Wright State University

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Wright State University
Wright State University Primary Corporate Mark
Established 1964
Type Public
President Kim Goldenberg, M.D.
Staff 775 faculty, 1,300 staff
Undergraduates 13,058
Postgraduates 4,016
Location Dayton (Fairborn), Ohio, U.S.A.
Campus Suburban
Gender Ratio 1:1.2 (approx.)
Mascot Rowdy Raider
Website www.wright.edu

Wright State University is a public university in Ohio. The university uses Dayton, Ohio as its postal address, but the campus is actually completely within the city limits of Fairborn, Ohio. Its current, and fifth, president is Kim Goldenberg, M.D., who will retire in early 2007. The Board of Regents has chosen the current provost, David Hopkins, to succeed him as the six president of the university.


Contents

[edit] History

It began in 1964 as the Dayton Branch Campus of both Miami University and the Ohio State University.

Among the potential names rejected were Dayton State University, Southwest Ohio State University, Shawnee University, Four Rivers University (after the four nearby rivers: the Great Miami, the Mad, the Stillwater, and Wolf Creek), and Mad River University.

At that time it comprised only a single building, Allyn Hall, named for Stanley Allyn, then president of National Cash Register and one of the university's founders.

In 1965, an act of the Ohio General Assembly made the university a state university, contingent on enrollment. After several names were considered, the state legislature decided upon Wright State University, to honor native Dayton sons, the Wright Brothers. (Wright State is the only state university in Ohio that is named after a person rather than after a geographical jurisdiction or feature.) On October 1, 1967, the university met the enrollment criteria as defined by the legislature, officially making the University independent.

[edit] Campus and community

As of spring 2006 according to statistics published by the university, it had a total enrollment of 17,117 (including 910 at the branch Lake Campus, located in Celina, Ohio, near St. Marys). Wright State offers 155 degree programs, including 46 graduate and professional programs (including schools of medicine and professional psychology). While a vast majority of its students commute to campus on a daily basis from surrounding communities, some choose to live in campus-owned housing, including the dormitory style housing of Hamilton Hall or the apartment style housing of Forest Lane. Wright State also has a close relationship with AMS & Associates whereby AMS owns and maintains, but Wright State provides staffing for a majority of the residence halls. The AMS owned housing includes the dormitory style housing of the Woods and the Honors Community, or the college apartment style housing of College Park and University Park. AMS also owns and Wright State operates the Village, a more traditional style apartment for older adults and those with families.

Wright State is a compact campus, with several academic buildings constructed following Allyn Hall. Key buildings on campus include the Founders' Quadrangle (quad) buildings, comprised of Allyn Hall (home to the College of Education and Human Services), Millett Hall (named for John Millett, former president of Miami University, and home of the College of Liberal Arts), Fawcett Hall (named after Novice Fawcett, president of Ohio State), and Oelman Hall (named after Robert Oelman, first president of the board of trustees, and the home of the College of Science and Mathematics). Allyn and Millett halls have recently undergone extensive rehabilitations.

Other buildings include Rike Hall (named after the founder of the Rike Kumler company, since merged into Federated Department Stores) (Raj Soin College of Business), University Hall (administrative offices and the College of Nursing and Health), the Creative Arts Center, the Mathematical and Microbiological Sciences Building (M&M), the Fritz and Dolores Russ Engineering Center (College of Engineering and Computer Science), and the Student Union (which was created by combining the former gymnasium and University Center). The main university Library is the Paul Laurence Dunbar library.

Turning Points
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Turning Points

Across from the M&M building is an abstract sculpture titled "Turning Points", designed by David Black. This is whimsically called "BART" for "Big *** Red Thing" by many students and other members of the WSU community.

The entire campus is handicap accessible. In fact, it enjoys a national reputation for being an extremely welcoming and accommodating campus.

A distinctive feature of Wright State is that one can travel around the main campus both by sidewalks outside, and a tunnel network that connects almost all the buildings at the basement level. In fact, out of WSU's nineteen buildings, only two are inaccessible from the tunnels; namely, Hamilton Hall (a dormitory building) and the Frederick White Health Center.

The Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine may be accessed at http://www.med.wright.edu. The School of Medicine utilizes the main campus for pre-clinical training and many community hospitals for third and fourth year training opportunities. The medical training facilities are in the process of a complete renovation thanks to a very large donation from Oscar Boonshoft.

[edit] Major Accomplishments

Wright State captured national headlines in June 1983 when paraplegic Nanette (Nan) Davis Ferrall of St. Mary's, Ohio walked to receive her diploma, a B.S. in Education with the assistance of a computer-controlled electrical stimulation device. Nan had last walked at her high school graduation four years earlier and was injured in a car accident later that day. The device was created from the research of Dr. Jerrold Petrofsky and his staff in the Biomedical Engineering department. The movie, First Steps, dramatized these events and starred Judd Hirsch as Petrofsky and Amy Smart as Davis. Nan Davis appeared in a few scenes of the movie, and actual footage of her commencement walk were used in the movie. [1] [2]

[edit] Distinguished Alumni

[edit] Intercollegiate athletics

Raider Symbol

Wright State University also has the Ervin J. Nutter Center, a multi-purpose arena located on campus. Opened in 1990, the Nutter Center is consistently considered to be one of the top arenas of its size. The venue is used for concerts and sporting events (including Wright State men's and women's basketball, using the nickname "Raiders"). It is also serves as the home arena of the Dayton Bombers of the East Coast Hockey League.

For many years, Wright States sports teams used a character called Rowdy Raider as their mascot; a red-bearded Viking with a horned helmet. Recently, the university, seeking a non-gender-specific mascot, adopted a wolf as its mascot. Among the Raiders' most notable athletic achievements are the NCAA Division II men's basketball national championship in 1983, and taking a turn at March Madness in 1993, qualifying for the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as champion of the Mid-Continent Conference. The men's and women's swimming and diving teams are also consistently strong. The men have won 6 of the last 13 conference championships.

The athletic teams are led by the cheerleading of famous Raider, Robin Oberlitner.

[edit] Players in Professional Sports

[edit] External links


Horizon League
Butler • Cleveland State • Detroit • Illinois-Chicago • Loyola • Milwaukee • Wisconsin-Green Bay• Wright State • Youngstown State
Public universities in Ohio
Akron • Bowling Green State • Central State • Cincinnati • Cleveland State • Kent State • Medical Ohio • Miami • NEOUCOM • Ohio State • Ohio • Shawnee State • Toledo • Wright State • Youngstown State
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