OSU Civil Engineering History

1873

Mathematics & civil engineering program was established at OSU.

1874

Civil Engineering (first of the "special" or professional courses offered by OSU..

Original Mission: "To enable our pupils to survey their own lands, lay out roads, take levels for ditches, embankments, and underdrains, construct bridges, etc., and in short to fit them for the several avocations in life for which a knowledge acquired in this department is indispensable."

1882

Civil engineering became an official OSU department.

1883

First OSU civil engineering graduate.

1885

School of Engineering was established and included the following new program areas:

Mechanical engineering, physics, chemical engineering, mining engineering, geology, civil engineering, mathematics & astronomy, and military science.

1890

Engineering drawing program was established inside OSU.

1895

OSU School of Engineering was offically renamed the OSU College of Engineering.

1898-1957

OSU civil engineering establishes its first summer school camp for pre-college students.

Original Mission: "Beginning in 1902, a majority of the camps were for the purpose of doing practical work under contract, mostly for public purposes for which funds were not available so that there was no question about unfair competition with practicing surveyors." Discontinued in 1957, the scope of civil engineering and the sophistication of its techniques were increasing rapidly. New concepts deserved a place in the curriculum. The cost of the program was objectionable and many students felt that they could acquire comparable experience in remunerative summer jobs with, for example, the then-named State of Ohio Department of Highways.

1903

OSU department of civil engineering moved from Rutherford B. Hayes Hall to Brown Hall, beginning Fall Quarter 1903. OSU was established as a land grant institution in 1870 by then-Governor Rutherford B. Hayes.

1907

The Transit Club, an academic organization of civil engineering students, was formed. In 191, it joined similar clubs at the University of Illinois and Purdue University to become The Ohio State University Student Chapter of Triangle Fraternity.

1967

Engineering drawing department was renamed to the OSU Department of Engineering Graphics.

Sources:

A Family Album of The Ohio State University, 1870-1970: The First Hundred Years.

Ohio State University Press publication in observance of the Centennial of the Founding of the University.

Civil Engineering in the First Century of The Ohio State University.

Unpublished historical compilation by John M. Weed in 1970, who also prepared a history of the OSU College of Engineering.