Shaping a Better Tomorrow

Greetings.

This edition of Old North is a carefully curated compilation of meaningful moments in the lives of our students and alumni whose paths have merged with ours. The University of Central Oklahoma is proud to be an inclusive community where the diverse insights and perspectives of our students, past and present, can be embraced and folded into the pages of our collective story.

Stories offer us opportunities to learn, to live vicariously and to empathize with each other. Through this tradition, people share an experience with others who could never have otherwise lived that moment with them. All of the moments shared here are inextricably connected by the common Central thread woven among them. Fulfilling our mission has proven to be inspirational to the individuals telling their stories to you here, and we believe their found missions will inspire you.

This year has been an exploration in innovating our role as the state’s metropolitan university through the expansion of our fully online program offerings. Extending our reach to provide high-touch, top quality programs in new ways will help us achieve our goal of keeping a Central degree accessible. Bringing the number of our fully online programs to seven, Human Resource Management and Marketing degrees are now open and enrolling new students. New and exciting offerings will be developed over the course of the next year which will ensure we are becoming a center of excellence in matching our strengths to industry demands.

The landscape of our campus has shifted and risen to form an exciting new silhouette in the skyline of our metropolitan area. Our College of Liberal Arts building, which has anchored the east side of campus, has doubled in size and assumed a fresh façade that seamlessly marries the future with our past. Hamilton Field House has expanded its footprint and impact by creating space for much-needed locker rooms, a practice court and a championship wrestling facility. Rising south of Hamilton Field House is our new modern dining facility. We’ll say goodbye to Buddy’s cafeteria in the spring and make way for beautiful green space to reach into the heart of campus.

Growth and change are essential to realizing our potential. Our future, like our history, will be grounded in a strong respect for tradition with an entrepreneurial spirit. Central was originally home to pioneers who invested their energy and effort into building this edifice, not because they knew what we would become, but because they believed that whatever we would become would be worth their effort.

I invite you to read the stories written on the pages that follow and accept them as confirmation that UCO is committed to educating our citizens toward shaping a better tomorrow.

Best wishes to you,

Patti Neuhold-Ravikumar President