We’ve almost reached the mid-point of our 130th year. That means our students are enthusiastically drinking pumpkin spice lattes, we’ve got gourds and mums adorning the Kendall Bell, and we’re celebrating the homecoming game. In other words, it’s a nearly perfect fall semester at TU!
It’s seriously hard to overestimate the amazing energy on this campus. We’ve started some exciting new initiatives, such our Course Experience Grants made possible by a generous gift from alumna Michelle Beale (B.A. ’66). These grants allow faculty to take advantage of all the resources the city of Tulsa and northeast Oklahoma has to offer, taking their students into museums, communities, and businesses for hands-on learning. One art class, led by Professor Jason Rafferty, painted a mural in the children’s playroom at Tulsa’s Domestic Violence Intervention Services; others are going to the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, and the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah.
We’ve also been having lots of fun at home game tailgates, with departments going head-to head: The display that gets the most votes gets a pizza party. So far, education, film, and anthropology have emerged victorious, but we’ve all had fun, and I believe – in true Arts & Sciences spirit – the pizza has actually been shared among all contestants. So, if you are in town for a game, please come vote!
All of these initiatives are part of our effort to get the word out about how great it is to be a student in the Kendall College of Arts & Sciences. My goal is to increase our recruitment by 400 students over the next four years, growing the college from 750 to 1,150. That’s still small enough to be deeply personalized, but with the critical mass to do even more exciting things, from hiring great faculty to offering innovative courses.
So please read on about some of the success stories that will be crucial to that effort. We have alumni achieving remarkable things at the Supreme Court, students producing groundbreaking research, faculty members earning prestigious fellowships, and more. And we hope you’ll join us on campus soon!
All the best,
Blaine Greteman