THE UNIVERSITY A PACESETTER FOR PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES “The University of Oklahoma is truly a great university. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT OU? It is becoming a pacesetter for public higher education • OU is one of the few public universities in the nation in the United States. We must no longer keep the • OU ranks number one in the nation among all public to cap the class size of fi rst-year English composition university’s excellence a secret! It’s time for us to let universities in the number of National Merit Scholars courses at no more than 19 students. others know about the strengths of our university and enrolled per capita. our determination to make it even better.” • The University has created an Honors College with • The Princeton Review ranks OU among the best in one of the largest honors programs among public - University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren the nation in terms of academic excellence and cost universities in the United States. More than 2,600 for students. students participate in small classes of 19 or less. THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA OVERVIEW Created by the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature in • OU’s 2007-08 freshman class was the largest at a • OU’s Campaign for Scholarships has passed the $130 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a doctoral degree- four-year public university in Oklahoma history. More million mark, allowing the university to double new granting research university serving the educational, than 10 percent of the entire freshman class came scholarships for students in just four years. cultural, economic and health-care needs of the state, from high school with a perfect 4.0 grade-point region and nation. The Norman campus serves as average. • The Campaign for Scholarships is continuing, and in home to all of the university’s academic programs March 2008 surpassed its goal of raising $100 million except health-related fi elds. Both the Norman and • OU has over a $1.5 billion impact on the state’s for endowed scholarships. To date, $110 million Health Sciences Center colleges offer programs at economy each year. in scholarship endowments have been donated or the Schusterman Center, the site of OU-Tulsa. The OU pledged. Health Sciences Center, which is located in Oklahoma • OU ranks fi rst in the Big 12 and at the top in the na- City, is one of only four comprehensive academic tion in international reciprocal exchange agreements • OU is one of only 25 public universities in America health centers in the nation with seven professional with countries around the world. The University has with an endowment above $1.1 billion and has colleges. OU enrolls almost 30,000 students, has 174 student exchange agreements with universities in increased from 100 to 539, the number of endowed more than 2,300 full-time faculty members, and has 66 countries. More than 1,500 students from almost faculty positions in the past 13 years, demonstrating a 20 colleges offering 154 majors at the baccalaureate 100 countries are enrolled on OU’s Norman campus. strong commitment to excellence. level, 160 majors at the master’s level, 85 majors at the doctoral level, 39 majors at the fi rst professional level, • OU is among the top universities in the nation in • OU continues to break private fund-raising records, and 18 graduate certifi cates. The university’s annual Goldwater Scholarship winners, with 12 in the past with more than $1.4 billion in gifts and pledges since operating budget is $1.46 billion. The University of four years, and OU student Andrea DenHoed was 1994, which has provided funding for dramatic capital Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution. named OU’s 27th Rhodes Scholar in 2007. improvements, the growth in faculty endowment and student scholarships. THE CAMPUS EXPERIENCE 74 most important gift of art ever given to a U.S. public • OU has the academically highest ranked student body university; the Adkins Collection, among the most im- • For the outdoor improvements to the Norman campus at a public university in Oklahoma. portant private collections in the nation of works by the — gardens, fountains, sculptures, benches — the Taos artists as well as Native American works of art; the University of Oklahoma has won fi rst place in the educa- • Since 1994, research and sponsored programs former U.S. State Department Embassy art collection; tion category for Beautifi cation and Landscaping in the expenditures at OU have more than doubled, and OU and the Dorothy Dunn collection of Native American art. statewide environmental competition. Gifts of over $3 continues to set new records for funding for externally million have permanently endowed OU’s gardens. sponsored research. OU ended FY 2007 with total expen- • OU’s Western History Collection is one of the largest ditures of more than $250 million. collections in the world of documents and photographs, • With nearly 400 doctors, OU Physicians is the state’s including a rare multivolume portfolio on the Indians of largest physician group. Our practice encompasses • The OU Health Sciences Center in FY 2007 continued the United States and Alaska by Edward S. Curtis. almost every adult and child specialty. Many OU Physi- its impressive rate of research growth by achieving cians have expertise in the management of complex more than $130 million in federal, state, corporate and • OU’s Research Campus has been certifi ed by the conditions that is unavailable anywhere else in the nonprofi t or foundation grants and contracts. Funding Oklahoma Department of Commerce as Site Ready, state, region or sometimes even the nation. Some have from the National Institutes of Health – considered to which enables the university to capitalize on fast-mov- pioneered surgical procedures or innovations in patient be the gold standard for research – was $44 million. ing economic opportunities and enables site selectors to care that are world fi rsts. readily fi nd quality land and facilities that meet nation- • Since 1995, almost $1.5 billion in construction projects ally established criteria in a timely fashion. • About 125 of OU Physicians’ doctors are OU Children’s have been completed, are under way or are forthcoming Physicians. These board-certifi ed pediatric specialists on OU’s three campuses, the largest of which is the $67 • A major beautifi cation campaign has transformed committed their training and, now, their practices to million National Weather Center. the appearance of the OU Health Sciences Center in the care of children. Many children with birth defects, Oklahoma City. The project replaced a divided highway critical injuries or serious diseases who can’t be helped • OU is home to one of the two largest natural history through campus with seven tiered gardens featur- elsewhere come to OU Children’s Physicians. Oklahoma museums in the world associated with a university. ing traditional OU arches at each end. The pedestrian doctors and parents rely on OU Children’s Physicians The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History walkway’s landmarks include an OU Seed Sower depth of experience, nationally renowned expertise and has more than 7 million artifacts and contains 195,000 sculpture at the west end, a clock tower at the east end, sensitivity to children’s emotional needs. square feet on 40 acres of land. The museum exhibits and a 70-foot granite fountain in the center. include the largest Apatosaurus on display in the world • The University of Oklahoma maintains one of the and the oldest work of art ever found in North America • OU has strong programs in international and area three most important collections of early manuscripts — a lightning bolt painted on an extinct bison skull. studies, with an International Programs Center led by in the history of science in the United States. It includes Zach P. Messitte, a foreign policy expert with a doctorate Galileo’s own copy of his work, which fi rst used the tele- • The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s collections total in international politics whose experience includes scope to support the Copernican theory, with corrections more than 8,000 works of art, including OU’s Weitzen- working for the United Nations and CNN. in his own handwriting. hoffer Collection of French Impressionism, the single THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA SOONERS 75 WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT OU? • The University of Oklahoma Libraries has added its • OU has established a faculty-in-residence program • A major building project has doubled the size of the 5 millionth volume, continuing a commanding lead as with faculty members and their families living in Law Center, refurbishing classrooms and creating a the state’s largest research library and claiming one apartments in the student residence halls. new library, a cutting-edge courtroom, and expanded of the top two spots in size student lounge and offi ce among Big 12 libraries. MISSION STATEMENT facilities. • OU’s Julian P. Kanter The mission of the University of Oklahoma is to provide the best possible educa- • OU has one of the oldest Political Commercial Archive tional experience for our students through excellence in teaching, research and comprehensive colleges of fi ne houses the world’s largest arts in the Great Plains states, collection of political creative activity, and service to the state and society. with highly regarded schools of commercials. With more Music, Drama, Art and Dance, and than 90,000 commercials, the programs in opera, musical archive includes political advertisements dating back • OU’s 271-acre Research Campus is anchored by the theater, and sculpture. to 1936 for radio and 1950 for television. Stephenson Research and Technology Center, where cutting-edge research into life science fi elds ranging • OU has won awards for new initiatives to create a • The highly acclaimed journal of international from robotics to genomic studies is taking place, sense of family and community on campus.