The Ohio State University ("the" is officially in the title) is a major state university. In Autumn 2008, the flagship Columbus campus had the largest enrollment of any single university campus in the United States, at 53,715.[1] Among Ohio State's better ranked departments are Linguistics and History, the School of Education has been highly ranked for a long time, and the Medical School is large, well-respected, and has recently experienced considerable growth.[2]
Ohio State has four branch campuses, in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, and Newark, all of which are in the northern half of Ohio, but the central Columbus campus dwarfs these. The total enrollment across all campuses is 61,568.[3]
The current university President, E. Gordon Gee, has led the university since October 1, 2007,[4] and previously served as president of the university from 1990 to 1997.[5] Gee has also served as president of Vanderbilt University, Brown University, University of Colorado, and West Virginia University. He is also famous for his trademark bow tie.
The neighborhood surrounding the Columbus campus, especially east and southeast, is somewhat infamous for being high in crime. The "Campus Partners" program has sought to combat this problem by developing relatively blighted areas along High Street.[6]
Ohio State was founded as land-grant university in 1870 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College.