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Wright State University

Coordinates: 39°47′06″N 84°03′32″W / 39.785°N 84.059°W / 39.785; -84.059
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Wright State University
MottoAd docendum, Investigandum, Serviendum (Latin)
Motto in English
Teaching, Research, Service
TypePublic research university
Established1967; 57 years ago (1967)
Parent institution
University System of Ohio
AccreditationHLC
Academic affiliations
Endowment$95.5 million (2020)[1]
PresidentSusan Edwards
ProvostAmy Thompson
Academic staff
1,139[2]
Administrative staff
1,108[2]
Students10,264 (Dayton)[3]
11,469 (all campuses)[3]
Undergraduates7,415 (Dayton)[3]
8,619 (all campuses)[3]
Postgraduates2,849 (Dayton)[3]
2,850 (all campuses)[3]
Location
Fairborn
,
Ohio
,
United States

39°47′06″N 84°03′32″W / 39.785°N 84.059°W / 39.785; -84.059
CampusSuburban
ColorsGreen and Gold[4]
   
NicknameRaiders
Sporting affiliations
NCAA Division I – Horizon League
MascotGray Wolf, Raider personified as Rowdy Raider
Websitewright.edu

Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio, United States. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in honor of aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright, who were residents of nearby Dayton. The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees and is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".[5] It is a member of the University System of Ohio. Its athletic teams, the Wright State Raiders, compete in Division I of the NCAA as members of the Horizon League. In addition to the main campus, the university also operates a regional campus near Celina, Ohio, called Wright State University–Lake Campus.

History

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Founding

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Wright State University first opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, occupying only a single building. Groundwork on forming the institution began in 1961 during a time when the region lacked a public university for higher education. A community-wide fundraising effort was conducted in 1962 to establish the university, and the campaign raised the $3 million needed in seed money.[6][7] Much of the land that the campus was built on was donated by the United States Air Force from excess acreage of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The Ohio General Assembly passed legislation in 1965 that transformed the branch campus into a separate institution with its own Advisory Committee on November 5, 1965. It was anticipated the campus would achieve full independent status by 1967 with its rapidly increasing enrollment of full-time students, projected to reach 5,000 within two years. On October 1, 1967, the campus officially became Wright State University following a decision by the Ohio Board of Regents. The name honors the Wright brothers, well-known Dayton residents who are credited with inventing the world's first successful airplane.[8][9] In 1969, a 173-acre (70 ha) branch campus opened on the shore of Grand Lake St. Marys in Celina, Ohio.

2017–present

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Wright State University celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017, creating a website to highlight milestones and events throughout the university's history.[10] The celebration culminated at Homecoming on September 30 – October 1, 2017.[11] That same year, the university officially became tobacco-free on its Dayton and Lake campuses. Smoking cessation products, such as nicotine-replacement gum, lozenges, and patches were not banned. The tobacco-free decision was made following a recommendation in 2012 from the Ohio Board of Regents that all public universities in Ohio transition to tobacco-free campuses.[12]

Wright State's faculty, which are unionized and represented by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), went on strike in 2019 following two years of failed contract negotiations.[13] The faculty were joined by various groups, including other labor unions, community members, and a student-led labor rights group called Students for Faculty. An agreement was reached the following month, ending the strike,[14] but its length of twenty days was the longest in Ohio history among higher education institutions and one of the longest in US history[15][16]

Susan Edwards became university's president on January 1, 2020.[17] Previous university presidents were Brage Golding (1966–1973), Robert J. Kegerreis (1973–1985), Paige E. Mulhollan (1985–1994), Harley E. Flack (1994–1998), Kim Goldenberg (1998–2006), David R. Hopkins (2007–2017), and Cheryl B. Schrader (2017–2019). Curtis L. McCray was the interim president from March 17 through June 30, 2017, holding the position following Hopkins' early retirement on March 17, 2017.[18] Schrader was Wright State's seventh president—and first female president—from mid 2017 until she stepped down at the end of 2019 midway through her five-year appointment.[19][20]

Politics

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2008 presidential campaign

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During the 2008 United States presidential campaign, Republican nominee John McCain announced his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate and choice for vice president on August 29, 2008, at Wright State.[21][22][23][24] Palin was a relatively unknown figure at the time and the current Governor of Alaska, but soon became a major figure in modern American politics.[25][26] Eventual winner Barack Obama, who became the first African-American president in American history, held a major rally at Wright State during the campaign as well.[27][28]

2016 presidential campaign

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On September 23, 2015, the Commission on Presidential Debates named Wright State the host for the first 2016 United States presidential debate, which was scheduled for September 26, 2016[29] at the Nutter Center.[30] On July 19, 2016, Wright State University backed out of the debate, citing inability to cover the cost of security.[31]

Academics

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Academic rankings
National
Forbes[32]198
U.S. News & World Report[33]230-301
Washington Monthly[35]246[34]
WSJ/College Pulse[36]601-800
Global
U.S. News & World Report[37]1060

The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission at the doctoral degree-granting level. Wright State is divided into seven colleges and three schools.

Undergraduate programs

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Wright State offers 106 bachelor's degrees in the following colleges: the Raj Soin College of Business,[38] the College of Health, Education and Human Services,[39] the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences,[40] the College of Liberal Arts,[41] and the College of Science and Mathematics.[42] The Lake Campus also offers a limited number of complete bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as 15 associate degrees.[43]

Graduate programs

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Wright State offers 136 graduate programs (including doctoral programs) through the Wright State University Graduate School,[44] the Boonshoft School of Medicine,[45] and the School of Professional Psychology.[46] The Lake Campus also offers a limited number of graduate programs.

School of Medicine

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Main article: Boonshoft School of Medicine

The Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine was established in 1973.[47] It is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. In the 2018–19 academic year, the school had 480 M.D. students, 51 Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) students, 30 M.B.A. students with a concentration in health care management, and 71 M.S. in Pharmacology and Toxicology students.[48] The school adopted its current name in 2005 in honor of the Oscar Boonshoft family, major donors to the medical school.[47]

Reserve Officer Training Corps

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Wright State University offers Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) and Army ROTC programs on campus, known as Detachment 643 and the Raider Battalion, respectively. The Air Force ROTC program contains the cross town schools of the University of Dayton, Cedarville University, and Sinclair Community College.

Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge-Enabled Computing (Kno.e.sis)

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Kno.e.sis Center at Wright State University

Kno.e.sis center was founded in 2007. In 2009, the Ohio Department of Higher Education established more than 50 Centers of Excellence representing key industrial areas with potential future growth.[49] Kno.e.sis at the Wright State University was one of the selections in the area of Bio-Health Innovations.[50][51] Research at the center focuses on multidisciplinary areas such as Web 3.0 (Semantic Web, Semantic Sensor Web), Network Science, Social Data Analysis, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Bioinformatics, Natural Language Processing, Visualization, Cloud Computing, High Performance Computing.[52][53][54]

In recent years, Kno.e.sis has had near 80–100 researchers including 15 faculty and over 60 funded graduate (primarily PhD) students.[55] Kno.e.sis researchers overtime have contributions in the areas related to Computer Science with focus on topics in World Wide Web, including Semantic web, Social Data Analysis, Semantic Sensor Web, and Linked Open Data. Furthermore, they have been a part of developing technical specifications and guidelines for W3C, until 2013.

Collaboration, Education, Leadership, and Innovation in the Arts

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Lobby of the Wright State University Creative Arts Center in 2007

In the fall of 2009, Wright State University's three departments of Art, Music, and Theatre, Dance, & Motion Pictures inaugurated a new initiative of collaborative artistic and educational endeavor, called CELIA (Collaboration, Education, Leadership, and Innovation in the Arts), dedicated to enhancing "ongoing collaborations as well as nurture new partnerships." Projects accepted for the CELIA designation demonstrate high-quality, innovative collaborations, and the ability to further strengthen the reputation of the arts at Wright State.

One of the first of these projects was the Academy Award-nominated half-hour documentary The Last Truck, produced for HBO and broadcast on Labor Day, 2008. The film documented the closing of a major GM truck plant in Moraine, Ohio, in 2008. More recently, the Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures co-produced the regional and university premiere production of August: Osage County in the fall of 2010, with the region's professional theatre, The Human Race Theatre Company.[56] In May 2011, the departments of Music and Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures collaborated with the Dayton Philharmonic a full-stage production of the Mass by Leonard Bernstein at the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in Dayton.[57]

On October 20, 2011, CELIA was designated an Ohio Center of Excellence by Jim Petro, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents at a press conference on the campus of Wright State University, in which Tom Hanks congratulated the Wright State University arts programs via a video message.[58]

Greek life

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Wright State University currently hosts three North American Interfraternity Conference fraternities, Alpha Sigma Phi, Phi Kappa Tau, and Sigma Phi Epsilon; five National Panhellenic Conference sororities, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Xi Delta, Delta Zeta, Kappa Delta, and Zeta Tau Alpha; and five of the nine members of National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and sororities, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, and Sigma Gamma Rho; and the university's first Asian-interest sorority, Kappa Phi Lambda.

Athletics

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Main article: Wright State Raiders

The Wright State Raiders are the athletics teams of Wright State University. The school participates in fifteen sports at the Division I level of the NCAA, and are members of the Horizon League. The school's mascot is Rowdy Raider, a wolf.

Notable people

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Alumni

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Faculty

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References

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  1. ^ As of June 30, 2020. U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2020 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY19 to FY20 (Report). National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA. February 19, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Wright State Newsroom – Fact Sheet « Wright State University". Wright State Newsroom. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e f As of fall 2021. "Preliminary Headcount, Fall Term 2021". Ohio Department of Higher Education. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
  4. ^ "Color - Office of Marketing - Wright State University". www.wright.edu. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  5. ^ "Carnegie Classifications Institution Lookup". carnegieclassifications.iu.edu. Center for Postsecondary Education. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  6. ^ "Wright State History". Wright State University. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  7. ^ "Wright State History - The Dayton Campus". Wright State University. Archived from the original on July 12, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  8. ^ "1966–1967 University Course Catalog". Wright State University. 1966. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  9. ^ "1968–1969 Wright State University Course Catalog". Wright State University. 1968. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  10. ^ Mihalek, Bob (January 9, 2017). "Wright State University to celebrate 50th anniversary throughout 2017". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  11. ^ "Wright State University 50th Anniversary Homecoming Celebration". Wright State University. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
  12. ^ "Wright State goes tobacco free, banning cigarettes and other products". daytondailynews. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  13. ^ Flaherty, Colleen (January 23, 2019). "No Deal". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  14. ^ Staff, Breaking News. "Tentative agreement reached to end Wright State strike". springfieldnewssun. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
  15. ^ Filby, Max (February 12, 2019). "Wright State looks to move on from longest faculty strike in Ohio history". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  16. ^ "Democracy Now: WSU faculty end one of the longest public university strikes in U.S. history". wright.edu. February 12, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  17. ^ Media Team, Wright State (October 28, 2019). "Susan Edwards named next president of Wright State University". Wright State University. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  18. ^ Hannah, Jim (March 17, 2017). "President David R. Hopkins to step down ahead of scheduled retirement to help smooth transition". Wright State University. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  19. ^ Fisher, Jacob (October 15, 2019). "Wright State University president to exit". Dayton Business Journal. Retrieved January 1, 2020. Cheryl Schrader, who became the seventh president of Wright State University in July 2017, will vacate the position. The president of Wright State University is ending her term prematurely.
  20. ^ Filby, Max (October 18, 2019). "WSU's next president faces challenges". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  21. ^ "Nutter Center at Wright State University - History". Nuttercenter.com. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  22. ^ of 36:29 (August 29, 2008). "McCain Vice Presidential Announcement - C-SPAN Video Library". C-spanvideo.org. Retrieved May 22, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ "McCain taps Alaska Gov. Palin as vice president pick - CNN.com". Articles.cnn.com. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  24. ^ "In photos: 'Sarah Palin - Alaska Governor and running mate to John McCain' - Monsters and Critics". News.monstersandcritics.com. August 30, 2008. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  25. ^ Mason, Jeff (August 29, 2008). "McCain picks Palin as surprise No. 2". Reuters. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  26. ^ "McCain Shakes Up Race By Picking Sarah Palin for VP". CNBC. August 29, 2008. Archived from the original on March 31, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  27. ^ "Communications & Marketing - Public Relations « Wright State University". Wright.edu. February 23, 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  28. ^ "Sen. Obama (D-IL) Obama Campaign Event in Ohio". C-SPAN. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  29. ^ "Commission On Presidential Debates announces sites and dates for 2016 general election debates" (Press release). Commission on Presidential Debates. September 23, 2015. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
  30. ^ "Ohio college to host first 2016 presidential debate". Dayton Daily News. Associated Press. September 23, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
  31. ^ "Wright State withdraws from presidential debate". Dayton News. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
  32. ^ "America's Top Colleges 2024". Forbes. September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  33. ^ "2024-2025 Best National Universities Rankings". U.S. News & World Report. September 23, 2024. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
  34. ^ "2017 National Universities Rankings". Washington Monthly. n.d. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  35. ^ "2024 National University Rankings". Washington Monthly. August 25, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  36. ^ "2025 Best Colleges in the U.S." The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse. September 4, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  37. ^ "2024-2025 Best Global Universities Rankings". U.S. News & World Report. June 24, 2024. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
  38. ^ "Raj Soin College of Business - Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  39. ^ "College of Health, Education and Human Services - Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  40. ^ "College of Engineering and Computer Science- Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  41. ^ "College of Liberal Arts - Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  42. ^ "College of Science and Mathematics - Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  43. ^ "Lake Campus - Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  44. ^ "Graduate School - Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  45. ^ "Boonshoft School of Medicine - Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  46. ^ "Welcome to School of Professional Psychology - Wright State University". Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  47. ^ a b About: History, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine.
  48. ^ Facts at a Glance, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine.
  49. ^ "Ohio Higher Ed - Department of Higher Education".
  50. ^ "Ohio's Centers of Excellence - Biomedicine & Health Care".
  51. ^ "Centers of Excellence in BioHealth Innovation".
  52. ^ "Using crisis mapping to aid Uttarakhand". The Hindu. June 26, 2013.
  53. ^ "WSU researchers study cyberbullying". November 14, 2015.
  54. ^ "Boonshoft researchers study use of marijuana edibles". May 23, 2016.
  55. ^ "Kno.e.sis".
  56. ^ Florence, Russell. "Dysfunction Rages on the Plains" Dayton City Paper, September 29, 2010.
  57. ^ "DPO ready to take you on a few trips for its 2010-11 season," Dayton Daily News, January 10, 2010.[1]
  58. ^ "Hanks applauds WSU’s state arts honor", The Dayton Daily News, October 20, 20, 2011.
  59. ^ Wapling, Greg. "The Ultimate Fighter Biographies". www.gregwapling.com. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  60. ^ "Clay Pickering". Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  61. ^ "Nicole Riegel". Wright State University. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  62. ^ "B N Singh appointed IITRAM director general". IITRAM, Linkedin. May 22, 2023.
  63. ^ "Andrea White Biography". Ohio House of Representatives. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
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