Growth in Regional Campuses

Making Education Easier

As early as 1909, Ohio University faculty were traveling to high schools in Jackson, Pomeroy, and Nelsonville to teach Ohio University-sanctioned and accredited college-level courses, and by 1913 more than 150 students were attending these "extension courses" around Southeast Ohio. By the mid-1930s, with the addition of correspondence courses, the regional demand for locally offered university courses necessitated a more official opening of “centers” of education in Portsmouth and Zanesville high schools, which, in cooperation with the school boards in those cities, offered evening college courses to “recent graduates of high schools who do not find it possible to go away” to take college classes. During the first year of operation in 1940, the Zanesville Center enrolled 70 students, while 136 students enrolled at the Portsmouth Center.

Expansion after World War II

By the time men and women were returning to Southeast Ohio from their World War II military service, Ohio University already had a working blueprint for giving those service-people taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, and other local residents, access to higher education within their local communities. In September 1946, the university’s regional program was officially begun in Chillicothe, Portsmouth and Zanesville, as all students enrolled in those late afternoon and early evening college classes at their local high schools earned full Ohio University credit for all successfully completed courses. By the second semester of the 1946-47 academic year, more than 800 students were enrolled in regional campus classes.

During the mid-1950s, increased societal demands for locally accessible quality higher education in Southeast Ohio led to the establishment of three new regional campuses — in Lancaster and Ironton in 1956 and in Martins Ferry in 1957.

Demand for education drives growth

As population boomed, enrollment growth and more academic programs were offered during the 1960s and 1970s, the university procured more acreage and constructed more modern facilities in all six of the Ohio University regional communities. Although Portsmouth withdrew from the Ohio University regional sphere in 1975, the five remaining regional campuses thrived throughout the decades. During the 2021-2022 year, more than 4,000 students were enrolled at the five regional campuses and the university’s additional learning centers in Dublin, Cleveland and Beavercreek. More than 250 majors are now available at the regional campuses.

Thus, a program that was begun over 110 years ago to deliver higher education to communities in Southeast Ohio has impacted the lives and circumstances of several generations of individuals and their families.