In his Evans Hall office, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. sat down with OU Daily Thursday morning to discuss Norman’s proposed entertainment district, commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and the value of a college degree amid rising tuition and fees.
Team Norman announced on Sept. 6 a proposed $1 billion entertainment district to be built off of I-35. The entertainment district would be covered 80% by private funds, with the remaining 20% coming from public sources.
Harroz told OU Daily Thursday that through discussions over the last couple of years, OU, the City of Norman and private sector leaders have discussed the idea of “live, work, play” and how Norman can better foster those ideals as the university moves to the Southeastern Conference in 2024.
The entertainment district, Harroz said, is the embodiment of “live, work, play” in Norman and creating a thriving city where people want to stay.
“We have this remarkable place in Norman,” Harroz said. “Are we really maximizing what we can do to make it a great place to live and not just go to college?”
Harroz said the partnership with the city has been different than in years past.
In 2017, the City of Norman unveiled a project to create a similarly described entertainment district to house an OU arena between Tecumseh and Rock Creek Roads in the University North Park area.
The OU Foundation requested tax incentives through the University North Park tax increment district in 2018, according to the Norman Transcript. The foundation later withdrew its request in July 2018.
Harroz told OU Daily that part of the entertainment district this time around would be financed through tax increment financing on the property.
Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt announced plans to build a new $900 million arena for the Oklahoma City Thunder in September this year. Holt claimed the proposal would keep the team in the city until at least 2050. The arena would primarily be paid for by an extension of the MAPS 4 one-cent sales tax, which some Oklahoma City residents have recently spoken against.
In comparison, Harroz said funding the entertainment district wouldn’t require raising Norman residents’ taxes.
“It's a way to not increase or take taxes from existing revenue streams,” Harroz said. “So we're excited about it, and we think it could launch a whole new level of vitality and interest in Norman.”
As for the future of the Lloyd Noble Center, Harroz said the university currently doesn’t have plans to tear down OU’s existing arena in the future.
“It still holds people. You can still conduct a basketball game there, you can still hold a gymnastics meet,” Harroz said. “But the venue itself is one that’s not desired by those that really want to attend and create that exciting scene for basketball or gymnastics.”
Sooners Athletic Director Joe Castiglione said after the OU Board of Regents meeting Wednesday that the LNC could see future modifications and upgrades in the future despite the new arena which will house OU basketball and women’s gymnastics teams.
Castiglione said there is a need for an on campus, indoor facility like LNC, specifically for practices and other events the LNC currently houses.
Harroz said he has learned a lot about arenas and fan experiences in recent years. The LNC, he said, can’t offer what OU fans want and need.
Harroz said an indoor venue on campus still needs upgrades even with a possible new arena.
“We still want to, even if (the entertainment district proposal) passes, we still want to use Lloyd Noble for a lot of purposes including practices,” Harroz said. “Having facilities that are updated and upgraded in those spaces, like locker rooms, is really important.”
Ongoing commitment to DEI despite political division
In Harroz’s Lead On, University strategic plan, a significant piece of that plan includes DEI and creating a place of belonging.
Harroz said with the state of the country and Oklahoma’s political division, the university cannot waiver on its commitment to DEI.
“The current political climate is bad, and it's going to get more contentious,” Harroz said. “We're heading into an election year in 2024. We see this issue and especially folks trying to use universities as culture war battlegrounds. … It would be naive to say it's not going to continue and it's not going to get worse over the course of the next 18 months. I hope it doesn't. But that would defy logic.”
Harroz said OU’s values have to stay clear and not change.
What makes OU different and unique, Harroz said, is its opportunity and hope to produce a student who engages with a world in division and interacts with people of different opinions constructively.
“Those are fundamental values that cannot change and should not swim in the political winds,” Harroz said.
Creating a place of belonging, Harroz said, is part of the core values of the university. Harroz said politics will play themselves out, but OU needs to continue to thrive and foster free speech, accountability and inclusion.
Recently, Oklahoma politicians have expressed fear that Oklahoma Public Schools and Oklahoma universities are indoctrinating students. Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters asked to review Oklahoma higher education spending on DEI programming and services in January.
“Some of the fear and why people are not going to school, not going to higher education is that they fear they’ll be indoctrinated,” Harroz said. “This is not that place, will never be because we believe in free speech and freedom of expression.
“Whatever the political winds happen, we’re not going to stray from those values. We can’t lose our soul in this.”
Harroz said OU is not a place for indoctrination because free speech flourishes. OU adopted the Chicago Statement last year, which is a set of principles that emphasizes the importance of freedom of expression on college campuses.
Harroz said it is a testament to the statement and the university’s continued efforts in fostering free speech that the OU Faculty Senate supported the Chicago Statement adoption.
Harroz said OU cannot be a place where hate grows. He said that regardless of political party, race, gender, sexual orientation or other demographic, that an individual deserves to be listened to and have an opportunity to be understood.
Over the summer, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, forbidding the consideration of race in college admissions.
Oklahoma previously banned the practice through a state question in 2012, one of eight in the nation.
Harroz said OU wants to continue supporting and encouraging people from historically underrepresented groups to attend and work at the university.
“This is a big red state versus blue state issue,” Harroz said. “We're always going to follow the law, we always do. But that doesn't mean that we abandon our values and principles. Those aren't changing.”
Value in higher education, increasing tuition
At the OU Board of Regents meeting Wednesday, Harroz opened his statement about the university by saying that fewer and fewer people are pursuing a university-level education in the country.
Harroz told OU Daily Thursday that he spends an inordinate amount of time pondering the value of a college education and degree.
“How many students nationwide are not going to college out of high school right now? And the drop is really concerning. It's a real concern,” Harroz said. “Not just for the individuals whose lives will not be changed by having a college degree, but for the country in its supply of a truly educated workforce.”
Over a decade ago, 74% of young adults believed a college education was extremely important. Now, that number has dropped to 41%, according to a Sept. 5 article in the New York Times. More and more people said pursuing higher education is not worth the price tag.
Harroz said people want the best value degree.
Harroz described it as a balancing act, trying to make sure OU’s education is the greatest value for as low a price as possible.
“Why am I saving value over and over again and not the lowest cost?” Harroz said. “That's because people don't want the lowest cost education.”
This year, OU raised tuition and fees for in-state students for the second time in three years and for the third time for out-of-state students.
Harroz said OU has maintained staying affordable despite these tuition hikes. OU is nearly 6% cheaper on average for an in-state student than it was five years ago, Harroz said. He said it is about 1% more expensive on average for out-of-state students in that time frame.
These statistics come from OU's student financial system, Banner, according to April Sandefer, OU's director of media relations. Sandefer wrote that these statistics are taken before scholarships or federal aid are awarded, so the amount students pay is typically lower.
“There’s, ‘Where do you price tuition?’ And then there’s, ‘How much aid you provide for those folks who otherwise couldn't afford to go (to college),’” Harroz said. “It's not a one-dimensional conversation.
“You don't look at tuition increases and say, ‘Well that’s gonna hit everybody.’ It’s not because there’s a lot of folks that don’t have the ability to pay it, and so you have to address that.”
Harroz said OU’s freshman class is a way to measure success in this aspect.
The class of 2027 is the largest class in university history, marking an over 10% increase since last year. Harroz said the hallmarks of this class are that nearly 40% are from historically underrepresented communities and 26% are first-generation students.
“Our students wouldn’t come here if we were the cheapest because (the university) couldn’t afford to provide excellence,” Harroz said. “It’s that dynamic tension that exists, but our home base for all the analysis goes back to those two things: value, excellence, affordability and to make sure that the American dream is real.”
With the record class size, Harroz said OU made strides in accommodating the increase in students.
Harroz said the increase in tuition partially went toward funding additional counselors in the University Counseling Center in Goddard Health Center.
“When you have growth, you have additional resources to meet that approach. And so it puts us in a position to grow responsibly. The tuition and fee increase that took place this year, resources from that went to Goddard for more counseling services because we know there's a continued need.”
Students have expressed frustration in recent years as Goddard has faced staffing needs and long wait times for counseling services.
Harroz also said the university increased wages for 120 jobs in the OU Police Department by 11% in the last year. Harroz said this was to retain and attract officers, dispatchers and support staff.
Last year, OU Daily reported that 27 out of 40 positions allocated for the OU-Norman campus police force remained unfilled and that for roughly every 1,056 undergraduate students, OUPD had one officer.
With the growth of freshman classes, Harroz said the university is in a better position to serve students.
“Our applications for next year are up over even last year, so we'll see what all shakes out,” Harroz said. “But they're really good signs and that means that we can grow the services we need to meet those students.”
This story was edited by Alexia Aston, Taylor Jones and Peggy Dodd. Cooper Marshall and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
