Education for Citizenship or Disciplining for Civility?

An original and urgently needed critical reinterpretation of higher education focusing on the contradictions and conflicts of the private in the public and shareholders versus stakeholders.

Myths and misconceptions dominate our understanding of higher education and especially public higher education. They mislead all parties including students and citizens. Education for Citizenship or Disciplining for Civility? sets out to dispel such myths. Graff focuses on the major example of The Ohio State University, a very large and prominent 150-year-old American public land-grant university that is known more for its football teams than for its academic excellence. This book thus presents a new understanding of the limits and the importance of the public—in history, theory, civics, and operation.

ISBN: 9798903931774

Publication date: March 26, 2027

Acknowledgements Xi

Introduction

1 Locating The Ohio State University: Time, Place, History, Understanding
1 OSU as the Model Football U.
2 From Football to Foundations: Missing History
3 Universities for Sale: Names and Naming-Rights in Perspective
4 Land-Grant Foundations

2 Origin Myths: the Uses and Abuses of History. The OSU Ways
1 On Origin Myths and Their Uses
2 The Ohio State University as Exceptional Example of Public Universities
3 Geography and Politics Matter
4 Without Place or Time
5 Physical and Other Foundations
6 What Is a College? Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College’s Early Years
7 From OAMC to The Ohio State University in Five Years
8 “Science” Late 19th Century Style
9 “Public Higher Education” at Ohio State University: Religion, Presidential Powers, Liberal Arts, Presidential Succession
10 The Thompson Era
11 Racism and Sexism in the Public University
12 From the Mid-1920s to the 1990s
13 Facing the Future, Again

3 OSU as Slogan U.: a Model University or a Motto University?
1 Education for Citizenship or “Disciplina in Civitatem”—Disciplining for Civility?
2 Leadership by Slogans
3 Sesquicentennial as Slogans
4 Presidents Johnson and Carter Confront the 2020s

4 Changes and Continuities: Public and Private Conflicts and Contradictions in a Public Land-Grant University
1 Introduction: Continuities
2 Commencement Ceremonies as a Lens
3 Opening the Window Wider
4 Conflicts and Contradictions
5 Conflicts of Interest
6 The Private in the Public and/or the Public in the Private: Endowments, Naming Rights, Sources and Uses of Funds
7 The Rating and Ranking Games: Truth in Advertising?
8 Uses and Abuses of the Publics, Plural

5 Athletics, Greek Lives? Safety across Fields of Play. The Ohio State Way(s)
1 Football U.
2 “Student Athletes”
3 University Presidents and the Challenges of University Athletics
4 Athletics versus Academics
5 Abuse, Neglect, Denial, and Negation of Student Rights: the Continuing Scandal of Dr. Richard Strauss
6 Sexual Abuse
7 Can Campus Safety Be More Than a Set of Slogans?
8 Rape, Assaults, Robbery
9 Private over Public
10 The Disappearing Uni-versity: Reinforcement of Vocationalism

6 Student Life vs. Student Lives
1 Student Lives, Plural and Diverse
2 OSU Confronts the Present and Nods toward Its Future
3 Office of Student Life

7 Disconnecting Gown and Town: Campus Partners for Urban Community Development, Ohio State University
1 Introduction
2 Between Gown and Town: University-Community Relationships
3 Campus Partners for Community Urban Development
4 On Time and Space
5 Origins of Campus Partners for Urban Community Development
6 The Campus in the City or the City in the Campus?
7 Campus Partners in Rhetoric and Realities
8 Campus Partners in Theory and Practice: Mixed Results and Scattered Sites
9 Retreat
10 Appendix: Individual Properties Purchased by Campus Partners

8 The Ohio State University in 2025
Looking Backward and Looking Forward. Education for Citizenship or Disciplining for Civility in a “New World”?
Bibliography
Index