the university IN THIS SECTION: -University Information -OU Tradition -Sooner Spirit -Facilities A PACESETTER FOR PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES “The University of Oklahoma is truly a great university. It is What Do You Know About OU? • OU ranks fi rst in the Big 12 and at the top in the nation in becoming a pacesetter for public higher education in the United • OU is number one in the nation per capita among public international exchange agreements with countries around the States. We must no longer keep the university’s excellence a universities in the number of National Merit Scholars enrolled. world. The University has 171 student exchange agreements secret! It’s time for us to let others know about the strengths of Six hundred National Merit Scholars currently are enrolled at with universities in 60 countries. Fourteen hundred students our university and our determination to make it even better.” OU. from 95 countries are enrolled on OU’s Norman campus. - University of Oklahoma President • The University of Oklahoma ranks in the top 10 in the • OU is in the top fi ve in the nation among all comprehensive David L. Boren nation in the Freshman Year Experience, according to a national public universities in the graduation of Rhodes Scholars. study by the Policy Center on the First Year of College. The The University of Oklahoma History study recognizes OU’s initiatives for fi rst-year students and its • OU is one of the few public universities in the nation to cap Created by the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature in 1890, commitment to put students fi rst. the class size of fi rst-year English composition courses at no the University of Oklahoma is a doctoral degree-granting more than 19 students. research university serving the educational, cultural, economic • The Princeton Review ranks OU among the Top 10 public and health care needs of the state, region and nation. The universities in the nation in terms of academic excellence • The University has created an Honors College with one of Norman campus serves as home to all of the university’s and cost for students. The list included universities like the the largest honors programs among public universities in the academic programs except health-related fi elds. Both the University of California-Berkeley and University of Virginia- United States. More than 2,600 students participate in small Norman and Health Sciences Center colleges offer programs Charlottesville. classes of 19 or less. at the Schusterman Center, the site of OU-Tulsa. The OU Health Sciences Center, which is located in Oklahoma City, is one of • Last year, OU was in the Top 10 universities in the nation in • Just one year after launching a fi ve-year, $50 million only four comprehensive academic health centers in the nation Goldwater Scholarships in math and sciences. Campaign for Scholarship endowments, OU achieved its goal with seven professional colleges. OU enrolls almost 30,000 and has now passed its $90 million mark, allowing the university students, has more than 2,000 full-time faculty members, and • OU is the highest-ranked public university in the history to award hundreds of new scholarships and ensure that OU will has 20 colleges offering 152 majors at the baccalaureate level, of Oklahoma. The latest U.S. News and World Report rankings remain affordable and keep open the door of opportunity for all 160 majors at the master’s level, 80 majors at the doctoral place OU in the top tier among national public universities. qualifi ed students. level, 38 majors at the fi rst professional level, and 18 graduate certifi cates. The university’s annual operating budget is more • OU has over a $1.5 billion impact on the state’s economy • OU is one of only 20 public universities in America with an than $1.2 billion. The University of Oklahoma is an equal each year. endowment above $1 billion and has quadrupled the number of opportunity institution. endowed faculty positions in the past 12 years, demonstrating a strong commitment to excellence. THE CAMPUS EXPERIENCE 70 SOONERS | 07 • OU continues to break private fund-raising records, with • The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s collections total more • For the outdoor improvements to the Norman campus more than $1 billion in gifts and pledges over the past decade, than 8,000 works of art, including OU’s Weitzenhoffer Collection — gardens, fountains, sculptures, benches — the University which has provided funding for dramatic capital improvements, of French Impressionism, the single most important gift of art of Oklahoma has won fi rst place in the education category for the growth in faculty endowment and student scholarships. ever given to a U.S. public university; major works by the Taos Beautifi cation and Landscaping in the statewide environmental Colony of artists; the former U.S. State Department Embassy art competition. Gifts of over $3 million have permanently • Due to OU’s increased private support during the past collection; and the Dorothy Dunn collection of Native American endowed OU’s gardens. 12 years, the number of endowed faculty positions has art. quadrupled, increasing from 100 to 444, helping to retain and • With nearly 400 doctors, OU Physicians is the state’s attract talented faculty members. • OU’s Western History Collection is one of the largest largest physician group. Our practice encompasses almost collections in the world of documents and photographs, every adult and child specialty. Many OU Physicians have • Over the past decade, research and sponsored programs including a rare multivolume portfolio on the Indians of the expertise in the management of complex conditions that is expenditures at OU have more than doubled, and OU continues United States and Alaska by Edward S. Curtis. unavailable anywhere else in the state, region or sometimes to set new records for funding for externally sponsored research even the nation. Some have pioneered surgical procedures or and will reach almost $250 million this year. • OU’s Research Campus has been certifi ed by the Oklahoma innovations in patient care that are world fi rsts. Department of Commerce as Site Ready, which enables the • The OU Health Sciences Center in FY 2004 continued its university to capitalize on fast-moving economic opportunities • About 125 of OU Physicians’ doctors are OU Children’s impressive rate of research growth by achieving more than and enables site selectors to readily fi nd quality land and Physicians. These board-certifi ed pediatric specialists $124 million in federal, state, corporate and nonprofi t or facilities that meet nationally established criteria in a timely committed their training and, now, their practices to the care foundation grants and contracts. Funding from the National fashion. of children. Many children with birth defects, critical injuries Institutes of Health – considered to be the gold standard for or serious diseases who can’t be helped elsewhere come to OU research – was nearly $53 million. • A major beautifi cation campaign has transformed the Children’s Physicians. Oklahoma doctors and parents rely on OU appearance of the OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. Children’s Physicians depth of experience, nationally renowned • Since 1995, almost $1.5 billion in construction projects The project has replaced a divided highway through campus expertise and sensitivity to children’s emotional needs. have been completed, are under way or are forthcoming on with seven tiered gardens featuring traditional OU arches at OU’s three campuses, the largest of which is the $67 million each end. The new pedestrian walkway’s landmarks include an • A diverse student community is a priority at OU. OU ranks National Weather Center. OU Seed Sower sculpture at the west end, a clock tower at the number one in the Big 12 in Native American enrollment east end, and a 70-foot granite fountain in the center. and continues to be one of the leaders in enrollment of Latin • OU is home to one of the two largest natural history American, Asian American and African American students. museums in the world associated with a university. The Sam • OU has strong programs in international and area studies, Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History has more than 6 with an International Programs Center led by Zach P. Messitte, a • The University of Oklahoma maintains one of the three million artifacts and contains 198,000 square feet on 60 acres of foreign policy expert with a doctorate in international politics most important collections of early manuscripts in the history land. The museum exhibits include the largest Apatosaurus on and whose experience includes working for the United Nations of science in the United States. It includes Galileo’s own copy display in the world and the oldest work of art ever found in North and CNN. of his work, which fi rst used the telescope to support the America — a lightning bolt painted on an extinct bison skull. Copernican theory, with corrections in his own handwriting. THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA SOONERS 71 • The University of Oklahoma Libraries ranks in the top • OU’s largest supercomputer debuted as the fastest in the governor of Oklahoma, teaches an introductory course in two in the Big 12 in the number of volumes held, according to Big 12 and in Oklahoma history and among the top four among political science each semester, and keeps in close touch with The Chronicle of Higher Education. The University of Oklahoma U.S. universities (excluding the big three National Science students. Library is the largest in the state with approximately 4.7 million Foundation supercomputing centers). volumes. • OU has one of the oldest comprehensive colleges of fi ne • Since its creation in 1998, OU’s Offi ce of Technology arts in the Great Plains states, with highly regarded schools of • OU’s Julian P.