ARCHIVES
Months/Years

A $500 million higher education capital bond program which failed to gain sufficient legislative support last year will be sent to the legislature again this year when they convene Feb. 7 Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education have said.

State Regents said returning higher education funding to levels not seen since 2002, when dramatic cuts occurred, and finding a dedicated revenue source for the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP) will also be on their legislative agenda.

When the OHLAP program began providing tuition waivers for low- and middle-income students during the 1996-97 academic year, tuition waivers amounted to $517,022. By the end of the 2003-04 academic year, annual amounts had grown to more than $10, 406,000.

As classes began last fall, 81 students from Pittsburg County including 38 from McAlester High School took advantage of the tuition assistance. Ten students from Latimer County were also on the program.

Southeastern Oklahoma colleges and universities will receive $41 million of the $500 million bond issue funds according to the regent’s project list.

Economic impact projections for the 30 capital improvement projects in the region indicate the projects will result in 392 additional jobs, primarily in construction, for southeast Oklahoma within two years of the bond issue passage.

Statewide, 140 capital improvement projects are slated to occur at 36 higher education institutions. Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University will each receive $117,180,956 or collectively just under 50 percent of the $500 million bond revenue.

Southeast Oklahoma schools include: East Central University, Ada, receiving $10.8 million ($10,810,182); Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, $10 million ($10,062,758); Eastern Oklahoma State College, Wilburton, $7.9 ($7,910,101) million; Murray State, Tishomingo, $7 million ($7,025,000); Seminole State College, Seminole, $6.7 million ($6,750,000) and Carl Albert State College, Poteau, $8.6 million ($8,647,601).

Oklahoma Chancellor Paul G. Risser said Oklahoma’s public colleges and universities have not had a major statewide bond issue since 1992 and are finding it difficult to meet the needs of a growing student population.

“We have seen approximately 28,000 more students on our campuses since 1992. The combination of record enrollments, building repairs and inadequate classroom space is taking its toll,” Risser said.

Oklahoma higher education officials believe the bond issue would be the only significant capital funding infusion that public colleges and universities have seen since other bond issues were passed in 1967 and 1992.

Another bond issue passed by state lawmakers in 2000 would have provided about $30 million for capital projects within the state system, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court eventually ruled that bill unconstitutional.

Risser said that unlike the 2000 bond issue that included funding for just a handful of institutions, the proposed bond issue would include at least one project for each of the state’s public colleges and universities.

He said estimates show that the various projects around the state could add approximately 4,000 construction jobs in Oklahoma and result in an economic impact of more than $737 million statewide.

Locally, Eastern Oklahoma State College President Dr. Richard Bernard said the majority of Eastern’s part of the bond proceeds would be used to construct a Student Life and Learning Center to replace existing facilities and bring all of student services into one location.

“Our current facilities are simply too expensive to renovate and are not easily accessible to the handicapped and elderly,” he said.

“Eastern hosts a number of events for the community and we find it difficult to meet their needs.

“We have classroom needs that must be met including renovation of a science building that was constructed when Lyndon Johnson was president.

“Some of the equipment in use in the science department was acquired more than a generation ago.”