Encouraging Our Commitment to Learning

Hello to all! It is fall at UCO.

Mother Nature treated us kindly this summer, including rain at unexpected, but appreciated times. The campus has been green and lush thanks in large measure to the consistent efforts of our masterful Facilities team. Each day they tend the grounds and buildings, producing an environment our visitors regularly compliment as lovely and inviting.

Homecoming 2018 was punctuated by exceptional student involvement, memorable ceremonies for the Athletics Hall of Fame and the Alumni Association, honoring six distinguished alumni. It likely also will be remembered for the rainstorm almost precisely timed to cancel the parade, but not dampen the enthusiasm of our students nor the participation of alumni in the planned events.

They personify one of UCO’s enduring virtues: an indomitable spirit.

The campus landscape and skyline continues to change. Even a recent visitor will discover new facilities rising to replace 60-year-old buildings, as well as new space to enhance student learning.

In late September, the Sports Performance Center opened to rave reviews. It is designed to serve our student athletes and their coaches in pursuit of athletic and academic success. Unique among stateof-the-art sport venues, the new facility features an academic success center staffed with accessible mentors and space to focus on the athletes in pursuit of their degrees. This latest addition to UCO was completed with no state support. It will impact students for decades.

In mid-November, UCO will proudly open the STEM Research and Learning Center. This unique 56,000-square-foot facility will encourage interdisciplinary learning, guided by our student-focused UCO faculty.

It will underscore UCO’s durable commitment to undergraduate research as one of the key high impact practices in our cultivation and pursuit of transformative, lifelong learning. STEM is an integral component of the College of Mathematics and Science, but other disciplines are actively invited into the interdisciplinary environment. From the first days of its design, STEM was created to meet the growing demand for graduates, educated and motivated to fill positions throughout the metro and the state, in the full spectrum of these sought-after areas of expertise.

There is more on the horizon. The 55,000-square-foot South Wing of the College of Liberal Arts is rising, the first substantive change in the Liberal Art’s home since the mid-1960s. The South Wing is focused on student collaboration and connection, and on creating fresh faculty office and classroom space. We will dedicate sometime in June 2019 the South Wing and its physical connection to the original Liberal Arts building.

More to follow in the next letter on the new Dining Center and the North Hamilton Annex, which creates locker rooms for UCO women’s sports and the practice area mats for our highly competitive, award-winning wrestling team. These initiatives represent UCO’s continuing commitment to the OKC Metro, Oklahoma and to its citizens to offer personal, exceptional public higher education. We are able to continue to fulfill our responsibilities to the people of the metro in this dynamic way thanks to philanthropy, partnerships and student support.

I personally invite you to rediscover your Central this fall and spring. Come and join us as we open new facilities and prepare students for professional and personal success in a perpetually changing and challenging environment. I am confident you will find UCO and its committed faculty and dedicated staff clearly focused on student success and on building the dynamic future of the metro, state and country.

My sincere best wishes,

Don Betz