Kent State University
public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States
Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Ashtabula, Burton, East Liverpool, Jackson Township, New Philadelphia, Salem, and Warren, along with additional regional and international facilities in Cleveland, Independence, and Twinsburg, Ohio; New York City; and Florence, Italy.
The university was established in 1910 as a normal school. The first classes were held in 1912 at various locations and in temporary buildings in Kent and the first buildings of the original campus opened the following year. Since that time the university has grown to include many additional baccalaureate and graduate programs of study in the arts and sciences, research opportunities, as well as over 1,000 acres (405 ha) and 119 buildings on the Kent campus. During the late 1960s and early 1970s the university was known internationally for its student activism in opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, due mainly to the Kent State shootings in 1970.
As of 2025, Kent State was the third-largest university in Ohio with an enrollment of over 33,000 students in the eight-campus system and over 25,000 students at the main campus in Kent. Kent State offers over 300 degree programs, among them 250 baccalaureate, 40 associate, 50 master's, and 23 doctoral programs of study. It is a member of the University System of Ohio and is classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education among "R1: Doctoral Universities – very high research activity".
History
Early history
Kent State University was established in 1910 as an institution for training public school teachers.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kent State University” as public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1473615. VIAF identifies the subject as 123676101. The Library of Congress control number is n79096729. Authority coordinates are 41.147, -81.343. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1910, 1912, 1970 and 2025.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Kent State University” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.