What newer, younger president with a fraction of the knowledge and connections of Boren would you iike? Boren is not perfect, but his vision and leadership are still incredibly effective. I disagree he's fading. I just disagree on his tailgate policy. Ultimately, the university has bigger fish to fry.

No idea, picking a new one is not my job. But it would be nice if whoever was chosen could take over the reigns while Boren is still around at the University to mentor that person or at least be available as a resource.

Fair enough. We can agreed to disagree.

I think wishing death (or a hastened death process) should be a ban-able offense. Dude, no act he has ever done is worthy of you saying that! Grow up! That's pathetic!

And you clearly didn't read my post so that's ok. Think what you want.

As they say, "follow the money".
https://tailgateguys.com/home/ou#tailgate-packages

This is just another cash grab by the powers that run the University. It was time for Boren to go when he was using the weight of his office to pressure the Oklahoma Geological Survey to bend to the wishes of Continental Resources concerning earthquakes and the cause of them in Oklahoma.

I also disagree with the posters attacking Phi for his comment on Boren. I read that post as someone wishing for Boren to retire and ride into the sunset, not have the sun set on his life while holding office. The quicker he leaves before the Big 12 implodes, the better our chances for joining the SEC.

You can be critical of his age, but to think he is isolated from the real world is just out of touch yourself. He is one of the most worldly men in OK... connected in many ways most have no idea of. His reach and respect from others outside of OK is great. Here, we tend to criticize him on things like drinking beer and a choice of band directors. In the face of lack of support and dwindling support from our state legislature, the academic growth of OU and improvement in educational facilities has been the best in our history. Complaining of moving tailgating 5-7 times a year because we built outstanding new college facilities on the site seems pretty silly, imho.

Meant he is out of touch with the average person and how these things are successfully handled much better in almost every other school.

Not at all the same thing as being 'wordly' as I am well aware of his background.

While Boren has not handled these situations well, from a PR perspective, he handled the OU frat racist chant situation as well as you could. A lot of leaders have made those situations worse. Boren did what was needed to uphold the university reputation (of course, there are a lot of other complexities to that situation but that's for another thread).

I disagree with how the university handled the Oklahoma Geological Survey/Continental stuff and this tailgating thing, but Boren is operating a public state university in the worst state to run a public state university in the country (see highest higher ed cuts in the nation). When it comes to funding university operations and projects, I am sure he is desperate. It's an awful spot to be in. And he's not going to come out and keep saying it because it would smear the university reputation. But when funding is in absolute crisis mode, I can understand the thinking about finding ways to make money off fan tailgating.

While Boren has not handled these situations well, from a PR perspective, he handled the OU frat racist chant situation as well as you could. A lot of leaders have made those situations worse. Boren did what was needed to uphold the university reputation (of course, there are a lot of other complexities to that situation but that's for another thread).

I disagree with how the university handled the Oklahoma Geological Survey/Continental stuff and this tailgating thing, but Boren is operating a public state university in the worst state to run a public state university in the country (see highest higher ed cuts in the nation). When it comes to funding university operations and projects, I am sure he is desperate. It's an awful spot to be in. And he's not going to come out and keep saying it because it would smear the university reputation. But when funding is in absolute crisis mode, I can understand the thinking about finding ways to make money off fan tailgating.

I diagree to an extent on the handling of the fraternity deal but you and I will probably never see eye to eye on that issue. We are both coming from very different places on that situation so I wouldn't expect you to understand my point of view and that's ok.

On charging for tailgating, that's fine too in certain circumstances. But there was still no good reason to eliminate the most popular tailgating area as an option especially now that the dorms and the new south entrance make a much nicer and convenient backdrop for the area.

Maybe charging fans for tailgating on Lindsay is Boren's end game here. Cause an initial outrage by eliminating it altogether and then bring it back as a paid tailgate area with that new tailgate setup company to appear as though he was making a compromise by allowing it. If they had just decided to charge for tailgating on Lindsay people arguably would've been more angry than they are now. Given what it costs to go to a game now, I would still be annoyed if they charge for tailgating down there, but it would be better than nothing. If that's not Boren's end game, maybe it should be.

New tailgating areas have been opened.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIgGQ8GVwAAEEQx.jpg:orig

I like how this time they used the newest map available. Nice to see they caved, to some degree.

I like how this time they used the newest map available. Nice to see they caved, to some degree.

I guess...still not good enough.

I may be in the minority here, but I think it would be cool to concentrate the majority of tailgating to the Duck Pond area....sort of a "Grove" concept that exists at Ole Miss.

I may be in the minority here, but I think it would be cool to concentrate the majority of tailgating to the Duck Pond area....sort of a "Grove" concept that exists at Ole Miss.

I agree, I've always thought that would be a great location. There and along Brooks east of Jenkins.

Tailgating has always been dispersed at OU with several "pockets" around campus, people hanging out at Campus Corner bars and people at houses around campus. It's a different scene than other schools.

I may be in the minority here, but I think it would be cool to concentrate the majority of tailgating to the Duck Pond area....sort of a "Grove" concept that exists at Ole Miss.

I love this idea! It would be awesome.

This has nothing to do with the dorms, but I bet if you look at the contract OU has signed with 'The Tailgate Guys,' it probably says that they will be the closet tailgating to the stadium within XYZ feet...

Pete, you should put in a FOIA request to see what kind of deal we made with them.

More on what they are calling Cross Neighborhood:


4 buildings each with 300 beds
Large adjacent parking structure
Communal kitchen on each floor
No dining hall; instead there will be restaurants on the ground floor, open to all
A private company is developing on a ground lease from OU (costs the university nothing to get this done) and complete ownership reverts to OU after 40 years
The 1,200 units will combine with the 600 units in the new residential colleges to provide much more on-campus housing, mainly for upper classmen


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/cross090517b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/cross090517.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/cross1.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/cross2.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/cross3.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/cross4.jpg

Awesome.

There are still huge blocks of space on the south part of campus which are either empty or very under-utilized.

If Cross fills up, they consider doing more of these residential projects. Everyone wins when people live close or on campus.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ou090517.jpg

you circled the tennis courts as being underutilized... those are fighting words. : )

OCCE will be the next area to be torn down and redone. It is very old and underused.

I do believe the area south of the Sam Noble Museum is owned by Sam Noble or they have some sort of agreement in place in case they want to expand in the future.

Want to give a big compliment to OU on the first home football game this season.

I griped and griped in recent years about being in the stadium and them doing a horrible job of keeping you informed about other games in progress. They are still really bad about this, scrolling through all the Top 25 game scores even though 90% of them didn't start until later.

However, I was able to login into free wifi within the stadium so I could follow on my own.

For a while, due to cellular traffic, being inside the stadium was one of the few places on earth where you were almost completely cutoff from the outside world. Seems like that has been remedied with the wifi and is a huge step forward.

Glad they added the WiFi, cause like you said, it's always been a black hole.

Pete, some thoughts on certain areas you circled...

Reaves Park is very well-used throughout the year. My understanding was that the City of Norman and the University did not reach an agreement on trading other OU property for Reaves, so I think it will remain in City hands for the near future. The block circled north of Reaves is also well-used for intramural activities and all sorts of other stuff, again throughout the year. There's no argument from me on redeveloping Kraettli Apartments, though, or some of the parking at LNC, or the northern part of the Research Campus (occupied by the Biological and Archaeological Surveys). The area immediately south of Sam Noble is used for some wilderness/prairie research currently, and I think it'd be worthwhile to preserve that. OCCE has been discussed on here previously. I know everyone says it's underutilized (not sure how to define that) but over the years I've been involved in tons of events there, both for on-campus and off-campus groups, including very recently. So any redevelopment of OCCE would require OU to build out additional event and conference space.

I'm certainly not advocating developing all those highlighted areas, just trying to show how much open space there still is in the area.

Regarding OCCE, all it would take is building one new facility for them somewhere (maybe even on the present site) and then that property could be used for more housing or another dense purpose.

People have mentioned going denser on the site of Cate Center but it seems that there should be at least a classroom component in anything on that site, and maybe exclusively so.

Then, you keep the classrooms pretty much in the center, housing surrounding that then parking on the perimeter.

I'm certainly not advocating developing all those highlighted areas, just trying to show how much open space there still is in the area.

Regarding OCCE, all it would take is building one new facility for them somewhere (maybe even on the present site) and then that property could be used for more housing or another dense purpose.

People have mentioned going denser on the site of Cate Center but it seems that there should be at least a classroom component in anything on that site, and maybe exclusively so.

Then, you keep the classrooms pretty much in the center, housing surrounding that then parking on the perimeter.

I think my ideal outcome for an OCCE replacement would be for new event space to be built north of the current Research Campus. At one point there were rumblings about a University hotel/conference center in the space anyway. Then redevelop OCCE as housing or academic space. Agree that Cate should be academic in nature... eventually space in the academic core of campus will run out. One thing I would ask, just in general: should University campuses adhere to mixed-use precepts? In other words, does it make sense to keep athletics together, housing together, and academics together, or to mix them all together. I can see advantages to both approaches.

^

Speaking of mixed-use, the residential colleges actually have faculty offices and classrooms within them.

I like the idea of the central part of campus being primarily focused on academics. Especially for students who can leave their housing then move easily between classes.

But, I also like that OU has the rare stadium that is actually on campus instead of in some out-lying area surrounded by a sea of parking. I know it cramps the style of tailgaiters but frankly, I don't want to be standing is someone's tent when I'm in Norman... I want to walk the beautiful campus, patronize the businesses, move around and see lots of people and sights. Campus Corner is finally starting to become fully realilzed and is already way, way better than just a decade ago.

I think OU has done all this pretty well; just wish the basketball facility was still near the stadium for all the same reasons I like the stadium location.

And parking should be confined to the perimeter with people either walking, biking or taking a trolley to destinations.

Awesome.

Wow, transformational on campus development

OU ranked 97th in 2018 university rankings from U.S. News and World Report. Also 44th among public universities.

The University of Tulsa is 87th. Oklahoma State is 156th.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/university-of-tulsa-continues-to-lead-state-ou-moves-up/article_a471c85b-7241-5866-98dd-a8bbd7dd30d4.html

Here are the US News rankings for all the Big 12 schools.

First number is 2018, second is 2017.


56, 56 - Texas
75, 71 – Baylor
78, 82 - TCU
97, 111 - Oklahoma
115, 111 - Iowa State
115, 118 – Kansas
145, 135 - Kansas State
156, 152 - Oklahoma State
176, 176 - Texas Tech
187, 183 - West Virginia

OU ranked 97th in 2018 university rankings from U.S. News and World Report. Also 44th among public universities.

The University of Tulsa is 87th. Oklahoma State is 156th.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/university-of-tulsa-continues-to-lead-state-ou-moves-up/article_a471c85b-7241-5866-98dd-a8bbd7dd30d4.html

That is AWESOME!. OU continues to improve its academic reputation which as an alum makes me extremely proud

I know the rankings are a matter of some debate, but it's great to see OU at 97!

I know the rankings are a matter of some debate, but it's great to see OU at 97!

Agree, now staying in that Top 100 and Top 50 public universities is important. Especially with reduced state funding it is a testament to what the OU administration has been able to accomplish in raising OU's profile and transforming the campus. OU still has a lot of work to do to increase admissions standards, expand graduate programs, build up the STEM programs specifically life sciences and technology, and more research at the Norman campus and HSC.

I'm always the one that points out how absurd and educationally meaningless the rankings are as a measure for ranking schools. But, of course, because people believe the rankings are important and meaningful, it is still good for schools to be ranked high. There are real benefits in terms of student recruitment and university access to opportunities and partnerships. As long as there are rankings, of course I want my alma mater (OU) to rank high.

I know I'm a broken record, but it's just frustrating that higher education institutions -- places of learning and research -- do so much to verify what amounts to sloppy methods and pseudoscience. Of course, our society loves simple numbers and misuses them in a lot of other educational areas too (e.g., IQ test measures culturally biased and narrow forms of knowledge and problem solving that are only moderately telling, ACT/SAT/GRE are poor predictors of college success...). Anyway, good for OU. *grumble, grumble*

OU Ranked Among Top 50 Public Universities in Nation
By Public Affairs, (405) 325-1701

NORMAN — For the first time in history, the University of Oklahoma has been ranked among the top 100 colleges and universities in the nation, public or private, according to U.S. News & World Report. In its 2018 Best Colleges rankings, OU is ranked among the best national universities as No. 97 overall – up from No. 111 in 2017 – and as No. 44 among public institutions. OU’s petroleum engineering program has been ranked in the top 3 among specialties at engineering schools whose highest degree is a doctorate, and OU’s Michael F. Price College of Business has been ranked among the top 43 best business programs at a public institution.

“This recognition marks a truly historic moment for the university,” said OU President David L. Boren. “The hard work and dedication of all members of the OU family have made this achievement possible. It confirms the high quality of education and standard of excellence that have become synonymous with the University of Oklahoma.”

Earlier this year, OU was recognized as being among the top institutions in the nation for its online degree programs. U.S. News & World Report ranked OU No. 2 in the category of “Best Online Bachelor’s Programs for Veterans,” which includes programs for active duty soldiers. Additionally, OU was named No. 3 in the overall category of “Best Online Bachelor’s Programs” and tied for No. 5 in the category of “Best Online Graduate Criminal Justice Programs.”

The 2018 Best Colleges ranking is the latest in a recent series of major accolades for OU. The Princeton Review ranked OU first in the nation for student happiness among public universities. Bizzell Memorial Library was named among the top 18 most stunning university libraries in the world by Architectural Digest. Additionally, INSIGHT Into Diversity selected OU as a recipient of the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award for the second consecutive year.

For the 2018 Best Colleges rankings, U.S. News & World Report based its findings on several key measures of quality, such as graduation and retention rates, assessment of excellence, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving.

U.S. News & World Report’s complete list of the 2018 college rankings can be found at www.usnews.com/best-colleges.

Wow! Great news!

I'm always the one that points out how absurd and educationally meaningless the rankings are as a measure for ranking schools. But, of course, because people believe the rankings are important and meaningful, it is still good for schools to be ranked high. There are real benefits in terms of student recruitment and university access to opportunities and partnerships. As long as there are rankings, of course I want my alma mater (OU) to rank high.

I know I'm a broken record, but it's just frustrating that higher education institutions -- places of learning and research -- do so much to verify what amounts to sloppy methods and pseudoscience. Of course, our society loves simple numbers and misuses them in a lot of other educational areas too (e.g., IQ test measures culturally biased and narrow forms of knowledge and problem solving that are only moderately telling, ACT/SAT/GRE are poor predictors of college success...). Anyway, good for OU. *grumble, grumble*
As long as the meathodology of the rankings is known then they can be used properly.
I know it is fashionable right now to discredit all measurements of facts and claim opinion is just as valid. We want to claim that all is equal when in fact it is not. Some individuals and institutions excel and others don't. We should attempt to excel in this state instead of diminish. Does this ranking mean that everyone who goes to OU will be successful...of course not. Individuals can outperform or underperform any organization they participate in.

OU had a 92% rate of freshman coming back for sophomore year. The highest they have had. Good news!

As long as the meathodology of the rankings is known then they can be used properly.
I know it is fashionable right now to discredit all measurements of facts and claim opinion is just as valid. We want to claim that all is equal when in fact it is not. Some individuals and institutions excel and others don't. We should attempt to excel in this state instead of diminish. Does this ranking mean that everyone who goes to OU will be successful...of course not. Individuals can outperform or underperform any organization they participate in.

Yeah, considering it's my job, I do understand how research works. My criticism isn't because I think it's cool to tear down "valid" studies, but specifically because these rankings are bad research. If I was reviewing these rankings in a journal I would reject the methodology. The measures are not valid, they're easily gamed, and many of the criteria have nothing to do with educational quality. In research, you have to operationalize your variables and the criteria they use to determine educational quality wouldn't pass muster. In fact, these rankings literally started with a questionairre to university presidents that asked, which school is best? Are you surprised Harvard and Yale do well? But that doesn't tell us almost anything tangible about the actual educational quality of the institutions.

Yeah, considering it's my job, I do understand how research works. My criticism isn't because I think it's cool to tear down "valid" studies, but specifically because these rankings are bad research. If I was reviewing these rankings in a journal I would reject the methodology. The measures are not valid, they're easily gamed, and many of the criteria have nothing to do with educational quality. In research, you have to operationalize your variables and the criteria they use to determine educational quality wouldn't pass muster. In fact, these rankings literally started with a questionairre to university presidents that asked, which school is best? Are you surprised Harvard and Yale do well? But that doesn't tell us almost anything tangible about the actual educational quality of the institutions.

So, what is your criteria? Or do you just think there is no quality measurement? Sometimes asking peers to judge each other is actually a good measure unless you suggest they don't know the subject. In business we generally know who is running good businesses and who isn't. I suspects in academia they do too.

Serious question, is research regarding education in your area of expertise and experience, or just research in general?

I am an educational researcher. Not specifically, in higher education quality, but I know enough about educational quality research to be able to decipher whether the methods are actually measuring worthwhile criteria. While reputation might work well in some fields, particularly business, it doesn't translate well to education. For example, I am pretty familiar with UCO's undergraduate education program, and it is very high quality. Based on the rankings criteria, which does almost nothing to assess educational quality, there is zero chance they could rank as high OU due to factors that show weak correlation to the quality of education -- graduation and retention rates, assessment of excellence, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving. These criteria guarantee OU will finish above UCO regardless of what UCO does. Only the first two factors even relate to educational quality -- and they're important even if the "assessment" is weak. If UCO created the greatest teacher education program in the U.S., it would still fall dramatically behind OU based on the criteria. It's a status quo, circular loop ranking that has no way to account for educational quality beyond graduation rates and their "assessment" (and those are outweighed by the other criteria). Do you think it's a good system if it can't even account for dramatic changes and doesn't really measure quality in any meaningful way? And. By the way, many universities are not a game these rankings without making meaningful changes. It's not hard to find a lot of stories on it.

Thanks for sharing your perspective.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ou092017a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ou092017b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ou092017c.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/ou092017d.jpg

BTW the home games this season have been awesome. Just love the new stadium. Wish we had OSU at home this year.

Some photos of the newly remodeled basement level at Bizzell Library:

http://www.oudaily.com/gallery/zarrow-family-faculty-and-graduate-center-opens-in-lower-levels/collection_e2a7d8ac-b39e-11e7-92dc-bff14a2ec4b6.html#6

Some photos of the newly remodeled basement level at Bizzell Library:

http://www.oudaily.com/gallery/zarrow-family-faculty-and-graduate-center-opens-in-lower-levels/collection_e2a7d8ac-b39e-11e7-92dc-bff14a2ec4b6.html#6

Beautiful. The interior, from furniture to finishings, of OU buildings are incredibly nice. I visit a lot of college campuses and I have never been at a university that has nicer interiors of buildings than OU.

Beautiful. The interior, from furniture to finishings, of OU buildings are incredibly nice. I visit a lot of college campuses and I have never been at a university that has nicer interiors of buildings than OU.

That has all been done in the Boren era. I guarantee you he and Molly had a big influence on all that.

That has all been done in the Boren era. I guarantee you he and Molly had a big influence on all that.

Molly picks out all the paint colors as well as the furniture. Well known around these parts.

They are not messing around at Cross Village:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/cross102417.jpg

I think Cross village will be a hit. The numbers of students we have just keeps going up.

Are there any plans to replace Walker and Adams? Those buildings are looking kinda dated now and I'm sure the rooms are outdated by now.

They are not messing around at Cross Village:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/cross102417.jpg

August 2018 is the planned opening for these units.

Are there any plans to replace Walker and Adams? Those buildings are looking kinda dated now and I'm sure the rooms are outdated by now.

They are not a replacement no. The towers were updates in 2008 with all new flooring, furniture and such. I know that last semester they actually ran out of dorm space for all freshman so some got to more to Hedington for the same price as the regular dorms.

These are upperclassman rooms I believe.

They have some freshman in the new residential colleges as well.

The incoming classes keep growing and Freshman are required to live on campus, apart from strict circumstances.

They are not a replacement no. The towers were updates in 2008 with all new flooring, furniture and such. I know that last semester they actually ran out of dorm space for all freshman so some got to more to Hedington for the same price as the regular dorms.

These are upperclassman rooms I believe.

No, I didn't say that anything currently under construction was a replacement for those towers. My question was, is there any plan to replace those towers.

No, I didn't say that anything currently under construction was a replacement for those towers. My question was, is there any plan to replace those towers.

I seriously doubt it.

And they might not be beautiful but they are functional.

I seriously doubt it.

And they might not be beautiful but they are functional.

I figure they still have a lot of years of functionality left in 'em. But with all the new construction going on, they look increasingly out of place and out of time.

I figure they still have a lot of years of functionality left in 'em. But with all the new construction going on, they look increasingly out of place and out of time.

The Physical Sciences Center (the Blender) is way, way worse and I've never heard any rumblings about doing much with it.

The Physical Sciences Center (the Blender) is way, way worse and I've never heard any rumblings about doing much with it.

Sarkeys, Dale Hall and the Physical Sciences Center need to be redone. They are so old I believe they would have to be completely taken down. Since the campus is having classroom issues, with no new classroom buildings being built, it is nearly impossible to take any of those buildings offline.

The Physical Sciences Center (the Blender) is way, way worse and I've never heard any rumblings about doing much with it.

I've been asking about a tear down and replacement since the first time I saw it. Lol. Definitely the worst building on campus.

The Physical Sciences Center (the Blender) is way, way worse and I've never heard any rumblings about doing much with it.

Yeah, you gotta wonder what the architect who designed the blender was thinking. That building is horrible. I can't imagine it being any better when it was brand new.

dbl post