Columbus and 3,256 at the regional campuses.⁠[11]

Through spring semester 2025 the university had granted 887,288 degrees.⁠[6]

Orton’s successors were Walter Quincy Scott (1881–1883), William Henry Scott (1883–1895), James Hulme Canfield (1895–1899), William Oxley Thompson (1899–1925), George Washington Rightmire (acting from November 1925, president March 1926–1938), William McPherson (acting, 1938–1940), Howard Landis Bevis (1940–1956), Novice Gail Fawcett (1956–1972), Harold Leroy Enarson (1972–1981), Edward Harrington Jennings (1981–1990; interim 2002), E. Gordon Gee (1990–1998 and 2007–2013), John Richard Sisson (interim, 1997–1998), William English Kirwan (1998–2002), Karen Ann Holbrook (2002–2007), Joseph A. Alutto (interim, 2007 and 2013–2014), Michael V. Drake (2014–2020), Kristina M. Johnson (2020–2023) and Peter J. Mohler (acting, 2023).⁠[5]

The university marked its Semi-Centennial (50 years) in 1920, its Diamond Jubilee (75 years) in 1948, its Centennial in 1970 and its Quasquicentennial (125 years) in 1995, and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2020.⁠[12]

Ohio State University: Official website: https://www.osu.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/ohiostate (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/school/the-ohio-state-university/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/OhioStateUniversity (opens in a new window).⁠[2]