OU President Jim Gallogly denies rumors that Project Threshold will shut down, plans to seek funding source

Among a group of concerned community members gathered late Friday, OU President Jim Gallogly denied rumors that OU's Project Threshold program will shut down. 

A crowd of around 100 convened at 9 p.m. in the Jim Thorpe Multicultural Center in response to rumors circulating on Twitter and other social media platforms that the TRiO program devoted to serving a combination of first-generation, economically disadvantaged and disabled students would be removed from campus within a month. 

Gallogly denied the rumors and said the administration will find funding to continue the program. He said he is unsure where the rumor started, as he has been involved in no discussions about ending the program. 

"I understand why you’re worried about this," Gallogly said before the crowded room. "But I’m going to tell you very, very clearly: there has been no decision to shut down TRiO." 

Funding for the program will run out in September or October, Gallogly said, because the organization did not receive federal grant money it applied for. The OU administration will now discuss potential funding sources that will sustain the program after current funds run out. 

"I'm saying we will do this," Gallogly said. "Which account (the funding) comes out of is just an administrative detail."

In September 2016, OU agreed to bridge fund the program after it lost federal funding. 

Representatives from the Student Government Association, including SGA President Yaseen Shurbaji, OU's Faculty Senate, Project Threshold participants, OU alumni and others attended the meeting. 

Students, some distraught and in tears, expressed the importance of the program to their OU experience. The program is aimed at increasing the retention and graduation rates of its participants, according to its website. 

"You know what Project Threshold did for me?" one student said at the meeting. "It gave me a home. It opened so many doors, welcomed me with open arms." 

"When I got involved in the community (of Project Threshold), that’s why I stayed at OU," an OU alumnus said.

Students voiced concerns about Gallogly's expressed desire to find out how to run the program with more efficiency. He said he has reached out to the program, along with every other department and college on campus, asking them to spot ways to operate more efficiently given OU's large debt and financial insecurity.

"There is no better way than the way it’s being done right now," one student involved in Project Threshold said. 

In response to questions asking what that efficiency would look like, Gallogly said he did not yet know but hoped to have conversations with those involved in the program to figure it out. The room applauded when one student stood up and said he wanted to make sure any potential changes to the program happen "without losing what makes Project Threshold Project Threshold." 

"If TRiO changes that means someone is not going to make it here," a student said. "That means someone is going to struggle. We understand that you’re going to fund it, but we’re asking you to keep it the same or even better."

Several students asked Gallogly to put his promise to fund the program into writing despite his repeated assurances that the program will not shut down. Instead, he asked they trust his word alone. 

"The only thing you can do is watch and see if I do what I say," Gallogly said.