[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 2, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6345-S6346]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     OHIO UNIVERSITY'S BICENTENNIAL

 Mr. VOINOVICH. Mr. President, the State of Ohio is home to 
Ohio University, the first public institution of higher learning in the 
old Northwest Territory. This institution, my alma mater, celebrates 
the 200th anniversary of its founding this year.
  On March 1, 1803, Ohio became the Nation's 17th State. Less than a 
year later, on February 18, 1804, the Ohio General Assembly approved 
Ohio University's charter.
  Ohio University is the realization of the Jeffersonian ideals of 
educating broadly and cultivating minds and ideas so that people can 
reason out their differences. Officially established in 1804, the 
university opened in 1808 with three students. In 1815, Ohio University 
award its first two bachelor's

[[Page S6346]]

degrees. By the end of the Civil War, the university had graduated a 
total of 145 students. By 1920, the student population was 1,072, but 
it was not until after World War II that the university began to 
approach its present size.
  In the 1950s, the student population grew from 4,600 to 8,000, and 
the 1960s saw enrollment burgeon from about 10,000 to some 18,000 
students on the Athens campus. Today, the Athens campus is comprised of 
more than 200 buildings on 1,800 acres, including state-of-the-art 
facilities featuring the latest in educational technology. Reinforcing 
the university's ongoing commitment to diversity, the Athens campus 
serves approximately 20,000 students hailing from all 50 States and 
about 100 nations. The university's service as a major educational and 
cultural institution in southeastern Ohio includes regional campuses in 
Chillicothe, Ironton, Lancaster, St. Clairsville, and Zanesville. These 
regional campuses collectively enroll about 8,500 students, making the 
full-time, part-time, and continuing education enrollment for Ohio 
University nearly 29,000.
  The university offers more than 270 undergraduate areas of study and 
a 20 to 1 undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio. On the graduate 
level, the institution grants master's degrees in nearly all of its 
major academic divisions, and doctoral degrees in selected departments. 
Ohio University is fully accredited by the North Central Association of 
Colleges and Schools and has been designated a Doctoral/Research 
University-Extensive, the highest classification, by the Carnegie 
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
  Throughout its life of change and growth, Ohio University and the 
town it calls home, Athens, has still successfully balanced all the 
advantages of a major university with the appeal of a caring and 
personal atmosphere. If there ever was a college town, Athens is it. 
The university's intellectual and cultural environment blends well with 
Athens' lively and quirky small-town atmosphere to create a setting 
where students, faculty and town residents live together in a community 
whose quality of life is difficult to match.
  A university of people, not a place or buildings, and the people of 
Ohio University--its students, staff, faculty, and alumni--have made 
their world a richer place. I am proud to be a Bobcat and proud of the 
accomplishments that so many alumni have made.
  Congratulations to Ohio University on 200 years of history, rich in 
providing excellence in higher education.

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