In 1907, this city made a promise. Tulsa was young, booming and looking around to determine what it needed to be the kind of competitive city it wanted to be. The conclusion was that a great city needs a great university to step up as a primary partner.
At that time, the Tulsa Commercial Club — which eventually became today’s Tulsa Regional Chamber — courted a small college from Muskogee, Kendall College, with an offer to relocate to Tulsa: $100,000, 20 acres, and a streetcar from downtown to campus. That is the Tulsa origin story of The University of Tulsa — and it was the bargain of our founding.
Today, we come full circle with an announcement that will pay dividends for the City of Tulsa and the future of The University of Tulsa.
So let me tell first you WHO we are before I tell you what we’re doing — because the two are the same story.
We are a truly a one of kind university. A private research university with undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. With Division 1 athletics and a beautiful residential campus. Small classes, high touch and a customized experience for students who frequently graduate with double or triple major or minors and a true interdisciplinary experience.
We have a 95% job placement rate for undergrads and we are recognized by Forbes as one of the 10 most generous universities in the United States. All of the pillars of excellence are already right here.
The University of Tulsa enrolls more National Merit Scholars per capita than any private university in the nation. More than MIT, Harvard or Yale.
And sitting alongside that academic firepower is a large population of Pell-eligible students — students of enormous talent but limited financial means. Those two groups are not separate. They overlap. The scholar and the striver are often the same young person. They are living proof that excellence and access are not a trade-off. They are the same lever.
Which brings me to why we’re here.
To broaden access and invest in the future of Tulsa, The University of Tulsa is taking undergraduate tuition and required fees from $54,000 to $25,000.
Let me be precise about what that means, because families deserve precision.
For undergraduate students entering in the fall of 2027, tuition and required fees will be $25,000 — and we are locking that rate for four years, so the price you enroll at is the same price through your on-time graduation.
With $25,000 being the MOST any undergrad student on this campus will pay, you then layer on federal, state and tribal aid with the scholarships The University of Tulsa generously awards, and what’s left over is an attainable amount and an amount families can realistically plan for.
This move makes us the MOST affordable private research university in America’s Heartland.
We want Tulsa’s best and brightest to have no barriers to accessing excellence in their own back yard. And we want more students from around the nation – and the world – to move to Tulsa to study, live and work so that they can take advantage of this vibrant and growing city we call home.
We are not leaving our current students behind. Because of our generous scholarships packages, many of our students already pay less than $25,000 — but beginning THIS fall, ANY undergrad student whose out-of-pocket tuition and fees exceeds $25,000 will be held harmless with the offer of additional scholarships.
So how are we able to do this? Because of generations of generous and loyal TU donors. And because of new gifts in support of this bold move.
I want you to understand the mechanics. Making this right by our current students, including the freshman who will move into our dorms this next week, will be funded entirely by private gifts.
As you can see, I do not sit here today alone.
A decision of this magnitude is not entered lightly. There are many stakeholders that are on board with us in this decision. Our Board of Trustees, who thoughtfully weighed the risks and chose to be bold leaders for our future. Our deans and representatives of our faculty, staff and student body. We also work-shopped this with many representatives from our area public and private school districts and our partners at Tulsa Community College to understand what this means not just for new entering freshman, but for transfer students who will now see us within their reach.
And now I’d like to turn this over to the other speakers that join me at this table so that they can share in their own words why this matters.
- Mayor Monroe Nichols, a proud TU graduate
- Mike Neal, CEO of Tulsa Regional Chamber
- Dr. Ebony Johnson, representing Oklahoma’s largest public school district Tulsa Public Schools
- Bruce Bigler, Student Body President and Lifelong Tulsan
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In the coming weeks, we’ll have more news and specificity about the individual donors and family foundations that stand with us to make this a reality — not just for our current students, but so that EVERY high potential student will know that The University of Tulsa is a realistic and attainable option for them.
Visit utulsa.edu/25k to learn more.