University on the Prairie

University on the Prairie. The first students – fifty-seven of them – arrived at the University of Oklahoma on the morning of September 15th, 1892. The university's building on the forty-acre campus south of town was under construction, so they gathered in “the Rock Building” one block west of the railroad tracks on Main Street. They were welcomed by a faculty of four that included the university's president, David Ross Boyd. Because Oklahoma Territory had not existed long enough to have produced high school graduates, none of the original students were educationally ready to undertake college-level work, and President Boyd created a preparatory school to provide basic introductory instruction to the ambitious students. , Norman's triumph in securing the university had been the result of skillful political maneuvering in the first Territorial Legislature and a strenuous campaign to satisfy the lawmakers' requirements that the town deliver $10,000 to the state treasurer. That accomplished, the institution was ready to embark on its mission of offering higher education to the citizens of Oklahoma Territory. , During the first crucial decade of its existence, the university, under the able leadership of Boyd, was able to attract a group of talented faculty members who left an imprint on the institution that lasted for more than a generation. Among those who came to teach in the early years were James Shannon Buchanan (history), Charles N. Gould (geology), Roy Gittinger (history), Vernon Parrington (English), Joseph Paxton (Latin), Edwin DeBarr (chemistry), and Albert H. Van Vleet (biology). The many talented instructors laid the groundwork for the building of a respectable university. , Also during these early years the basic procedures and policies of the university were established; admission standards, a method for enrolling and advising students, a grading system, an attendance policy, graduation requirements – in short, ways to organize and regularize the hundreds of details that went into the operation of an institution of higher education. The first student publication, The Umpire, made its debut in 1897, and various student organizations devoted to social, musical, athletic and intellectual life also made their appearance. A handful of bachelor's degrees had been awarded by the close of the decade. , By the opening of the 1902-1903 academic year, the University of Oklahoma had made significant progress. There were more than 800 students at the university, a significant percentage of them still in the preparatory school. A small but increasing number were Native Americans from neighboring Indian Territory, but no African American student was admitted, as the territorial government had created a segregated system of education at all levels. By 1902, students were being instructed by fifteen faculty members. There was a sixty-acre campus, an imposing (if lonely) building and a growing library collection of more than 4000 books. To its original offerings in arts and sciences, and the fine arts, the university had added major programs in pharmacy and engineering and a basic program in medicine. , History of the University of Oklahoma by Professor David W. Levy.