STILLWATER, Okla. – Native students at Oklahoma’s second largest university are about to have a place to call their own.
With a stickball game and social dances, officials with Oklahoma State University, the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation officially launched the school’s Center for Sovereign Nations Friday morning as part of a push to increase the college retention rate of Native students while building partnerships with Oklahoma tribes.
“The hope that my grandchildren could choose to come here and have a place where their culture is respected and celebrated…is such a blessing,” said Stacy Shepherd, the Choctaw Nation’s senior executive officer of member services.
“It’s all about getting students here and keeping them here beyond that critical freshman year.”
Temporarily housed in Whitehurst Hall under the Office of the Provost, the center will share space Life Sciences East with the university’s American Indian Studies program. Funded by the Chickasaw Nation, the center will feature meeting space for the university’s Native student organizations and room for students to seek services or chat with friends.
“The center will serve students from the 39 sovereign nations in Oklahoma,” said OSU President Burns Hargis. “As a land-grant institution, Oklahoma State University has an important role to play in creating initiatives to increase engagement and educational opportunities. We hope this center will not only strengthen relationships between the university and sovereign tribal nations, but will also increase the number of American Indian graduates from OSU.”
In 2013, OSU’s main campus ranked third in the nation for the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred to Native students and seventh for all post-undergraduate degrees awarded. In 2014, the university awarded more doctoral degrees in clinical psychology to Native students than any other institution. The university also ranks among the top five nationwide in the number of engineering degrees awarded to Native students.
“Twenty years ago, this wouldn’t be possible,” Chickasaw Nation citizen and OSU aerospace administration and operations junior Masheli Billy said. “Higher education was once just a dream for Natives.”
