After receiving many comments about last month’s article regarding things you might not know about Oneida, I decided I would share some additional interesting facts about OBI that you might not know.

1. We opened our doors on Jan. 1, 1900 and had 100 students. Tuition was $1 per month. Many could not afford the tuition and gave other items to cover their tuition.

2. Our first graduating class in 1908 had 5 graduates. Our largest class in 1989 had 116 graduates.

3. Anderson Hall is the oldest structure on our campus and was built in 1911. An $11,000 gift from a donor in New York made this facility possible. It has served as a dormitory, staff housing, classroom space, banquet hall, president’s house, and guest house throughout the years and was recently remodeled in 2014.

4. Our undefeated baseball team in 1912 included three future OBI presidents.

5. We have 130 people on staff. We have staff members from Alabama, Arizona, Brazil, Canada, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mexico, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Venezuela.

6. We own 80 housing units that provide a place to live for our staff.

7. We also have 10 other large buildings on our main campus. This includes Sparks Hall, our main gymnasium and classroom building, which was built in 1953. This gym still has the original white oak floor.

8. Our cafeteria served 318,360 meals last year.

9. Our campus is surrounded by water. Goose Creek, Bull Skin Creek, and Red Bird River converge near our campus to form the South Fork of the Kentucky River. Our athletic fields are in a flood zone and are periodically flooded by Goose Creek.

10. We have 11 sports involving 21 different sports teams, but have never fielded a football team.

11. We are currently in phase two (girls’ dormitory and classroom combination building) of a three-phase campus overhaul. Phase one was a boys’ dormitory and classroom combination building, and phase three will be a new dining hall.

12. We don’t receive any state or federal funding. The Lord is good and greatly to be praised because He always provides for our many needs.

13. Our mission is to provide a structured living, learning, and working environment in which each student is challenged to grow mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually in order to acquire an Education for Time and Eternity.