Ohio State University’s General Education Program’s Citizenship Requirement

The Ohio State University, a public four-year flagship institution, is illustrative of the power of mission and history to drive a university’s efforts to promote democratic citizenship.

Program Description:

Founded in 1870 with funds from the Morrill Act as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, OSU initially focused on providing a curriculum in the agricultural, military, and industrial arts. As a land-grant institution, its charge was to expand educational access to the state’s residents and offer emerging fields of study aligned with state and national purposes. Ohio governor Rutherford B. Hayes located the new university in the state capital, Columbus, rather than in the state’s agricultural regions to ensure balance between agricultural, industrial, and other interests. Over the university’s first decade, Hayes and members of the board of trustees broadened the curriculum to include liberal arts disciplines. In 1878, the university was renamed The Ohio State University to reflect its comprehensive teaching and research agenda. In this first decade of operation, Hayes and his supporters on the board imbued the university with the responsibility to educate the state’s sons and daughters to be patriots and citizens in the post–Civil War era. Fast forward to 1952, when university architect Howard D. Smith was tasked with redesigning the university’s seal to reflect its founding purpose: Smith added the Latin words disiciplina in civitatem (education for citizenship), a phrase that, ever since, has served as the university’s motto.

Recent presidents and provosts have leveraged this founding purpose to further embed education for citizenship into the life of the university. Successive strategic plans (including current President Ted Carter’s “Education for Citizen­ship” strategic plan) have incorporated the motto “education for citizenship” as a focal point for planning and outlined a societal mission:

• creating and discovering knowledge to improve the well-being of local, state, regional, national, and global communities;
• educating students through a comprehensive array of distinguished academic programs;
• preparing a student body reflective of the state and the nation to be leaders and engaged citizens; and
• fostering a culture of engagement and service.

Impact:

The combination of historical mission and strategic planning has resulted in curricular programs oriented around citizenship. For example, in the fall of 2022, OSU launched a new General Education (GE) program—the first in thirty years—in which all students must take four to six credit hours of courses in citizenship. The university has also created new organizational structures to further embed this commitment. Most notably, in 2015, the board of trustees created the John Glenn College of Public Affairs to pursue a motto coined by Senator Glenn, “to inspire citizenship and develop leadership.” More recently, with direction and funding from the Ohio legislature, the university established the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, charged with offering courses in citizenship grounded in the U.S. Constitution. Finally, research centers and institutes across campus, notably the Civil Discourse Initiative run by the Center for Ethics and Human Values, offer citizenship programming under the banner of “education for citizenship.”

These curricular, structural, and programmatic efforts align with the values of the university’s founding purpose and enduring motto. Successive leaders working in collaboration with faculty, staff, and students have deepened this commitment to preparing democratic citizens by drawing on the past.

Population Served:

Students, faculty, and leadership of Ohio State University are encouraged to participate and actively engage with citizenship through the University. Beginning fall of 2022 with the launch of a new General Education (GE) program, all students must take four to six credit hours of courses in citizenship. 

Learn more here. 

Page last updated in August 2026