From Woody's Couch

Our Playbook on OSU History

Category: Student housing (page 2 of 3)

Twelve Days: For OSU undergrads, Park served as a constant counselor

Dean Joseph Park (left), with students, 1951

Dean Joseph Park (left), with students, 1951

One of the people Ohio State should never forget is Joseph A. Park, the University’s first Dean of Men. His greatest contribution may have been the Stadium Scholarship Dormitories, which helped thousands of male students attend OSU who otherwise could not have afforded to do so. But his long service as a calm counselor, ready to help in a crisis – or in some cases, get a student out of a jam – is what endeared him to thousands of students and led to his name on one of OSU’s dorms.

Born in Cleveland on October 7, 1893, Park graduated from Cleveland’s West High School before coming to Ohio State in 1914. At OSU, he was active in the YMCA, the fraternity Alpha Tau Omega and Sphinx, the senior men’s honorary. He also served on the staff of the Makio. During his junior year he was drafted to the Army, where he entered officer training. He returned to Ohio State in 1919 as a 1st Lieutenant, graduating in 1920. He married Ruth Vera Webb that June, and they had two daughters, Ruth and Mary.

Park, n.d.

Park, n.d.

As a senior, he had served as secretary for the campus YMCA; he held that position until 1927 when then-OSU President George Rightmire went looking for a position he was calling “student councilor.” Rightmire selected Park, whose job title changed to Dean of Men two years later. A new position at the time, the job changed greatly over the years as the campus grew. But Park didn’t change that much: He was always ready to listen and offer a helping hand or piece of advice.

Though he was responsible for the well-being of thousands of male undergraduates, he always kept a calm demeanor – and a phone at his bedside. Often the late-night calls were the results of normal college stress—or to bail students out of jail. In fact, the writers at the Sundial, OSU’s humor magazine, once said of Park’s position: “Some of the problems would tax a Supreme Court Justice schooled in psychiatry.”

Park with students, 1930

Park with students, 1930

Park didn’t seem to mind, saying once that “the trouble is more than offset by the fun.” Indeed, he gave the bride away at dozens of weddings, and he and his wife chaperoned hundreds of campus dances and parties. On a questionnaire he listed his hobbies as “student life.”

Besides being a counselor and fill-in parent to students, Park also had the opportunity to make some lasting changes to the University structure. In 1927, when he was still a senior and YMCA secretary, Park proposed the creation of an office of director of student affairs and a student court, and the creation of a Student Senate. Eventually, all of these proposals came to fruition.

Students in the Stadium Dorm, 1947

Students in the Stadium Dorm, 1947

Park’s most notable contribution, though, was the establishment in 1933 of co-operative housing system in the Stadium for low-income male students. Known as the Stadium Scholarship Dorms, they helped keep students in school by offering affordable housing in exchange for working in the dorms at jobs like cleaning and serving in the dining area. This housing philosophy still exists in the Stadium Scholarship Program.

Park died on April 19, 1952. He was 59. In 1959, Park Hall was one of three then-new dormitories (Stradley and Smith were the others) built to provide more dorm space for men on campus.

– Filed by C.N.

Bleeds Scarlet and Gray: Long after death, Failer’s contributions continue

Josephine Failer, 1985

Josephine Failer, 1985

On the anniversary of her birth this week in 1910, we would like to remember Josephine Sitterle Failer, who graduated from Ohio State’s College of Pharmacy in 1939, the same year the OSU Development Fund began the first year she donated to the Fund. She contributed to the fund for the rest of her life, but that wasn’t the only way she showed her support for her alma mater.

From her graduation, Mrs. Failer stayed active with her College’s alumni association. Over the years, she served on numerous boards and committees, including: the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors and Executive Board, the Alumnae Scholarship Houses Advisory Board, the Ohio State Alumni Council, the Friends of OSU Libraries, and the University Hospitals board. For more than 25 years, Failer, who had a passion for antiques, co-sponsored the Greater Columbus Antique Show and Sale, raising more than $105,000 for OSU organizations, including Alumnae Scholarship Housing, the OSU Marching Band, Men’s Glee Club, Naval ROTC, OSU Libraries and student financial aid.

But Jo, as she was known, did more than raise money. She delivered groceries to the elderly, visited hospital rooms, spoke with parents at freshman orientation, and registered participants for Program 60. If there was a job that needed doing, Jo was the woman to do it.

For years, she oversaw that the living conditions at the Alumnae Scholarship Housing residences were up to par, even occasionally hemming curtains while her husband, Jay, replaced fuses or rewired lamps. She and her husband continued to live in the University District, on East 15th Avenue, befriending their student neighbors. She once said she knew she would not find a more interesting place to live anywhere in the city.

Failer receives her honorary degree, 1987

Failer receives her honorary degree, 1987

It was her love of the University, and her desire to give back to her alma mater that earned her an incredible amount of recognition. This recognition includes the University’s highest honors: the Distinguished Service Award (1964), the Alumni Centennial Recognition Award (1970), the Ralph D. Mershon Alumni Award (1984) and lastly, the honorary Doctorate of Humanities Award presented at the December 1987 Commencement a week before her death. She was 77 years old.

Failer’s dedication to OSU has continued long after her death, in the form of alumni awards and student financial awards in her name, such as the Josephine Sitterle Failer Alumni Award through the College of Pharmacy. The award honors a College alumnus or alumna who has made significant contributions to his or her community. A fund in her name also provides assistance to students in Alumnae Scholarship Housing who have been elected to membership in OSU honoraries. And the OSU Alumni Association established the Josephine Sitterle Failer Award for volunteer service to students. Its most recent recipient was James Miller, senior associate vice president for the Office of Technology Commercialization, whose many contributions include the renovation of a rundown fraternity house into a home for military veterans enrolled at Ohio State. Jo would be very proud.

Filed by C.N.

Home a hard place to find for past OSU women undergrads

Oxley Hall residents, 1931

Oxley Hall residents, 1931

Women undergraduates who attend OSU today should be thankful for the times in which they live. If they had attended the University during its first 50 years, they would have had to work a lot harder to find a place to live here.

Though women attended OSU from the day it opened its doors in 1873, they did not have a dorm until 1908 when Oxley Hall opened. Even then, Oxley Hall housed only 60 women, and there were 600 women enrolled at that time. So until Oxley Hall, women had the options of living at home – if they were from Columbus – or living in area boardinghouses.

Part of the reason for the dearth of campus housing was financial: At the time Ohio State depended much more greatly on state funding, which was miniscule compared to other state universities. For instance, while the University of Michigan received $274,000, and the University of Wisconsin was given $92,736 from their respective state legislatures for the 1881-1882 academic year, Ohio State received $21,950.

It also was not a top priority for OSU’s first leaders; the university’s first president, Edward Orton Sr. never made such a funding request to state lawmakers, for example. (Granted, he had a lot of other things going on, like starting a university from scratch.)

Mack Hall residents, 1924

Mack Hall residents, 1924

It wasn’t until OSU’s fourth president, James Canfield, that there was a concerted effort to offer campus housing to women, which culminated in the construction of Oxley Hall. Slowly, the campus options increased with the construction of Mack Hall in 1921 and the purchase of Neil Hall in 1925. Women who lived in the dorms were supervised, and did most of the cleaning and other chores in the dorm. They had a curfew and were prohibited from having male visitors except for certain hours on Saturday and family visits on Sunday.

With very limited space at the University, sororities became a very popular choice: Ohio State had 25 sorority houses by 1925. These were considered the next best option for out-of-town students because like the dorms, they were socially acceptable to parents and the University, with each house having a “house mother” and sharing the University standards as to curfew, rules and living conditions. There were also houses supervised by religious entities, such as the Westminster Foundation, which housed a limited number of women students in an off-campus house.

Neil Hall women, 1929

Neil Hall women, 1929

If a student was unable to gain accommodation with family, or in a dorm or sorority, the student still needed a place to stay. Many girls opted to try to work for a family in exchange for room and board. This was not always the best solution; students sometimes would end up exhausted and unable to keep up with schoolwork.

After the appointment of the first Dean of Women in 1912, University staff inspected the rooms that girls rented in private homes to prevent unsafe living conditions. The Office then began keeping a list of boarding houses that could be recommended to students. To be on the list, the home had to pass the University’s inspection, there could be no male boarders in the boarding house and conditions had to be sanitary.

Apparently, some women students lived in conditions so poor that the University left certain campus buildings open, such as the Home Economics Building , so women students could use the bathrooms if their own rooms lacked suitable plumbing. And for all that, women paid as much as $5 a week, while male boarders usually paid $3-4.50 per week.

Filed by C.N.

Much of our information for this blog came from two dissertations on the early history of women at OSU, both of which are available at the Archives:

Sisters and Scholars: Women at the Ohio State University: 1912-1926, by Louise Ann Booth (1987)

Women at the Ohio State University in the First Four Decades: 1873-1912, by Pouneh M. Alcott (1979)

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