After World War II, the resulting influx of war veterans and others seeking an affordable higher education nearly overwhelmed OSU’s original Columbus campus. So University officials sought a different way to serve these students that wasn’t exclusively in its campus classrooms.
A study by then-OSU Prof. Kenneth Arisman of the College of Education showed that Ohio’s population had grown 13 percent between 1950 and 1956, but because of a lack of local educational opportunities, many of these new residents had no choice to move away from their hometowns to seek a college degree. Often, this limited their chances at getting a degree because of the cost of going to school away from home. Arisman’s report persuaded OSU’s Board of Trustees to set up branch campuses; the first two opened in 1957 at Marion and Newark. Two regional campuses soon followed, in Mansfield (1958) and in Lima (1961).
Marion campus construction
From the beginning, local support was involved. In Marion, for instance, the local Chamber of Commerce agreed to underwrite operations the first year while individual businesses and organizations provided more than $7,000 in scholarships. In Newark, classes were offered in the evenings in city schools, and scholarship money was raised locally.
Not only was local support involved in the founding of these campuses, but also in their growth. For instance, at Mansfield, local fund-raising along with state support led to the purchase of a 500-acre property in 1965; three years later, Lima purchased 565 acres for a campus, thanks to private donations and a statewide bond issue.
In 1972, the University built a special institute that would provide specialized and technical training for young people interested in careers in agriculture. Located in Wooster, home to the University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, the OSU Agricultural Technical Institute has offered associate’s degrees in various agricultural fields ever since.
Agricultural Technical Institute
From the beginning, many students attended regional campuses for two years, then transferred to the Columbus campus to finish their bachelor’s degrees. Now, however, the campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion and Newark offer a selection of undergraduate and graduate programs. From their humble beginnings of evening meetings in high school classrooms, the regional campuses now enroll more than 8,000 students, who can complete their degrees without ever leaving their home counties.
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