Jump to content

Wright State University

Coordinates: 39°46′47″N 84°03′53″W / 39.779816°N 84.064765°W / 39.779816; -84.064765
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 130.108.170.193 (talk) at 19:26, 13 February 2013 (→‎Campus and community). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Wright State University
Wright State University Primary Corporate Mark
TypePublic
Established1967
Endowment$76.97 million (As of June 30, 2012)
PresidentDavid R. Hopkins, P.E.D.
Students17,789
Undergraduates13,143 (Main campus); 1,104 (Lake campus)[1]
Postgraduates3,361
Location
Dayton (Fairborn)
,
Ohio
,
U.S.A.
CampusSuburban
Gender Ratio1:1.2 (approx.)
ColorsGreen & Gold    
NicknameWSU
MascotRaiders (Wolf)
Websitewww.wright.edu

Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio just outside of Dayton. The school offers degrees at the associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral level. The university has a branch campus on Grand Lake St. Marys with a Celina, Ohio, mailing address. As of 2012, the university enrolls nearly 18,000 students.

Colleges and schools

Wright State is divided into eight colleges and three schools. The colleges are:

  • Education and Human Services
  • Engineering and Computer Science
  • Liberal Arts
  • Nursing and Health
  • Raj Soin College of Business
  • Science and Mathematics
  • University College
  • Lake Campus

The schools, which award graduate and professional degrees, are:

  • Boonshoft School of Medicine
  • Graduate School
  • Professional Psychology

History

Wright State was founded in 1964 as the Dayton branch campus of both Miami University and Ohio State 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). Most of the land was donated by the United States Air Force, from excess acreage of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

A 1965 act of the Ohio General Assembly stipulated that the Dayton campus would become an autonomous four-year institution once it reached an enrollment of 5,000 students. Several names were considered, including 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. Wright State University was eventually chosen to honor the Wright Brothers, who were residents of Dayton and invented the first successful aircraft in the city. On October 1, 1967, after enrollment passed the 5,000-student mark, Senate Bill 212 passed to actually create a new university. This led to the official charter of Wright State University.

The school has a Dayton mailing address, but is located in Fairborn and is patrolled by the Fairborn police department. Prior to current president David R. Hopkins' appointment in 2007, Wright State University had five other presidents: Brage Golding (1966–1973); Robert J. Kegerreis (1973–1985); Paige E. Mulhollan (1985–1994); Harley E. Flack (1994–1998); and Kim Goldenberg (1998–2006).

In 2007, Wright State University celebrated its 40th Anniversary in connection with the Presidential Inauguration of David R. Hopkins. In order to mark this milestone in university history, Wright State created a 40th Anniversary website to highlight the events, history, and vision of its community. More information about the university's history can be seen on this Wright State site.

Accreditation

The university is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools at the doctoral degree-granting level.

Campus and community

As of fall 2012, according to statistics published by the university, it had a total enrollment of 17,789 (including 1,150 at the branch Lake Campus, located in Celina, Ohio). Wright State offers 192 degree programs, including 13 associate degrees, 91 bachelor's degrees, and 88 graduate and professional programs (including schools of medicine and professional psychology). Close to two-thirds of direct-from-high-school freshmen live on campus. Approximately an additional 5,000 commuter students live in apartments less than one mile from campus, making the atmosphere increasingly more like that of a residential campus than a commuter school.

Wright State has a compact campus, with several academic buildings constructed following Allyn Hall. Key buildings on campus include the Founders' Quadrangle (quad) buildings, which are Allyn Hall (home to the College of Education and Human Services and Wright State dining option, The Hangar), 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).

Other buildings include Rike Hall (named after the founder of the Rike Kumler company, since merged into Federated Department Stores, home of the Raj Soin College of Business); the Diggs Laboratory (a Gold LEED certified building), University Hall (administrative offices, University College, 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 (home of the College of Engineering and Computer Science), the Medical Sciences Building, Biological Sciences Building, Health Sciences Building (home of the School of Professional Psychology), Joshi Research Center, 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.

Across from the Mathematics and Microbiology building is an abstract sculpture titled "Turning Points," designed by David Black. This piece was created in 1998, as part of the Ohio Arts Council Percent for Arts Program and the addition of University Hall. Among staff and students at the university, the statue is known as 'Big And Red Thing,' or simply as 'BART.'

The entire campus is accessible to people with disabilities, and it has a national reputation for being an extremely welcoming and accommodating campus. The campus made history when it opened the Wingerd Service Dog Park in October 2008. Wright State is the first university in the nation to create a dog park especially for service dogs. 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.

School of Medicine

Main article: Boonshoft School of Medicine

The Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine utilizes the main campus for pre-clinical training and seven area hospitals for clinical and residency training opportunities. In 2005, the school changed its name to the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in recognition of the Oscar Boonshoft family, which gave Wright State's largest philanthropic gift to the medical school.

Admission to Wright State University's School of Medicine is competitive among the many students who apply; in 2012, 3,666 students applied for admission to the school, and 103 were accepted. The average undergraduate GPA is 3.62; average MCAT score 29.6. View more School of Medicine facts.

The Boonshoft School of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). The school's charter class began studies in 1976 and graduated in 1980. Since then, more than 2,821 M.D.'s have graduated from the School of Medicine. Wright State alumni are practicing in every state in the nation.

In 2009, the school became the first medical school in the United States to debut its own medical student produced radio program, dubbed Radio Rounds.

Greek life

Wright State University currently hosts five North-American Interfraternity Conference fraternities, one Local Fraternity, five National Panhellenic Conference sororities, and eight of the nine members of National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and sororities.

NIC Fraternities

  1. Delta Tau Delta
  2. Phi Kappa Tau
  3. Phi Sigma Phi
  4. Sigma Phi Delta
  5. Sigma Phi Epsilon

Local Fraternities

  1. Beta Phi Omega

NPC Sororities

  1. Alpha Xi Delta
  2. Delta Zeta
  3. Kappa Delta
  4. Theta Phi Alpha
  5. Zeta Tau Alpha

Undergraduate programs

Wright State offers 91 baccalaureate degrees in the following colleges: the Raj Soin College of Business, the College of Education and Human Services, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Nursing and Health, and the College of Science and Mathematics. The Lake Campus also offers a limited number of complete undergraduate bachelor's degrees, as well as a variety of associate degrees.

Graduate programs

Wright State offers 88 graduate, doctoral, and professional programs through the Wright State University Graduate School, the Boonshoft School of Medicine, and the School of Professional Psychology. The Lake Campus also offers a limited number of graduate programs.

ROTC

Wright State University offers Air Force ROTC 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 and is the largest AFROTC detachment in the Northeast Region.

Athletics

Main article: Wright State Raiders

Fine and performing arts

The Wright State University Creative Arts Center lobby, joining the Departments of Art, Music, and Theatre, Dance & Motion Pictures. 2007.

Collaboration, Education, Leadership and Innovation in the Arts designated an Ohio Center of Excellence

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.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

The Department of Art & Art History received a major art collection and the pledge of one million dollars to create a state-of-the-art gallery to present the work of students, faculty, and leading artists.[citation needed]


2008 Presidential Campaign

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.[5] [6][7][8] 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.[9][10] 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.[11][12]


Notable alumni

Notable faculty

References

  1. ^ Wright State University fact sheet
  2. ^ Florence, Russell. "Dysfunction Rages on the Plains" Dayton City Paper, 29 September 2010.
  3. ^ "DPO ready to take you on a few trips for its 2010-11 season," Dayton Daily News, 10 January 2010.[1]
  4. ^ "Hanks applauds WSU’s state arts honor", The Dayton Daily News, 20 October 20, 2011.
  5. ^ http://www.nuttercenter.com/history.aspx
  6. ^ http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/280808-1
  7. ^ http://articles.cnn.com/2008-08-29/politics/palin.republican.vp.candidate_1_safety-commissioner-walt-monegan-sarah-palin-alaska-gov?_s=PM:POLITICS
  8. ^ http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/features/article_1427836.php/In_photos_Sarah_Palin_-_Alaska_Governor_and_running_mate_to_John_McCain
  9. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/29/us-usa-politics-mccain-vicepresident-idUSN2940588620080829
  10. ^ http://www.cnbc.com/id/26454655/McCain_Shakes_Up_Race_By_Picking_Sarah_Palin_for_VP
  11. ^ http://www.wright.edu/cgi-bin/cm/news_test.cgi?action=news_item&id=1430
  12. ^ http://www.c-span.org/Events/Sen-Obama-D-IL-Obama-Campaign-Event-in-Ohio/9680/

39°46′47″N 84°03′53″W / 39.779816°N 84.064765°W / 39.779816; -84.064765

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wright_State_University&oldid=538090625"