OkStateExpansion.com

The change of City Commission and OSU Coordinating meetings to be held three times per year, rather than quarterly was decided last year. The meeting scheduled for Monday, May 1, was cancelled by OSU with no reason given. OSU is delaying the meeting until the next scheduled meeting, which is Sept. 11.

The meeting to have taken place on May 1, was to discuss the No. 2 fire station, reimbursement for the city’s fire and ambulance runs to campus, the athletic village and the city’s infrastructure such as streets and sewer and water lines that OSU will take over in acquisitions, the future of Hall of Fame and McElroy as well as other joint topics.

At least two letters were sent to OSU asking about the reopening of Hall of Fame and when planning for such opening could begin. There was no response from OSU to either of these letters.

There has also been NO response from the President/CEO regarding discussions of the fire and ambulance service on campus.

At the City Commission meeting on Mon., May 1, Hank Moore said the city needs to pressure the university to “get back on track” with the coordination meetings. Hank said that they should go back to quarterly meetings and with all the issues outstanding, he doesn’t think they should wait until September.

{Is this the manner in which OSU intends to “partner” with the city of Stillwater?}

http://www.stwnewspress.com/column_disp.php?id=19

Here is a recent letter to the editor titled “Regents prove their stupidity” that appeared in the O’Colly. The letter was authored by an associate prof in engineering.

It seems to summarize the sentiments of many faculty members

http://www.ocolly.com/read_story.php?a_id=29498

{link also at left of site under “letters to the editor” - O’Colly}

The following letter to the editor was published in the Stillwater News Press, February 18, 2006.

An Open Letter to Mr. T. Boone Pickens

Dear Mr. Pickens,

Both of my parents graduated from OAMC/Oklahoma State University, as did I. My father served on the faculty of OAMC/OSU from 1942 until his untimely death in 1968. I returned to Stillwater and the OSU faculty in 1977, serving as a school head here for almost a decade before rejoining the teaching faculty. I retired from the active faculty in 2000. In total, my immediate family has been very closely associated with OAMC/OSU from 1927 until the present time: almost 80 years. Despite that history, I would not presume to speak for the OSU Old Guard or anyone else; however, I do believe that my blood is about as Orange as anyone’s.

Unlike many recent letters mentioning your name, I do not write to besmirch you, your career, reputation or your legacy. Quite the reverse: I am a real and true fan of T. Boone Pickens. I became a fan some years ago, after reading your first autobiography, Boone (1987). Of course, like any other autobiography, Boone told the story from your own viewpoint. Nevertheless, I came away thoroughly impressed by a young Holdenville kid of modest means who garnered almost uncountable success through hard work and the application of an unusually creative mind. The fact that your success came in an already mature industry, dominated by giant corporations, rather than in an infant but burgeoning industry (Gates and Turner), speaks clearly to your own unparalleled achievements. I was and continue to be very proud of the fact that you graduated from OSU. I became even prouder when you gave so generously to the OSU Geology Department that now bears your name. Bravo and Well Done! And thank you for putting academics first in your generosity to our university.

It must be bewildering and saddening for you to see the negative responses of so many of the OSU Community to your truly unprecedented generosity. It is hard to imagine that someone who gives almost a third of a BILLION dollars to a university could become a target of such continuing anger and vituperation. It must be startling to find ones self a laughing stock and a target of highly uncomplimentary editorial cartoons in the student newspaper and – internationally – on the internet, after setting such an excellent example of gratitude to your alma mater. You cannot but wonder “What in the world has gone wrong here?”

What has gone wrong, Mr. Pickens, is that you (and OSU) have been astoundingly poorly served by President Schmidly and his administration. Dr. Schmidly and his minions have been literally bullying and threatening many defenseless elderly citizens of Stillwater. They have used tactics that have been rarely seen in this country (I hope) and remind many of us of the horror stories of Occupied Europe. Dr. Schmidly, his hand-picked assistants and incompetent consultants have been successfully forcing innocent citizens out of their homes and costing them substantial portions of their life savings, using very unethical tactics…. all in your name, Mr. Pickens. Perhaps some of the early miss-steps of the current OSU administration could be forgiven in their excitement and gratitude at your unprecedented largess. However, the utter lack of integrity and the unethical bullying behavior of this administration continue to this very day. It is policy, led by a man who has stated publicly that he does not care about “process,” only about “results.”

Upon his arrival at OSU, Dr. Schmidly instituted an administrative bloodbath, the likes of which this institution had never seen. Highly regarded Vice Presidents and Deans were fired wholesale and replaced with hand-picked people whose first loyalty was to Dr. Schmidly, not to Oklahoma State University. Far more than any other, in this administration, the Buck Stops at the Top.

The bungling of Dr. Schmidly and his regime in this entire affair is seriously damaging your legacy! Your generosity, like that of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford, should be publicly celebrated for generations into the future, not publicly ridiculed.

Mr. Pickens, you have never tolerated this startling lack of competence in your business affairs. Why tolerate it now?

John H. Bryant

{Moderator’s note: I do not know why the Stillwater Newpress sometimes fails to put all the published letters to the editor online. However, John Bryant had sent this letter to me earlier and I told him I would wait until it was published and then include the link on the website. I have emailed the newspress several times to ask why some letters were not included online and have never gotten an answer.

Since this is one of several that have not appeared online with the Newpress Website, I will put it on this site for those of you who do not subscribe to the Stillwater NewPress.}

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Regional bank BB&T Corp., one of the nation’s largest
financial institutions, will make no loans to developers who plan to build
commercial projects on land taken from private citizens by the government through the power of eminent domain, the company said Wednesday.

“The idea that a citizen’s property can be taken by the government solely
for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it’s just plain wrong,” John
Allison, the bank’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

In an interview, BB&T chief credit officer Ken Chalk said the bank expects
to lose only a tiny amount of business, but believes it was obligated to
take a stance on the issue. “It’s not even a fraction of a percent,” he said. “The dollar amount is insignificant.”

But he added: “We do business with a large number of consumers and small businesses in our footprint. We are hearing from clients that this is an important philosophical issue.” Chalk said he knows of no other large U.S. bank with a similar policy.

BB&T, which is headquartered in Winston-Salem, ranks among the nation’s top 10 banks by assets.

In June, a divided Supreme Court ruled that cities may raze people’s homes to make way for shopping malls or other private development. The 5-4 decision gave local governments the power to seize private property in the name of increased tax revenue.

The ruling upheld a decision by the City of New London, Conn., to seize
seven property owners’ land so developers could build a hotel and high-end condominiums to keep pharmaceutical giant Pfizer expanding in the state.

Scott Bullock, a senior attorney with the Arlington, Va.-based Institute of
Justice, who represented homeowners in the New London case,
applauded the bank’s decision.

“Eminent domain abuse is wrong and unconstitutional,” Bullock said in a
statement. “BB&T has stepped up and recognized its corporate
responsibility to not be a part of this shameful abuse of individual rights.”

The policy also will protect the assets of banks such as BB&T by not tying
up their money in projects that may draw political opposition, said Columbia University law professor Thomas Merrill, a specialist on eminent domain.

Merrill added that he did not believe there were many cases similar to the
one that developed in New London.

“No one knows how many of these projects are out there because the data is flimsy,” he said. “But my hunch, from what data we do have, is that the
number is relatively small and concentrated in large congested cities like
New York, Boston or Baltimore.”

In its statement, BB&T said 38 states have recently passed or are
considering laws to ban the use of eminent domain for private development. Similar legislation is pending before the U.S. Congress.

“While we’re certainly optimistic about the pending legislation, this is
something we could not wait any longer to address,” Chalk said in a
statement. “We’re a company where our values dictate our decision-making and operating standards. From that standpoint, this was a straightforward decision; it’s simply the right thing to do.”

BB&T, with $109 billion in assets, operates more than 1,400 branches in 11 states and Washington, D.C.

Friends,

I got this passed to me by friends in the Pacific Northwest. It is from the paper in Eugene, Oregon, where the University of Oregon resides. Corvalis, where Oregon’s OSU is located is right down the road…. even closer than Norman and Stillwater. The Phil Knight mentioned in the story is the founding genius of Nike, headquartered in Portland. He is U of O’s major “benefactor.” It is interesting and kinda heartwarming to see how others find us here in Stillwater, America.
——————————————————————————–
Bob Welch: This OSU is a far cry from Oregon’s

By Bob Welch
Columnist, The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, January 24, 2006

STILLWATER, Okla. - Amid Oregon’s more liquefied version of Rossetti’s “bleak midwinter,” I escape for two days to speak at Oklahoma State University. And to be reminded that it’s not only not raining everywhere, it’s not Oregon everywhere.

In Oregon, we’re fearing rain-triggered floods. Oklahomans are fearing drought-triggered fires, the kind that swept across nearly a half-million acres of grasslands in late December and early January.

It’s Dust Bowl Lite. East-central Oklahoma is experiencing its driest winter since 1921. In the Stillwater area, it has rained 1.49 inches in the past 90 days.

“Goodness,” I told my audience, nurses from around the state, “it rained more than that while we were waiting for takeoff in Eugene.”

In Stillwater, people are watering their lawns in hopes their grass won’t die.

But what strikes you as different about this place isn’t only the rock-hard grass the color of Parmesan cheese and matted down like a bad comb-over. It’s all sorts of nuances that remind you you’re not in Kan - er, Oregon anymore.

It’s brick - an entire campus virtually made of brick, the hard edges often softened by modified Georgian architecture that give it an almost Southern feel. (And, at 692 acres, more than twice the size of UO’s campus.)

It’s the giant freeway billboards touting this church and that. It’s a morning paper headlined by - well, of course - Oklahoma winning the Miss America pageant.

It’s fans at Saturday’s Oklahoma State-Colorado basketball game not booing the visitors when they came on the court. And coach Eddie Sutton appearing in “Charlie’s Chicken” TV commercials.

It’s 91 out of the 100 people I counted putting a hand over their hearts for the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And, following that, most everyone putting their arms around each other and singing OSU’s school song, swaying back and forth to create what looks like wind tickling a field of bright orange wheat.

It’s not sitting until the Cowboys make their first basket. It’s 7 a.m.-to-7 p.m. bank teller hours. And something I’m ashamed we don’t have here: “Duck Street.”

People might think of Stillwater as a sort of supersized Monmouth; and, yes, it’s flat and in the middle of nowhere. But the university pumps life into the city of 60,000-plus people - nearly one out of three residents are students and, judging from the turnout at Eskimo Joe’s on Saturday night, they’re not all studying for Future Farmers of America midterms.

Eugene has nothing to rival Joe’s, the nation’s third-ranked college postgame hangout, according to The Sporting News. One of its summer street parties is said to have drawn 65,000 - and I’ll personally vouch for the cheese fries.

In another departure from my Oregon norm, I stayed in a student-run hotel - The Atherton. It’s attached to the OSU Student Union and operated largely by undergrads in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration program, who are astute enough to offer Oregon wines.

Of course, I found plenty of similarities between here and there: OSU has its own “Westmoreland” on its hands; more than 300 houses, apartments and duplexes will be bulldozed for a new “sports village.”

It has its own Phil Knight: T. Boone Pickens, the gas and oil tycoon - and Time magazine coverboy - who recently dumped an NCAA-record $165 million into OSU’s athletic program. (Yep, that would be Pickens Stadium getting new skyboxes, some of which will allow deep-pocketed patrons to watch football from one side of their suites and basketball from the other.)

And it has friendly people, including a woman who gave me a $30 ticket outside Gallagher-Iba Arena on Saturday. I offered to pay. She wouldn’t have it.

So I’m going to send her a nice thank-you present this week: a bottle of Oregon rain.

It’s not like we’ll miss it.

*note: see article link on this site under news/articles, “OU aims to increase endowment to o$1 billion.”

I read the article in the Tulsa World regarding Dr. Boren’s meeting with the OU board of regents. Dr. Boren told them he wanted an increase in OU endowment to $1 billion within 3 yrs. It became obvious that OU was, without saying it, showing a significant difference between OSU and OU in their leadership, area of emphasis and even their donors.

The article pointed out, without actually stating it, the difference in the arena of priorities between OU and OSU (academics rather than athletics…and yes, we’re all aware of their excellence in athletics as well).

It was stated that only 14 public universities in the nation have such a large endowment. Dr. Boren wants OU to raise money for 20 more endowed faculty positions by the end of 2006, and a $50 million student scholarship campaign. Since ‘94, endowed faculty positions has risen to 403 from 101. Seven more to be announced in the coming days. This, Boren said, indicates the faculty’s excellence and helps OU attract and retain top scholars from around the world.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education matches private money donated for endowed faculty positions and the Oklahoma Supreme Court has approved a bond issue that pays the backlog of some of the matching money.

When some tried and true OSU alums are singing, “proud and IMMORAL”, rather than “proud and Immortal” and saying OSU stands for “Our Shamed University”, it is a sad day. Leadership! Where are you?

As Trude Naff pointed out a couple months ago, the OSU Foundation’s “Gift Acceptance Policy” states, among other things:

Gifts that may expose the Foundation or University to adverse publicity, require expenditures beyond their resources, or involve them in unexpected responsibilities because of their source, conditions or purposes will be referred to the President and CEO of the OSU Foundation. This individual may withhold approval of acceptance, pending a review. Where is our leadership?

Apparently there is a large telephone campaign to raise funding for our continued debt on the stadium. Could $165 million be used to ease this situation? Could our leadership direct reasonable options for contributions? Even the last $3 million donated as academic, is to go to helping the athletes graduate. Where is our leadership?

I know, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, be grateful for the gift, etc., but I have always thought of a “gift” as something given with no strings attached. I think of a “gift” with strings attached more akin to a “bribe.” Where is our leadership?

The Oklahoma State University System is a multimillion-dollar organization. Recently, it received a gift of $165 million, cash, earmarked for athletics facilities. The OSU Administration is still seeking approval from the Board of Regents for a Master Plan that shows those athletics facilities located in the middle of Stillwater.

Wise use of this gift requires considering many strategic issues. An organization’s vision may start with wishes and dreams, but that vision must be translated into realistic, responsible action, and that action must be supported by facts. Some of the questions to consider in OSU’s transition from dreams to actions fall into these six categories: location, eminent domain, ongoing support, leadership, public relations, and data.

Excerpt from “OSU’S MASTER PLAN: STRATEGIC ISSUES,” Marion Agnew. January 2006.

Download entire document as pdf.

Received from Hugh Agnew
Subject: Inside Higher Ed :: A Boon(e) for Oklahoma State

It is in the higher-ed papers with more of the “other side” than you get
in the AP report or general OK media coverage. This is a new online
journal run by a former editor of the premier hard-copy higher ed
newspaper, the Chronicle of Higher Education. I find their stuff pretty
interesting.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/11/boone

Dear Regents,

I am close, but not in the present threatened area, but I cannot help but be concerned. There are real people involved here, homeowners, long-time renters and landlords with retirements involved. Everyone of them have a story. And nobody with authority seems to care. The perpetuators of this action have by no means a sterling reputation. Boone Pickens was a ruthless raider. Now he is rich and he buys people. And the people in authority at OSU have been willing to be bought. I am bitterly ashamed. My husband and I are not educated and we saved for years so we could send our son to OSU. He got a masters in electrical engineering in six years and we were so proud. Not anymore. When I walk to my friends house on Connell street, I see if not the ugliest parking lot in existence, it is awful close. Many people lost their homes by that OSU action. Now they are preparing to destroy another comfortable neighborhood where people live in harmony.. Very low crime area. And if this action goes forward, it will be an ugly dangerous place for years, as they wait for money. Construction never occurs on time. Look at the stadium and Hall of Fame road. It has been and will be a mess for years. And now this institution of higher education is considering making another such mess so close to a very fine elementary school and the cities only high school.

Progress is a good thing and it is time for OSU to move forward with new leadership

and to use land they already own so this can be done in a timely manner. Our city and its’ people deserve some respect. Until now we have always supported OSU.

Thanks for listening,
Beverly Kargel
808 West Knapp
Stillwater, OK,. 74075