ORD_Buckeye
Wrong glass, Sir.
A couple of thoughts on the above posts: first, Piney.
Ohio State did not use the government to be named the state's flagship university. It would have been quite a feat though, as Ohio State didn't exist when that decision was made. Conversely, the decision was actually the catalyst to establish Ohio State in the first place. The Fredo brothers wanted the designation and they lobbied vigorously for it. Both, however, were denied. They were viewed as borderline religious colleges that had done little in their sixty years of existence to provide Ohio with a proper state university as institutions in other Great Lakes states had. That Ohio was the only Great Lakes state not to designate an existing university for this role speaks volumes as to how Ohio's two existing public universities were viewed by the Governor, the legislature and Ohio's business leadership.
The Eagleson Bill of 1906 merely codified the decisions of forty years prior. That Ohio State had built up more than enough momentum in its first forty years to justify the Eagleson Bill is no better illustrated than by the fact that within ten years, it was offered an invitation to the Association of American Universities before universities such as North Carolina, Texas, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Case (not until 1969), Purdue, MIT or Cal Tech.
If you want to read an unbiased and knowledgeable outsider's opinion of Ohio's three public universities at the turn of the century, below is a 1909 letter from Thomas Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation to Ohio Governor Judson Harmon explaining the reasons why Ohio's application to have its college professors included in the Foundation's pension plan was being denied.
Thanks, Fredo.
Ohio State did not use the government to be named the state's flagship university. It would have been quite a feat though, as Ohio State didn't exist when that decision was made. Conversely, the decision was actually the catalyst to establish Ohio State in the first place. The Fredo brothers wanted the designation and they lobbied vigorously for it. Both, however, were denied. They were viewed as borderline religious colleges that had done little in their sixty years of existence to provide Ohio with a proper state university as institutions in other Great Lakes states had. That Ohio was the only Great Lakes state not to designate an existing university for this role speaks volumes as to how Ohio's two existing public universities were viewed by the Governor, the legislature and Ohio's business leadership.
The Eagleson Bill of 1906 merely codified the decisions of forty years prior. That Ohio State had built up more than enough momentum in its first forty years to justify the Eagleson Bill is no better illustrated than by the fact that within ten years, it was offered an invitation to the Association of American Universities before universities such as North Carolina, Texas, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Case (not until 1969), Purdue, MIT or Cal Tech.
If you want to read an unbiased and knowledgeable outsider's opinion of Ohio's three public universities at the turn of the century, below is a 1909 letter from Thomas Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation to Ohio Governor Judson Harmon explaining the reasons why Ohio's application to have its college professors included in the Foundation's pension plan was being denied.
Thanks, Fredo.
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