 Enrollment levels held steady into the Great Depression ; but in 1933 , the Ohio State Senate Welfare Commission proposed a plan to convert the school into a mental health institution . Students , faculty and administrators organized with the Bowling Green community to counter the proposal . The Student Protest Committee coordinated with the faculty and administration to organize a campus rally and march through the downtown Bowling Green . Members of the Protest Committee then launched a letter @-@ writing campaign to community leaders throughout northwest Ohio , which helped convince the state legislature that closing the school would be counterproductive . The measure was defeated by a 14 – 5 vote . A few years later , in May 1935 , the college was granted university status and changed its name to Bowling Green State University . The university added the College of Business Administration to the existing College of Education and College of Liberal Arts . Within a year BGSU added master 's degree programs in Education , English , History , Social Science and Mathematics . In 1939 , the university established The Committee for Gifts , Endowments , and Memorials , its first private endowment fund . 
