Charles J. Ping - 18th Ohio University President

Charles J. Ping, B.D., Ph.D., 1930-

Eighteenth President of Ohio University, 1975-1994

Educated at Rhodes College, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and Duke University, Dr. Ping came to the University from the position of provost at Central Michigan University. He had served as acting president of Tusculum College in 1968-1969. Dr. Ping arrived on campus to an institution with great potential but in deep turmoil from a severe decline in enrollment and a critical financial situation. In nineteen years he led the University to its highest enrollment (25,000), a budget of $240 million, an 1804 Fund campaign raised $22.6 million for the University's 175th anniversary, and the Third Century Campaign of 1993 raised over $132 million. A committed believer in general education fundamentals, he did not neglect scholarship, research, and service. The Tier system requires undergraduate students to consider and work with multi- disciplinary approaches, an attempt to synthesize information coming from several areas of study.

Graduate programs were expanded and special focuses were placed with primary research in such areas as avionics, contemporary history, and animal biotechnology. New programs were created such as sports administration, remote sensing, international business, and a new college of health and human services.

The University's international interaction was expanded with additional programs in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Japan and international students on campus topped 1,000. At the same time the University's involvement in its own region included remote teaching via microwave TV, a children's immunization program, and an art museum on wheels.

The main campus more than doubled in size when the former state mental hospital was transferred to the University in 1988. The retention rate of students climbed to nearly 90 percent and the University was ranked as one of America's best higher education buys. Numerous state academic and program excellence awards were earned, a new aquatic center was built, and construction was begun on a new recreation center.

Upon his retirement as president Dr. Ping took a year's sabbatical before returning to teach and direct the Ping Institute for the Teaching of the Humanities.

Dick Piccard revised this file (http://www.ohiou.edu/athens/history/people/ping.html) on January 25, 2006.

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