President Novice G. Fawcett
The 16 years that Novice G. Fawcett served as the eighth president of The Ohio State University were a period of tremendous growth and change. The university's enrollment grew from 22,470 students in 1956 when he was inaugurated to 50,040 in 1972 when he retired. Regional campuses were created at Lima, Mansfield, Marion and Newark. Faculty research grew at the fastest rate of any American university at the time. Dozens of campus buildings, including Mershon Auditorium, St. John Arena, the entire North Campus residence hall complex, Lincoln and Morrill Towers, the West Campus complex, and numerous academic buildings, were constructed on the Columbus campus to handle the needs of the ever-growing student population.
Quoted as saying, "No job is worth taking, if there exists no challenge in doing it," President Fawcett faced a number of challenges. One of the greatest was maintaining a sense of community and belonging on campus in a time of rapid expansion and changing social and academic roles for universities. His vision, administrative skills, and unwavering positive spirit served him well as he guided Ohio State through a period of immense transition. The latter years of his administration encompassed the civil rights, anti-war, and women's liberation movements, all of which had profound influence on university campuses. The offices of Minority Affairs and Affirmative Action, as well as the Division of Black Studies (now the Department of African and African American Studies) were formed, as was the University Senate, which for the first time gave faculty and students a voice in university governance.
President Fawcett's commitment to life-long learning and making the university a resource for the people of Ohio was demonstrated by the construction of a facility dedicated to life-long learning in 1969. The building, named the Fawcett Center for Tomorrow in his honor upon his retirement in 1972, was designed as a center for continuing education, both on site and via the WOSU radio and television stations housed in it. Today, the Fawcett Center continues that mission as a state-of-the-art meeting and conference facility and the home of WOSU.
Born in 1909 in Gambier, Ohio, President Fawcett attributed much of his success in life to the values and lessons learned growing up on the family farm in Knox County. After graduating magna cum laude from Kenyon College in 1931, Fawcett pursued a career as a public school teacher. He earned a master's degree from Ohio State in 1937, and went on to become superintendent of schools in Gambier, Defiance, Akron, Bexley and Columbus. His vision and administrative accomplishments as head of the Columbus Public Schools led the university trustees to recruit him for the Ohio State presidency.
Following his retirement from the university, Novice Fawcett continued his close association and positive contributions to Ohio State, maintaining an office in the Fawcett Center for many years. He devoted much of his time to educational consulting and participation on professional and corporate boards at the local, state and national levels.
He died June 19, 1998. His legacy continues at Ohio State, and at the Fawcett Center.