Parking lease supports Ohio State's academic mission
In 2012, Ohio State entered a 50-year lease of its parking operations for $483 million. All of the proceeds from this innovative funding strategy have been invested in the university's endowment. Over the 50 years, this unique funding source is expected to provide $3.1 billion to academic initiatives such as hiring faculty, offering more student scholarships, and supporting the arts and humanities.
Progress to date:
- Through fiscal year 2019, the $483 million infusion into our endowment has generated more than $152 million in distributions for teaching, learning, research, transportation and sustainability.
- Meanwhile, the market value of the endowments has grown by $90 million — to $573 million through June 30, 2018.
- Total value created to date: $242 million.
Eminence Fellows
The 95 Eminence Fellows in 2017-18 are high school valedictorians, national merit scholars, community leaders, entrepreneurs, scholar athletes and represent the top of the incoming class at Ohio State.
More on the Eminence Fellows program
The Eminence Fellows Program cultivates productive relationships between outstanding students and faculty. Students are matched with faculty mentors, and go on to great achievements in their majors like award-winning research on food security, diabetes, immunology, education policy, and more.
Each class of Eminence Fellows collectively chooses a social issue to address and works to develop and implement a creative response. The junior class project in 2017-18, Best Food Forward, focused on food insecurity and worked to increase students’ access to nutritious food. The organization developed a bulk food buying club and worked on community outreach, all directed toward the ultimate goal of creating a student-run market on campus that provides locally sourced food at a discounted price.
Graduate stipends and support
In the past academic year, 17 graduate students received stipends and support covering tuition and fees through parking endowments. This support, which involved a variety of programs, averaged about $48,000 per graduate student.
Undergraduate research
Students receive support for a variety of research and discovery activities, including grants for research projects, travel assistance to attend conferences and study abroad programs, in programmatic funding.
Research grants
30 students received $4,000 grants through the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program
18 students received $4,000 grants through the Advanced Undergraduate Researcher Awards
Eight students received $3,500 Connect and Collaborate Grants
Four students received $4,000 Undergraduate Research Library Fellowship Awards
Two students received support for a summer 2018 research experience through the LSAMP (Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation) Program
Travel support
- 16 students received $500 to support program-related travel for the Liverpool: Past, Present and Future Education Abroad Program
- Eight students received $1,200 to support program-related travel for the Ghana Research and Education Abroad Program
- Eight students represented Ohio State at the University of São Paulo Undergraduate Research Symposium, with all travel costs supported
Support for research programs
- The LSAMP STEM Bridge Program, which provides opportunities for incoming underrepresented minority students
- Research Central & Eastern Europe in Comparative Perspective — Social Sciences in Warsaw study abroad program
Student support
More than 200 students received financial support from a parking endowment in 2017-18:
- 95 Eminence Fellows
- 62 research grants
- 32 through travel assistance
- 17 graduate students
Faculty support
Through September 2018, colleges have hired 141 faculty members and launched another 50 searches in the Discovery Themes.
Discovery Themes
The Discovery Themes Initiative connects and builds on expertise across six campuses, 15 colleges, 105 departments, and more than 220 centers and institutes at Ohio State. Interdisciplinary teams of researchers have come together to accelerate new discoveries and translate knowledge into practical solutions for meaningful impact. With an emphasis on data-driven solutions, these efforts are supported by the recently established Translational Data Analytics Institute.
More information is available at discovery.osu.edu.
Sullivant Hall
Home to Ohio State’s Department of Dance; Department of Arts Administration; Education and Policy; Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design; Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise; and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. Other distributions are being used to support the continuing enhancement of the Arts District.
Arts District
Support for the new Arts Distrct includes
- $6.4 million toward the Sullivant Hall renovation
- $5.5 million toward design work for the new Arts District.
Funding is accumulating for other Arts District projects