We started this fall semester by making news, as The University of Tulsa’s president announced that we were cutting annual tuition and fees from $54,000 to $25,000, making us the most affordable private research institution in America’s heartland. Forbes magazine noted that the move is all about making an excellent UTulsa education accessible by “providing greater transparency to students and parents deciding which colleges they can afford.” This is the thing that excites me the most, because Kendall College of Arts & Sciences has long prioritized access, with 24% of our students being the first in their family to attend college and 31% eligible for Pell Grants targeted at lower income families (98% of our students receive scholarship support made possible by our generous donors).
UTulsa has always combined this kind of access with true excellence. This fall’s incoming class has an average GPA of 4.1 and an average ACT of 28, and last year our college alone produced more prestigious Fulbright Scholars and Gillman Fellows than any other university in the state. That’s because we not only recruit exceptional students but also connect them with outstanding faculty mentors and distinctive, hands-on learning experiences, as you’ll see in the rest of this newsletter.
Professor Jason Rafferty, for example, is leading a Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge project with three students to curate an exhibition on the art of Patricia Hollingsworth, founder of the University School at UTulsa. The show will open at the 101 Archer Gallery in downtown Tulsa in March, and the preparation is the point – giving students a real opportunity to bring a major exhibit to a public audience. The project is supported by the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities, a true crown jewel for the college and community, which is under the exciting new leadership of Professor Bruce Willis. You’ll also read about Grace Deyoe (B.A. ’26), who fell in love with travel on a study-abroad trip to Japan, and then followed this up with a semester in New York as part of our NYU exchange. This is truly the best deal in higher education – our students pay their UTulsa tuition while taking classes at the Manhattan campus of the world’s most expensive university. As a student there, Grace was able to edit the Journal of Medicine and Law, and now she’s starting law school in Brooklyn. Finally, we include a story about one of our newest faculty members, Latoya Teague, who is partnering with local schools to address Oklahoma’s literacy crisis through innovative, equitable, curricular design.
In short: we’re making an impact. It’s truly exciting, and we couldn’t do it without our loyal community of friends and supporters. Thank you for being one of them!
Sincerely,
Blaine Greteman
Dean of the Kendall College of Arts & Sciences
The University of Tulsa