OU’s College of Arts and Sciences was renamed the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences in a Thursday ceremony, in response to a donation made in the legacy of an OU alumnus.
According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, Homer Dodge was an OU physicist and administrator. He came to the university in 1919, where he served as the sole faculty member and head of the department of physics and astronomy, rebuilding it as one with a “growing national reputation.”
In 1926, he was appointed the second dean of the university's Graduate College and served in that position until he left Norman. He was also the principal founder and director of the University of Oklahoma Research Institute until he left the university in 1942.
OU’s College of Arts and Sciences dean David Wrobel said the Dodge family’s donation was given to the university as a result of an agreement with the Alice Dodge Wallace Trust belonging to Homer Dodge’s daughter, who died in April 2020. At the request of the family, the exact number of the donation is unknown.
“Our closing wish is that the contributions by the Dodge family will enable the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, and the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, to flourish,” William Wallace, Homer Dodge’s grandson, said during the ceremony.
Wrobel said due to the scale of the gift, administrators were able to name the college and use the donation for funding that impacts the College of Arts and Sciences, which offers about three quarters of the general education curriculum on campus.
“It’s a huge, huge moment,” Wrobel said. “There are only a tiny handful of colleges of arts and sciences at universities this size across the country that are named. You know, it takes a substantial name and gift to pull this off for an entity as big as the (OU) College of Arts and Sciences.”
In a speech, OU President Joseph Harroz said the donation will be divided equally between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The largest part of the donation will go towards scholarships and awards within the College of Arts and Sciences, like the Dean's Undergraduate Scholars Fund, Harroz said. The donation will also go toward the creation of the Dodge Family Graduate Fellows Fund, the faculty research fund, the funding of two research chairs as well as “a stunning set of gifts to go to the College of Arts and Sciences.”
The majority of the amount going towards the Department of Physics and Astronomy will benefit the Dodge Family Postdoctoral Research Fellows Fund, followed by the Research Faculty Fund, the Strategic Research Investment Fund and the Dean Student Recruitment and Bridge Fund. The remainder of the allocation will go to the Distinguished Visitor and Workshop Fund and the Dean’s Graduate and Postdoctoral Research Attention Fund, according to Harroz’s speech.
“This historic gift really positively impacts just about every student on the campus,” Wrobel said.
OU foundational sciences of life in the universe and pre-med senior Devin Brown said during the ceremony he’s depended on financial aid throughout his college career.
“Moving into those oh-so luxurious dorms in Walker Tower in my first semester, I had no clue how the following three years would unravel and I stand here today, unable to predict how my future looks,” Brown said. “But I do know one thing: none of this would have been possible without the financial help that I received from this college. My second semester of freshman year, the resources offered by the now Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, along with its selfless staff, with (Dean Kyncl), pulled me out of a financial hole that otherwise I would not have been able to escape.”
Brown also said during the ceremony he is grateful for what the gift means to him as a student and for OU’s future generations.
“This gift provides the College of Arts and Sciences family with opportunities to create themselves, explore their passions and find solutions to the problems around them,” Brown said during the ceremony. “When we look at the world in the decades to come, I hope you can know that this gift is responsible for not only creating better students, but better people in a better world.”
