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Plans for a Student Success Center on 91Ӱ��’s West Campus move forward as the Hardesty Family Foundation announces a $1 million gift to 91Ӱ��’s largest fundraising campaign, Clearing the Pathway: The Campaign for Completion. The College also announced the new facility will be named after Roger Hardesty and his wife, Donna Hardesty.

The multi-year Campaign is about removing financial, navigational and physical barriers to a student’s success and graduation. The Student Success Centers, planned for all four campuses, are designed to serve today’s students by centralizing all student services necessary to apply, enroll and pay for college.

“We envision a college where our students’ success is determined solely by their motivation to learn, not by their personal finances or social circumstances,” said 91Ӱ�� President & CEO Leigh B. Goodson, Ph.D. “Plus, our research shows 90 percent of 91Ӱ�� graduates live and work in the greater Tulsa area, so, increasing a student’s success improves our workforce.”

The Student Success Centers are essentially “one-stop shops” which help students navigate the college application process and have been designed using national data on removing barriers.

“Our investment is about improving our community by impacting the lives of current and future students,” said Michelle Hardesty, Hardesty Family Foundation Executive Director. “91Ӱ�� plays a major role in training and educating our community. If we expect the Tulsa area to continue to grow, we need to ensure we have a properly educated workforce. 91Ӱ�� is well positioned to fill this need and we are excited to be part of 91Ӱ��’s future.”

The Campaign for Completion will raise $20 million in private funds to support student scholarships, academic advisors, Student Success Centers, science lab renovations and diversity and inclusion outreach. The 91Ӱ�� Foundation launched the Campaign’s quiet phase in November 2017 and announced the public phase in Sept. 2018.

“With 88 percent of our goal and $17.6M pledged for the Campaign for Completion, our students are already seeing positive change. One of our priorities, academic advising, has dramatically improved now that all degree-seeking students are required to see an academic advisor,” said Goodson. “Plus, we awarded Completion Grants or scholarships to eight students who were in danger of dropping out just shy of graduation. They are now back on track to graduate this spring or next fall.”

Clearing the Pathway: The Campaign for Completion has five components including the largest amount of $7 million to provide initial funding over five years for 22 Academic Advisors and 10 Answer Center Advisors increasing student access to advisors and lowering the student-to-academic advisor ratio to 350-to-1 as well as increasing online support services. Other goals include:

• $5 million to create new endowed scholarship funds that provide additional support for nearly 90 percent of our students who secure financial aid from existing sources.
• $5 million to create one-stop shops on each campus where students can complete the administrative process of going to college including admissions, financial aid, tuition payment, career counseling, academic advising, placement testing, and academic preparedness programs.
• $2.5 million for chemistry and biology lab renovations at 91Ӱ�� Metro Campus to support STEM fields through hands-on experience critical for undergraduate research and to prepare students for the workforce of tomorrow.
• $500,000 for diversity and inclusion outreach including the implementation of the Equity Scorecard, a program to support 91Ӱ��’s equity effort to increase degree attainment and improve student success for racial/ethnic minorities, low-income students, first-generation students and adult learners through initiatives such as the Summer Bridge Program, Diverse Faculty Fellowship/Grow Your Own Program, and Student Success Completion Grants.

Clearing the Pathway: The Campaign for Completion is chaired by Stacy Schusterman and cabinet members are Konnie Boulter, M. Ted Haynes, Alana R. Hughes, Phil Lakin, Jr., Bill Major, Ruth Nelson, Pierce H. Norton II, Meredith Siegfried-Madden, Jana Shoulders, and 91Ӱ�� President Leigh B. Goodson. The Campaign will end June 30, 2019, just in time to launch 91Ӱ��’s year-long 50th Anniversary celebration.