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University of Oklahoma

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
660 Parrington Oval
Norman, Oklahoma 73019-0390
Phone
(405) 325-0311
Email address
admissions@ou.edu
School Information
"Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma just 20 mins. south of Oklahoma City. OU’s Norman undergraduate population is slightly more than 20,000, giving students a major university experience in a private college atmosphere. With three campuses in Oklahoma, OU also offers study abroad opportunities at several locations and OU campuses overseas." The university enrolls over 21,000 undergraduate students and offers over 170 majors. (Source: https://www.ou.edu/web/about_ou)
General Information
The University of Oklahoma has taken steps to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion into its graduation requirements. The university's senior Capstone Experience general education requirement will be replaced with a mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion course for all students beginning fall 2021. The exact contents of the course are under development and an update is expected. See developments below:

Actions Taken

Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
  • The president of the University of Oklahoma released a statement voicing his opposition to House Bill 1775 that states that students are not required to have mandatory diversity training and education. The president stated that this legislation is “contrary to the goals we have laid out for ourselves as part of our Strategic Plan and the initiatives we have established” towards diversity training.
  • On January 27, 2022, the University of Oklahoma Athletics Department announced the Champions for Unity initiative that is “designed to be innovative in the realm of diversity, equity and inclusion in order to grow and develop its student-athletes, coaches, staff and sports programs.” The program will include “professional networking, educational and mandatory training programs, voter registration and election day activities and other efforts designed to take steps toward equality,” and supports athletes to “display social justice messages on their uniforms.”
Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • Senior Capstone Experience general education requirement will be replaced with a mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion course for all students beginning fall 2021.
  • On May 4, 2021, the Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma released a new report where “students and staff in the architecture program could soon be evaluated for their support of ‘anti-racist’ beliefs.” The report discusses the school’s plans to be “equipping students from dominant identities,” the white students, “with cultural humility” as well as focusing racial material “within core curriculums and not sidelined as electives.”
Resources
  • The university offered a professional development workshop for instructors and graduate teaching assistants called "Anti-Racist Rhetoric & Pedagogies."
  • On June 22, 2021, the University of Oklahoma hosted a graduate training workshop on Anti-Racist Rhetoris & Pedagogies where they “urged English instructors to purge all problematic speech from their classrooms” and stated that “in the classroom, free speech does not apply.”
Last updated July 26th, 2022
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