The High Points
The Ohio State University
October 12, 2011

·    Ohio State continued its rise in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of America's top public colleges (now 17th). Cited as particular strengths were strong student preparedness and excellent programs for first-year students.

·    The University's new freshman class is the strongest in the institution's history, with an average ACT score of more than 28. More than 29,000 students applied for 6,900 spots on the Columbus campus.

·    Our engineering students' EcoCAR won fifth place nationally this month. The competition was sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy to reduce environmental impact while retaining performance.

·    The OSU Medical Center was recently named among the nation's top 10 academic medical centers. It is Ohio's only medical center to make the list.

·    During the past year, the University set records in fundraising, both in amount raised and in number of donors.

·    For FY 2011, Ohio State had record research expenditures of $829 million and ranked second nationally in industry-sponsored research. This represents growth of more than $100 million in four years.

·    Ohio State's Aa1 bond rating was affirmed by Moody's; the firm cited our strong position with students, research funding, and our financial strategy.

·    GE Capital, the financial services arm of General Electric Co., recently pledged $10 million to the Fisher College of Business to conduct research on middle-market U.S. businesses.

·    Regarding athletics:

o  the NCAA is completing its interviews in the next several days

o  our goal is to bring closure to the matter as soon as practical

o  a final ruling from the NCAA is anticipated in the next few weeks

o  mistakes were made by our former coach, some of our players, and others

o  we are determined to learn from these mistakes and assure the best possible standards in compliance processes and protocols

o  University leaders are committed to developing a state-of-the-art, campus-wide compliance program.