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History
In 1910, the Kent State University Normal School was established as a college for training public school teachers as part of the Lowry bill which also created a sister school in Bowling Green, Ohio, now known as Bowling Green State University. The new school was constructed on land donated by William S. Kent (grandson of Marvin Kent, the namesake for the city of Kent) in what was then the eastern edge of Kent. The first president was John Edward McGilvrey, who served from 1912 to 1926. By 1915, the school was named Kent State University Normal College, then Kent State University College (after it was authorized to issue Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees), and Kent State University in 1935 when it received university status by Governor Martin L. Davey, a native of Kent.
In 1967, Kent State University became the first university to run an independent, student-operated campus bus service. It was unique in that it provided jobs for students, receiving funding from student fees rather than bus fares. The campus bus service was the largest operation of its kind in the country until it was sold to the Portage Area Transportation Authority (PARTA) in 2004.
In 1965, Chemistry professor Glenn H. Brown established the Liquid Crystal Institute, a world leader in the development of the multibillion-dollar liquid crystal industry, named by Forbes magazine as one of 85 innovations that changed the way we live today.
Kent State University gained international attention on May 4, 1970 when an Ohio Army National Guard unit fired at students during a war protest on campus, killing four and wounding nine. The Guard had been called into Kent after several protests in and around campus had become violent, including the rioting of downtown Kent and the burning of the ROTC building. The main cause of the protests was the United States' invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Kent State University was again in the national spotlight in 1977 when construction was set to begin on the Memorial Gym Annex, adjacent to the area where the shootings had occurred in 1970. Protesters organized a tent city in May, which lasted into July. Several attempts were made to block construction even after the end of the tent city, including an appeal to Congress to have the area declared a national historic landmark, but these attempts failed. Construction finally began on September 1977 and finished in 1979.
In 1994, Kent State University earned status as a Research University II from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2000, the foundation changed its classification system and Kent State University is classified as a Doctoral/Research University-Extensive, one of 90 U.S. public schools with this classification.
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