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Coming of Age
The Growth and Services Offered by the Office of Minority Affairs
By Normando Caban
Created during the turbulent social
political struggles of the late 1960’s, the
Office of Minority Affairs (OMA) has continued
to reinvent itself in its efforts to
provide quality services to the Ohio State
student body. While it originally began
as an effort to address the concerns of
the African American community during
the 1960’s civil rights struggle, it has now
evolved into one of the largest and most
recognized university diversity offices in
the country. Since its creation over four
decades ago, OMA has been a bastion
of innovative student services that were
created to meet the specific needs of the
student groups who have historically been
disenfranchised and underrepresented
in higher education. What was once an
office that was created to serve primarily
the needs of the African American student
body has evolved into a first-class service
center for all underrepresented students.
More and more each year, we find an
increasing number of students of all back
grounds shoring up their academic success
by taking advantage of OMA’s abundant
programmatic services. Both incoming
freshmen and current students who have
never looked into these programs are
strongly encouraged to do so.
OMA offers programs and services that
work collaboratively with other university
offices to provide holistic support to
students during their tenure at Ohio State.
These services can run the gambit from
helping high school seniors with the Ohio
State admissions and financial aid processes
to nurturing and catering students’ specific
interests and needs through the following
programs:
The Advising Program helps students
identify and pursue the appropriate major
and supplements the student’s academic
advising.
The Mentoring Program matches
students with a suitable faculty or staff
mentor.
The Tutorial Program provides free
tutoring for students in a wide range of
subjects with options of small-group, individual,
or walk-in tutoring.
The ACCESS Collaborative assists lowincome
single parent students who have
custodial responsibility of their children.
ACCESS provides financial aid counseling,
housing and child care assistance as well as
parenting, life-skills, and leadership-development
workshops.
Minority Scholarship Services provides
financial aid counseling and facilitates the
awarding of need-based grants and meritbased
scholarships to students funded by
OMA’s programs.
The Morrill Scholars Program is a competitive
full tuition scholarship program.
For a more detailed overview of all the
programs and services available through
the Office of Minority Affairs, you are highly
encouraged to visit www.oma.edu .
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