Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

on a basis of mutual respect
and understanding. This
means learning more about
the cultures, histories, and
languages of others. OU has
launched study abroad programs
at more than fifty locations
around the world. The
percentage of OU students
studying abroad during their
university years has gone
from two percent, fifteen years
ago to twenty-six percent
today. OU has had students
on campus from over 110 countries studying
at OU. Through the International Programs
Center, Foreign Policy Conferences have
exposed students, faculty, staff and the public
by bringing to the campus world leaders,
including Margaret Thatcher, Desmond Tutu,
Henry Kissinger and Mikhail Gorbachev.
President Boren, along with OU First
Lady, Molly Shi Boren, has created a sense
of community in which shared values can
flourish. At OU, students are encouraged to
develop a commitment to civic responsibility
and service to community. As part of OU’s
commitment to civic education, President
Boren established the Institute for American
Constitutional Heritage, which sponsors
Teach-Ins that bring to campus Pulitzer
Prize-winning authors and historians
and outstanding scholars to discuss different
periods in American history. To
underline the importance of giving to a
purpose higher than oneself, each year,
thousands of OU students gather for
The Big Event, a daylong service project
to address a variety of community needs.
At OU, research complements teaching.
The University transformed an
empty field into a 271 acre Research
Campus that houses academic and
research programs in radar technology,
meteorology, genetics, energy and the
life sciences. The facilities on OU’s
Research Campus allow businesses and
industries to locate and collaborate with
University affiliates in an academic
setting and further grow and develop
Oklahoma’s economy.
The success of University’s research was
underlined recently when OU was awarded
the Carnegie Foundation’s Very High Research
designation, one of the most important
measures that distinguish among institutions
of higher education. OU is the first public
institution in Oklahoma to be awarded this
outstanding recognition.
OU’s excellence also was recently reaffirmed
by the report of OU’s accrediting
agency, The Higher Learning Commission of
the North Central Association of Colleges
and Schools, which called OU “one of the
country’s leading public research universities
that is committed to quality in it research,
instructional and service missions.”
The Great Reading Room.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HUGH SCOTT.
BELOW: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SHEVAUN WILLIAMS
AND ASSOCIATES.
O K L A H O M A P A R T N E R S
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