Spaces That Support Us

A field guide for new Ohio State students

You know the buildings.
Now learn what they make possible.

Five everyday OSU spaces reveal a larger story: campus improvement matters when it responds to student needs—and when its benefits are genuinely accessible.

Begin the guideExplore the five spaces
A transfer student’s route

Welcome letter

A map tells you where.
This guide tells you why.

Dear new Buckeye, welcome to Ohio State. When I arrived as a transfer student, campus buildings were mostly names attached to class locations. A map could direct me to an entrance, but it could not tell me why a place might matter. I took a mathematics class in the Journalism Building before I understood that students had once printed The Lantern there—or that later renovations created space for multimedia communication. The building was useful to me, but its history was invisible.

This guide is for incoming and relatively new students, especially first-year, transfer, and international students who are still building a mental map of OSU. It introduces five spaces: Thompson Memorial Library, Walker House, the Journalism Building, the Ohio Union, and the Recreation and Physical Activity Center (RPAC). Together they support academic work, housing, communication, community, and wellness. Their histories also show that “improvement” is not the same as simply becoming larger or newer.

Each stop pairs an archival source with a practical “Use This Space” invitation. The archive explains what problem a building answered at one moment in time; the current resource helps you act on that history now. A “Think About Access” question then asks who can comfortably receive the support the space offers. This matters because campus design never serves everyone automatically. Walker House, for example, supported women’s education while a 1932 newspaper page also documented the exclusion of a Black student from a Home Economics practice house.

You can read the guide from beginning to end or jump directly to a building you use. Look closely at the archival images and captions. Open the linked resources when you need hours, access details, or program information. Then follow the WorkNet to see how the five local stories connect to research on supportive learning environments, social connection, retention, and degree attainment.

My central claim is simple: a campus space succeeds when it responds to identifiable student needs and makes its support meaningfully available. Physical expansion can create capacity, but access and inclusion determine who actually benefits. By the end, I hope you will visit one unfamiliar space, use one new resource, explain one way a building changed because of students, and notice one barrier that still deserves attention.

Historical context · Five case studies

Five spaces, five kinds of support

The newspaper and alumni-magazine pages below are primary archival artifacts created during the periods they describe. John H. Herrick’s building histories provide dates, names, additions, and dimensions; my analysis connects those records to student experience.

A two-page 2016 Ohio State Alumni magazine spread titled Beyond the Stacks, combining photographs of library collections with a feature about student Averi Townsend’s daily library use.
Artifact 1: “Beyond the Stacks,” Ohio State Alumni, July–August 2016. The feature places a student’s everyday library journey beside the scale of OSU’s collections.

Academic support · 1913 → today

Thompson Memorial Library

Herrick’s record states that books moved from Orton Hall during the 1912 Christmas vacation and the new library opened on January 6, 1913. Later additions brought the building to 303,973 gross square feet. Those measurements show growth, but not what growth feels like to a student.

The 2016 alumni feature supplies that missing perspective. Student Averi Townsend describes using Thompson nearly every day: studying, printing, solving laptop problems at the Buckeye Bar, borrowing textbooks, and finding stress relief when therapy dogs visited. Her experience changes the library from a warehouse of books into an academic support system. Size matters here because it can hold multiple kinds of help, but usefulness comes from how those services meet real needs.

Use this space

Try one service beyond quiet study. Thompson currently lists research help, public computers, printing, group-study reservations, course reserves, the Buckeye Bar, a satellite Writing Center, and wellness and lactation rooms.

Check Thompson services and current hours (opens in a new tab) ↗

Think about access: Which supports require prior knowledge, time, a reservation, or confidence asking at a desk? How could a first visit feel easier?

View the archival issue (opens in a new tab) ↗
A scanned May 9, 1932 Ohio State Lantern newspaper page with many narrow columns, including notices about the naming of Grace Graham Walker House and the exclusion of Wilhelmina J. Styles from a Home Economics practice house.
Artifact 2: The Ohio State Lantern, May 9, 1932. On the same page, a notice honoring Home Economics professor Grace Graham Walker appears near reporting about Wilhelmina J. Styles being denied admission to a practice house because she was Black.

Housing and inclusion · 1932

Walker House

Herrick’s file identifies the building as the Home Management House and Practice House for Home Economics. Later notes connect it to the Women’s Self Government Association and its 1991 name, Alumnae Scholarship House. The sequence suggests a change from training women for domestic roles toward supporting women as students through housing, organization, and scholarship.

Yet “support for women” was not equally available. The 1932 Lantern page reports that Wilhelmina J. Styles was refused admission to a School of Home Economics practice house because she was Black. Placing that report beside a notice that the Home Management House was named for Mrs. Walker exposes the limits of institutional celebration. The artifact forces a better question than “Did the university add support?” We must ask: support for whom, controlled by whom, and under what conditions?

Use this history

Walker House is part of a longer Alumnae Scholarship Housing history. OSU’s current ASH program describes cooperative, lower-cost housing for undergraduate women, with shared house duties and community expectations. Today’s listed houses are Fechko, Hanley, and Pomerene—not Walker House—so verify current eligibility and deadlines on the official page.

Explore current Alumnae Scholarship Housing (opens in a new tab) ↗

Think about access: When a supportive program has eligibility rules, costs, required labor, and a gendered history, how should it evaluate whom it welcomes and whom it leaves out?

Read the 1932 archive page (opens in a new tab) ↗
A scanned October 29, 2009 Lantern newspaper page featuring the headline Journalism Building gets facelift alongside a photograph of the renovated building.
Artifact 3: Kate Witzman, “Journalism Building Gets Facelift,” The Lantern, October 29, 2009. The article describes new newsroom, teaching, research, and multimedia spaces.

Communication · 1924 → 2009

Journalism Building

I first knew this building as the place where I took a math class. Herrick’s history gave it another identity: The Lantern began printing there in mid-July 1924 and opened offices there on August 18. Students did not just attend class in the building; they produced the campus news that other students read.

The 2009 Lantern artifact records a renovation with a newsroom, lecture theater, research labs, and multimedia spaces. That change responds to a transformed communication environment. Print remained important, but students increasingly needed to report through websites, photographs, audio, video, and social media. The renovation therefore represents more than a “facelift.” It redesigned a learning environment around new practices and let students move between classroom knowledge and public communication.

Use this space

You do not have to be a journalism major to understand the building’s role. The School of Communication lists student organizations including The Lantern, Scarlet and Gray Sports Radio, and the National Association of Black Journalists at OSU. Their work shows how space, equipment, mentorship, and peer networks turn communication into practice.

Browse communication student organizations (opens in a new tab) ↗

Think about access: Who gets to produce the story of campus? Do the rooms, technologies, organization cultures, and publication practices make space for students whose experiences have historically been underrepresented?

Open the 2009 article (opens in a new tab) ↗
A 2010 Ohio State Alumni magazine page titled Students First with photographs and text explaining student participation in planning the new Ohio Union.
Artifact 4: Kristen Convery, “Students First,” Ohio State Alumni, May–June 2010. Students joined focus groups, visited other unions, and helped advocate for the project.

Community and voice · 1947 → 2010

The Ohio Union

The Herrick record for the previous Union building lists a long history of enlargement at 1739 North High Street and an area of 220,242 gross square feet. It also records student initiative: 14,235 students signed a 1947 petition proposing a $5-per-quarter fee to help pay for the project. Again, size proves investment, but it does not prove belonging. The 2010 article about the replacement Union gives stronger experiential evidence because students joined focus groups, toured other campus unions, and helped present the new plan to trustees.

Tracy Stuck described the 2010 result as “built for students, by students.” That statement matters because it treats students as contributors rather than customers. The building was planned to hold organizations, leadership, dining, events, debate, quiet study, and informal encounters. Its value lies in flexible coexistence: a commuter can ask for help, a club can make a banner, student government can meet, and someone without a scheduled event can still sit in the Great Hall.

Use this space

Visit without needing to buy anything. Current building information lists BuckID, student activities, the Keith B. Key Center, off-campus and commuter student engagement, an interfaith reflection room, study lounges, organization resources, and accessible floor descriptions.

Explore the Union’s accessible floor guide (opens in a new tab) ↗

Think about access: Student input shaped the building, but which students can participate in planning processes? What methods would reach commuters, disabled students, international students, and students with jobs or caregiving duties?

Read “Students First” in the archive (opens in a new tab) ↗
A September 23, 2015 Lantern newspaper page with the headline RPAC Turns 10 and photographs of the recreation facility and student activity.
Artifact 5: Lauren Holley, “RPAC Turns 10,” The Lantern, September 23, 2015. The retrospective describes student consultation and the facility’s broader social role.

Wellness · 1930s → 2005

RPAC

The facility that preceded the RPAC came from the 1930s, lacked air conditioning, and became too small for the student population. The 2015 Lantern retrospective reports that OSU talked with students and student leaders before the RPAC opened in 2005. Don Stenta connects its planning to activity, accessibility, flexibility, and community—not only exercise equipment.

The article describes a building used by 5,000 to 7,000 people a day for exercise, studying, eating, meeting, and group projects. This range makes wellness social and academic as well as physical. Yet a large, high-energy environment can also intimidate new users. True access includes membership rules, adaptive and inclusive recreation, understandable wayfinding, equipment variety, and a culture in which beginners do not feel watched or out of place.

Use this space

Start with information, not a workout plan. The official RPAC page provides current hours, capacity information, open-recreation schedules, contact details, and facility descriptions. The Student Wellness Center also offers coaching and services in RPAC B130.

Check RPAC information before visiting (opens in a new tab) ↗

Think about access: What signals would tell a first-time visitor, a disabled student, a student practicing for religious reasons, or someone unfamiliar with gym culture that the facility is for them?

Read “RPAC Turns 10” (opens in a new tab) ↗
Archive reading note: These artifacts do not represent every student. A newspaper page records what editors published; an alumni magazine shapes an institutional story; a building file privileges dates and dimensions. I use the sources together—and attend to what they omit—to connect physical change with student experience.

MP2 research · WorkNet

Campus does matter—but design is not destiny

My MP2 focal article gives one framework for reading the five building histories as a connected environment instead of isolated projects.

A colorful bilingual concept map. Yellow bibliography boxes connect scholarship to purple concepts including supportive learning, social connectedness, community, retention, and graduation. Turquoise context boxes and pink author-and-publication ovals surround a green focal-article box.
Campus Design WorkNet, created for MP2. The map follows bibliographic, semantic, choric, and affinity relationships around Hajrasouliha and Ewing’s “Campus Does Matter” (opens in a new tab). The central WorkNet label paraphrases the article’s topic; the complete title appears in Sources. Select the image for a larger view.
THE QUESTION

Can physical campus form support student success?

Amir Hajrasouliha and Reid Ewing studied 103 U.S. universities with high or very high research activity. They compared freshman retention and six-year graduation with aspects of campus form while controlling for institutional factors. Their question fits Ohio State because a large research university depends on a network of buildings, open spaces, routes, and campus services.

THE TERMS

Urbanism, greenness, and campus living

The researchers measured land-use organization, compactness, connectivity, configuration, campus living, greenery, and surrounding context. Their model grouped important relationships around urbanism, greenness, and campus living. These concepts help explain why the distance and connection among Thompson, the Union, residence spaces, communication spaces, and recreation matter—not just each building’s interior.

THE FINDING

Form is associated with retention and graduation

All three main campus-form variables were associated with freshman retention; greenness and campus living also had direct relationships with six-year graduation. This is not proof that a renovation causes an individual to graduate. It does support a careful claim: environments structure daily opportunities to study, meet, rest, move, and build connections, and those experiences can contribute to persistence.

Important limit: Campus design works alongside affordability, teaching quality, advising, health, work, family obligations, discrimination, and disability access. A beautiful building cannot compensate for exclusionary policy. The WorkNet is a map of relationships to investigate, not a guarantee.

Your next move

Use one place. Question one barrier.

Turn the guide into a small piece of campus research. Choose a building you have never entered—or one you use without noticing.

  1. Before

    Choose

    Select one practical reason to go: research help, a club meeting, a quiet break, wellness coaching, or a tour of student media.

  2. During

    Notice

    Track the entrance, signs, staff contact, noise, seating, elevators, restrooms, cost, and whether you understand what you are allowed to use.

  3. After

    Connect

    Name the need the building supports. Compare your experience with its history: what changed, and what part of the earlier mission remains?

  4. Share

    Improve

    Write one small access move the building could make. Share it with a relevant office, student organization, or class discussion.

Copy this reflection prompt:

“This space supports students by ____. It becomes harder to use when ____. One improvement would be ____.”

Resources · Secondary scholarship

Continue the research

These sources explain the wider concepts behind the building stories. They move from campus planning to belonging and student engagement.

Focal article · 2016

Campus Does Matter

Hajrasouliha and Ewing connect campus form with retention and degree attainment. Its strength is a broad, measurable framework; its limitation is that institution-level patterns cannot explain every student’s experience. Use it to ask spatial questions, not to reduce persistence to architecture.

SCUP article record (opens in a new tab) ↗

Belonging study · 2021

Belonging and Physical Space

Mulrooney and Kelly study how a diverse student group perceives university space and belonging. Their UK setting differs from OSU, but their attention to student perception helps correct a planning-only view: a space can look successful on a plan while feeling unwelcoming in use.

Read the article PDF (opens in a new tab) ↗

Place attachment · 2019

Student Life Centers

McLane and Kozinets examine spatial experience and place attachment in campus student life centers. This narrower focus is especially useful for the Ohio Union and RPAC, where repeated social use can turn a large institutional building into a personally meaningful place.

Open the ERIC record (opens in a new tab) ↗

Primary-source collection

Campus Buildings History

The Herrick Archives collection contains the building records that started this project. Use it to investigate construction, naming, additions, demolition, and changing functions. Pair administrative records with student newspapers, oral histories, and present-day observation.

Browse the Herrick collection (opens in a new tab) ↗

Works cited

Sources behind the guide

MLA-style entries are provided here for traceability. Archival links point to the exact issue or record used; current resource links elsewhere in the guide point to official OSU pages.

  1. Convery, Kristen. “Students First.” Ohio State Alumni, May–June 2010, OSU Publication Archives.
  2. Hajrasouliha, Amir H., and Reid Ewing. “Campus Does Matter: The Relationship of Student Retention and Degree Attainment to Campus Design.” Planning for Higher Education, vol. 44, no. 3, Apr.–June 2016, pp. 1–17, Society for College and University Planning.
  3. Herrick, John H. “Campus Buildings History.” The Ohio State University Knowledge Bank, Herrick Archives collection. Individual records consulted: Journalism Building, Ohio Union, Thompson Memorial Library, and Walker House.
  4. Holley, Lauren. “RPAC Turns 10.” The Lantern, 23 Sept. 2015, OSU Publication Archives.
  5. “Home Management House Named for Mrs. Walker” and “Cleveland Society Champions Co-ed.” The Ohio State Lantern, 9 May 1932, OSU Publication Archives.
  6. McClellan, Erin. “Beyond the Stacks.” Ohio State Alumni, July–Aug. 2016, OSU Publication Archives.
  7. McLane, Yelena, and Nadya Kozinets. “Spatiality, Experiences, and the Formation of Place Attachment at Campus Student Life Centers.” College Student Journal, vol. 53, no. 1, 2019, pp. 78–98, ERIC.
  8. Mulrooney, Hilda Mary, and Alison Faith Kelly. “Belonging, the Physical Space of the University Campus and How It Is Perceived by Students.” Journal of Learning Spaces, vol. 10, no. 2, 2021, pp. 1–13, ERIC full text.
  9. Witzman, Kate. “Journalism Building Gets Facelift.” The Lantern, 29 Oct. 2009, OSU Publication Archives.

Author’s opinion

Judge improvement by access, not size alone

My research changed the way I evaluate campus growth. Thompson’s technology help, the Journalism Building’s multimedia spaces, student participation in the Ohio Union, and the RPAC’s flexible wellness environment show real responses to changing needs. Walker House shows why that progress story must remain critical: a space can support one group while excluding people within it. I believe OSU should measure every campus project by who can use its benefits, whose input shaped it, and what barriers remain. A larger building creates possibility; inclusive access turns possibility into student support.

Your campus is now part of the archive

Enter.
Notice.
Ask who benefits.

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