Wright State University
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Wright State University |
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| Established | 1964 |
| Type | Public |
| President | David Hopkins |
| Staff | 775 faculty, 1,300 staff |
| Undergraduates | 13,058 |
| Postgraduates | 4,016 |
| Location | Dayton (Fairborn), Ohio, U.S.A. |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Gender Ratio | 1:1.2 (approx.) |
| Mascot | Rowdy Raider |
| Website | www.wright.edu |
Wright State University is a public university in Ohio, U.S. The university uses Dayton as its postal address but the campus is actually completely within the city limits of Fairborn. Its current, and sixth, president is David Hopkins.
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[edit] History
It began in 1964 as the Dayton Branch Campus of both Miami University and The Ohio State University.
Among the potential names rejected were 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.
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.
In 1965, an act of the Ohio General Assembly made the university a state university, contingent on enrollment. After several names were considered, the state legislature decided upon Wright State University, to honor native Dayton sons, the Wright Brothers. (Wright State is the only state university in Ohio that is named after a person rather than after a geographical jurisdiction or feature.) On October 1, 1967, the university met the enrollment criteria as defined by the legislature, officially making the University independent.
[edit] Campus and community
As of spring 2006 according to statistics published by the university, it had a total enrollment of 17,117 (including 910 at the branch Lake Campus, located in Celina, Ohio, near St. Marys). Wright State offers 155 degree programs, including 46 graduate and professional programs (including schools of medicine and professional psychology). While a vast majority of its students commute to campus on a daily basis from surrounding communities, some choose to live in campus-owned housing, including the dormitory style housing of Hamilton Hall or the apartment style housing of Forest Lane. However, over 60% of Freshman usually live on campus. In many cases, 'commuters' are considered the students who live in apartments less than one mile from campus, because they do not live in campus housing. Wright State also has a close relationship with AMS & Associates whereby AMS owns and maintains, but Wright State provides staffing for a majority of the residence halls. The AMS owned housing includes the dormitory style housing of the Woods and the Honors Community, or the college apartment style housing of College Park and University Park. AMS also owns and Wright State operates the Village, a more traditional style apartment for older adults and those with families.
Wright State is a compact campus, with several academic buildings constructed following Allyn Hall. Key buildings on campus include the Founders' Quadrangle (quad) buildings, comprised of Allyn Hall (home to the College of Education and Human Services), 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). Allyn and Millett halls have recently undergone extensive rehabilitations.
Other buildings include Rike Hall (named after the founder of the Rike Kumler company, since merged into Federated Department Stores) (Raj Soin College of Business), University Hall (administrative offices 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 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), 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 M&M building is an abstract sculpture titled "Turning Points", designed by David Black. This is whimsically called "BART" for "Big Ass Red Thing" by many students and other members of the WSU community. This sculpture is also referred to as BURT "Big Ugly Red Thing" (The more user friendly Acronym)
The entire campus is handicap accessible. In fact, it enjoys a national reputation for being an extremely welcoming and accommodating campus.
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. In fact, out of WSU's nineteen buildings, only two are inaccessible from the tunnels; namely, Hamilton Hall (a dormitory building) and the Frederick White Health Center.
The Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine may be accessed at http://www.med.wright.edu. The School of Medicine utilizes the main campus for pre-clinical training and many community hospitals for third and fourth year training opportunities. The medical training facilities are in the process of a complete renovation thanks to a very large donation from Oscar Boonshoft.
[edit] Major Accomplishments
Wright State captured national headlines in June 1983 when paraplegic Nanette (Nan) Davis Ferrall of St. Mary's, Ohio walked to receive her diploma, a B.S. in Education with the assistance of a computer-controlled electrical stimulation device. Nan had last walked at her high school graduation four years earlier and was injured in a car accident later that day. The device was created from the research of Dr. Jerrold Petrofsky and his staff in the Biomedical Engineering department. The movie, First Steps, dramatized these events and starred Judd Hirsch as Petrofsky and Amy Steel as Davis. Nan Davis appeared in a few scenes of the movie, and actual footage of her commencement walk were used in the movie. [1] [2]
[edit] Distinguished Alumni
- Jim Baldridge, Long-time television news anchor at WHIO-TV.
- Joyce Beatty, Democratic member of the Ohio House of Representatives and John Kerry delegate in 2004 Democratic National Convention, received a Masters degree.
- Jennifer Crusie (MA Professional Writing and Women's Literature) is a bestselling romance novelist.
- Nanette (Nan) Davis Ferrall (B.S. Education, 1983) was the first paraplegic to walk and was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame for her work with paraplegics and quadriplegics. [3]
- Robert Pollard, Songwriter and founder of the musical group Guided By Voices. He also pitched the first no-hitter for Wright State baseball.
- Nicole Scherzinger is a singer and actor best know as the lead singer for the pop group The Pussycat Dolls, and formerely Eden's Crush, who was an acting major, never graduated.
- Anthony Shaffer (B.A. Political Science and Environmental Studies, 1986) is a seasoned intelligence officer and Bronze Star Medal recipient associated with project Able Danger and uncovering the plotting of September 11, 2001 attacks.
- Brad Sherwood (BFA Acting) is an actor and comedian who has appeared in TV shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, I Love the '90s: Part Deux, The Tonight Show, and hosted The Dating Game from 1997-98. [4]
[edit] Athletics
Wright State University also has the Ervin J. Nutter Center, a multi-purpose arena located on campus. Opened in 1990, the Nutter Center is consistently considered to be one of the top arenas of its size. The venue is used for concerts and sporting events (including Wright State men's and women's basketball, using the nickname "Raiders"). It also serves as the home arena of the Dayton Bombers of the East Coast Hockey League.
For many years, Wright State's sports teams used a character called Rowdy Raider as their mascot; a red-bearded Viking with a horned helmet. Among the Raiders' most notable athletic achievements are the NCAA Division II men's basketball national championship in 1983, and taking a turn at March Madness in 1993, qualifying for the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as champion of the Mid-Continent Conference; the Raiders qualified again in 2007 as winner of the Horizon League tournament. The men's and women's swimming and diving teams are also consistently strong. The men have won 6 of the last 13 conference championships.
The Wright State men's basketball team has seen the national spotlight several times since the program moved to Division I in 1987-88 and into the new Nutter Center in 1990. In 1993, the Raiders qualified for the NCAA Tournament, and since then Wright State is 4-0 all-time at home vs Top 25 competition. In 1995, Wright State defeated #25 Xavier, 71-70, their first ever home win over a Top 25 opponent. In the 1999-2000 season, Wright State beat #8 Michigan State at the Nutter Center, 53-49. On February 10th, 2007 Wright State welcomed their Horizon League rival and ninth-ranked Butler Bulldogs to Dayton. In an impressive showing that would lead the Raiders to be named ESPN.com's "Team of the Week", Wright State dominated No. 9 Butler, 77-65. [5] The Bulldogs returned to Dayton for the 2007 Horizon League tournament final, where Wright State again beat No. 17 Butler (by a score of 60-55) to earn a berth in its second-ever NCAA Tournament. [6]
The Wright State student section, known as the "Raider Rowdies," has garnered a reputation for being the toughest and craziest in the Horizon League. Often filling sections 212 and 213 from floor level to the top of the Nutter Center, the Rowdies even have groups within the section. One of these groups, "ManHouse" is composed of ruthless hecklers seated next to the opponant's bench. As the rest of the student section cheers, the ManHouse crew will taunt the seated opponants with personal insults and even seven-foot photographs of players' girlfriends. Though the Ervin J. Nutter family (for whom the Raiders' arena is named) officially opposes the nickname, many students and fans refer to their home as the "Nutt House" in reference to the atmosphere created by the Raider Rowdies.
[edit] Players in Professional Sports
- Brian Anderson, former Mid-Continent Conference Pitcher and Player of the Year (1992) and finalist for the Golden Spikes Award (1993), was drafted by the California Angels in the first round of the June free agent draft in June 1993 after completing his junior year. He made his major league debut in September 1993. [7]
- Bill Edwards played for the Philadelphia 76ers in 1993.[8]
- Keith Gordon was drafted in June 1990 by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2nd round of the amateur draft. [9]
- Carlos Pena attended WSU and Northeastern University before being drafted by the Texas Rangers as the 10th pick of the 1998 amateur draft. [10] [11]
- Vitaly Potapenko currently plays for the NBA Sacramento Kings. He was selected 12th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1996. Potapenko was named the Horizon League's Newcomer of the Year for the '94-'95 season, and led the Horizon League in FG% in both '94-'95 and '95-'96 while garnering First Team All-League honors both years. Vitaly was born in Kiev, Ukraine. [12]
- Bill Shea is currently a backup quarterback and vice president of communications for the Port Huron Pirates professional indoor football team. The Pirates play in the Continental Indoor Football League. Shea was part of the inaugural Pirates squad that went 12-0 and won the league title. [13]
[edit] External links
- Official Site
- The Guardian Online- Wright State's Official Student Newspaper
- ArtsGala Annual Wright State Arts Fair
- Official athletics Site
- RaiderRoundball.com - Unofficial site for Wright State Raider basketball
- Google Maps
| Horizon League |
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| Butler (Butler Bulldogs) • Cleveland State (Cleveland State Vikings) • Detroit • UIC • Loyola • Milwaukee (Milwaukee Panthers) • UW-Green Bay • Wright State • Youngstown State |
| Public universities in Ohio |
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| Akron • Bowling Green State • Central State • Cincinnati • Cleveland State • Kent State • Miami • NEOUCOM • Ohio State • Ohio • Shawnee State • Toledo • Wright State • Youngstown State |
