Ohio State University President Kristina Johnson and several of her students made a two-day tour of the Dayton area this week.
They visited Central State University and toured the Historically Black College and University's C. J. McLin International Center for Water Resource Management. The center is part of a partnership between the two universities.
It does similar work to the Global Water Research Institute on Ohio State's campus.
The centers share a focus on water quality — analyzing water pollutants and farming pesticide run-off — as well as hydropower.
“Today we’re building on our collaboration around water, which is really important,” Johnson said. “Obviously, we can’t go very many days without water. And it was really fun to see. And we talked a little bit about hydropower, talked a little bit about the quality of the water and the contaminants around it.”
Water quality and hydropower are not the only thing the two universities have in common. Both are also land grant universities.
“With both of us having a land grant mission, our mission is to make sure our science is getting to the citizens of Ohio,” said Cathann Kress, dean of the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State. “And so we partner with Central State on a number of those outreach efforts, whether it’s in urban areas or rural areas.”
Both Johnson and Central State President Jack Thomas said that this shared land grant mission pushes the universities to educate those who are underprivileged and underrepresented, as well as ensuring these students get the best possible level of education.
They said that by working together, they can more easily accomplish this goal.