Sec Appendix A for the location of each campus. Public colleges and universities vary in size and scope of programming from a small campus such as Rio Grande Community College with 1,421 students and 13 associate degree programs to The Ohio State University with over 53,900 students, more than 250 degree programs at the associate, baccalaureate, graduate, and professional levels, and a comprehensive research agenda. Ohio's independent institutions enroll more than 100,000. See Tables 1 and 2 in Appendix B for enrollment patterns and degrees awarded. The physical plant of Ohio's public institutions alone includes over 1,800 buildings and 81 million gross square feet of space.
More students attend school part-time, in the evening or on weekends than a decade ago.
The racial and ethnic mix has not changed substantially in Ohio's colleges and universities over the last decade. The proportion of faculty in the ranks of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Instructor at Ohio's public colleges and universities has remained steady for the last five years even though the number of faculty has increased There has been a decline in the last year in the use of Graduate Teaching Assistants and Instructors and an increase in the use of other teaching staff, i.e., adjuncts and clinical faculty. These patterns reflect an inability to provide resources for graduate student stipends and uncertainty about placing new faculty into tenure track positions. The stewardship and governance of Ohio's colleges and universities is in the hands of independent boards of trustees made up of leaders from corporations, community organizations, and local government. The nine-member Board, appointed by the Governor, has limited authority regarding the fiscal and operational management of Ohio's colleges and universities.