OSU Fisher College of Business is located between West Woodruff and West Lane avenues.  Credit: Lantern file photo

OSU Fisher College of Business is located between West Woodruff and West Lane avenues.
Credit: Lantern file photo

Letter to the editor:

From the City of Light, the news of the creation of the Ohio State University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship lit up my day. Hopefully, it brightened your day, too.

Students, this is good news. The knowledge required to start a start-up is tacit, so, regardless of your field of study, the minor in entrepreneurship and innovation can inform your decision-making.

Columbus community, this is good news. Enabling entrepreneurs and linking local industries with ideas combine the creative powers that assist economic growth.

The good news of Columbus and Ohio State University is reaching far, and it is my hope that this initiative is truly university-wide.

Because the walk across Woodruff for music, mathematics and microbiology majors might be unfamiliar, a student commission tasked with educating and encouraging students not familiar with entrepreneurship, but very familiar with creativity, could be beneficial to all.

A council could connect social and serial entrepreneurs from computer science to political science and from English to education. Such a commission or council — whatever it’s called — should communicate. From student government uptown to state government downtown and from city partners to corporate partners, it would have university-wide student representation and it would inform students across all fields as to the benefits of the new center. 

Having read about comparative universities’ student-led commissions, I believe that it’s very important for our goals to be enlightened by past experiences. Therefore, I propose a council which creates collaboration between innovative organizations, publicizes entrepreneurial events and engenders the entrepreneurial ecosystem which will, with your help, evolve and benefit all.

Communication with university administrators and the leaders of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship would be critical to a commission’s success. And, the council should be a resource for student entrepreneurs. Better stated, the commission should be a resource for any student who is expanding the boundaries of their respective study intellectually, socially or as a physical product.

I hope to see an ambitious and intelligent group of students working on such a project in the near future.

Steven Mahr
Third-year in economics and political science
[email protected]