Gov. George Nigh Addresses Eastern Centennial Graduates
(Press Release 05-08-09)
Hank Mooney, Office of Public Information

Former Oklahoma Governor George Nigh has been dubbed for years as the cheerleader for Oklahoma.

He held true to his colors when he cheered on the 100th Eastern Oklahoma State College spring commencement exercises 7 p.m. Friday (May 8) in the C.C. Dunlap Field House on the Wilburton campus.

Calling it a standing room only crowd, “I just don’t see how you could get any more people in here,” he said. More than 2,500 guests and graduates attended the centennial graduation exercises.

“I am proud of this school and what it has done.

“Don’t tell me you can’t do it from Eastern. I am here to tell you, you can.

“The main choice is the one you make.”

“Do what you can with what you have from where you are, he told the graduates, quoting President Theodore Roosevelt.

“Ten years to the day I left Eastern, I was Lt. Governor.

“Don’t tell me you can’t do it from here,” he said.

As a McAlester native who attended Eastern from 1946 to 1948, Nigh earned the distinction of being the first governor in Oklahoma history to be elected to more than one term, serving from 1979-1987. He also was the first gubernatorial candidate to carry all of the state’s 77 counties, winning the 1982 election in a landslide.

He served eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and 16 years as lieutenant governor. He was elected to his first term in the House in 1950 while a senior in college at East Central University, Ada.

Nigh became president of the University of Central Oklahoma July 1, 1992. He had been Distinguished Statesman in Residence at the university for the previous five years. Nigh was inducted into the Eastern Oklahoma State College Alumni Hall of Fame in 1988 as one of the original initiates.

Eastern President Dr. Stephen Smith in his introductory remarks said that this marked the end of Eastern’s 100th year of service to eastern Oklahoma. The centennial year ended with graduates releasing 100 helium balloons into the night sky outside the gym following the ceremony.

Smith said the college initiated three main activities to commemorate the year including the centennial year history book, the Centennial Plaza and the tribute to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the founder, former Eastern basketball coach Don McClanen.

If early estimates hold true, Oklahoma may have more graduates receiving master’s degrees this year than did last spring.

About 4,225 students will earn master’s degrees, an 8 percent increase from last academic year, according to State Regents for Higher Education.

The state regents estimate that approximately 30,000 students will earn degrees during the 2008–09 academic year at Oklahoma’s public colleges and universities.

Of those 30,000 graduates the most popular fields of study are business and education, as it was last year. An estimated 16,500 will receive bachelor’s degrees.

Nursing, business and general studies are the programs most frequently selected by the projected 7,200 students earning associates degrees. That estimated is down some from two years ago, when 8,600 students earned the associate degree.

This academic year Eastern will have granted 286 degrees and certificates of completion not counting other agencies including the Department of Corrections Academy and the Oklahoma Miner Training Institute also located on the Wilburton campus.

According to Eastern Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Karen Harrison, the majority of students earning associate degrees from Eastern will be in the fields of general studies, agriculture and nursing.

Eastern graduates represented 28 of Oklahoma's 77 counties, 7 different states and two foreign countries.

One hundred-two Eastern students received Associate in Arts with 94 earning the Associate in Science. Eighty-seven graduates received the Associate in Applied Science with three students earning One Year Certificates in Child Development.

LISTING OF 2009 GRADUATES BY COUNTY