OU President David Boren took center stage Friday in Beaird Lounge, surrounded by members of the President’s Leadership Council, to announce a five-year, $500 million campaign to raise funds for scholarships, campus updates and faculty endowments.
The “Live On, University” campaign’s primary goal is raising funds for student scholarships. Over the past four years, the amount of private scholarships has doubled, but the “Live On, University” campaign intends to add another $100 million to that number, Boren said.
Boren announced the campaign at an event to mark OU's 125th anniversary.
Boren said he wants to ease the financial burden on students and families by giving more scholarships, especially because state allocations to higher education have decreased over the years.
The greatest portion of the campaign’s goal, $100 million, would go towards offering scholarships to both graduate and undergraduate students. While OU has more than doubled its private scholarships over the last five years, 57 percent of students still must take out loans, Boren said at the event.
In addition to providing scholarships to qualified students, the “Live On, University” campaign intends to raise funds for a number of other university resources, including:
- $25 million for updating classrooms and laboratories
- $20 million for creating a residential college system for sophomores, juniors and seniors to live on-campus
- Endowments for the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the Presidential Teaching Fellowship in the Joe C. and Carole Kerr McClendon Honors College, the Institute for Quality Communities, the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage and for OU’s study abroad program and campus in Arezzo, Italy. Combined, these endowments total just over $34 million.
“We stand in danger of not developing some of the great potential of this state and this country by not allowing members of this generation to come to this university and to hone their talents as they should,” Boren said. “So, part of this campaign is a statement from all of us — we will join together and we will not let the doors of opportunity swing shut at the University of Oklahoma.”
Boren also announced a new parking garage, which was met from the audience with cheers and applause.
Throughout the speech, Boren introduced several donors who had already committed to various parts of the campaign’s plan during the “silent phase,” where community members were contacted privately and asked to donate to the campaign.
Before closing his speech with the singing of the OU chant, Boren explained the meaning of the phrase “Live on, university,” which appears at the end of the chant.
“These words at the end of the chant, ‘Live on, university,' they’re not words of assurance. They’re words of determination. They are words to which we are challenged. They challenge us that this university should live on, stronger, better and with more opportunities than ever before,” Boren said. “Today, we are sending out a message: We embrace that challenge. Our university will live on stronger and better than ever because of all of you."
