SALEM KSU campus plans events to mark 30th anniversary

Only 7 percent of the county's residents have bachelor's degrees.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Kent State University's Salem campus has a host of activities scheduled in coming months to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
In fall 1971, the regional campus began holding classes for nearly 760 students at the recently completed building along state Route 45, south of Salem.
Area residents have continued furthering their education in the three decades since that time, and enrollment has grown significantly.
This fall, nearly 1,200 students are attending KSU-Salem, one of the university's seven regional campuses, which includes KSU-East Liverpool and KSU-Trumbull.
How facilities grew: The KSU-Salem building itself also has grown, now standing at nearly 83,000 square feet, which includes a gymnasium added in the mid-1970s and a faculty office wing completed in the early '90s.
Although KSU-Salem was completed in 1971, it had its origins in 1962, when the university began offering technical classes at the old Salem High School on North Lincoln Avenue.
By the late 1960s, the university had decided to expand its presence in Columbiana County and to make it more permanent through creation of the regional campus.
Ernest Whitacre of Salem donated land to house the nearly 100-acre campus. Salem agreed to provide water and sewer services.
Groundbreaking was in 1969. The regional campus cost nearly $2 million to build, with most of the money coming from the state and KSU.
Today, KSU-Salem offers 12 associate degree programs and four bachelor's degree programs.
What's planned: "It's a milestone for our campus in serving the community," KSU-Salem dean Dr. Jeffrey Nolte said of the facility's 30th anniversary.
The anniversary events planned in coming months are KSU-Salem's way of showing appreciation for the area's patronage of the facility and also are intended to showcase the campus, Nolte said.
A prominent mission for the regional campus is to improve the county's record for higher learning.
Right now, less than 7 percent of the county's nearly 112,000 people have a bachelor's degree.
"That's very low," Nolte said of the county's percentage. Nationwide, the figure is about 16 percent.
"It's certainly very important" to the area, county development director Mark Gardner said of KSU-Salem.
The campus offers a storehouse of expertise that's often made available to area governments and agencies. It also plays a key role in training a knowledgeable work force, Gardner said.