OU-Tulsa Gets Classroom Building

By Emory Bryan, News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The Schusterman Center at 41st and Yale is a converted research center and until now, the campus had no building designed for classrooms.

This new building, also partially funded by the Schusterman family, allows the campus to have more classes and accommodate more students.

Medical students already walk the halls and the classrooms are busy in the new Schusterman Learning Center on the OU Tulsa campus. It's a 47,000 square foot classroom and meeting building that cost $12 million.

"We had run out of space.  We've grown so much with students over the last five years.  We've doubled our number of students, doubled the number of clinical visits and doubled our budget and we didn't have enough room to meet the expanding needs of our students," said OU-Tulsa President Gerard Clancy MD.

The classrooms are wired with cameras and microphones to allow interaction between students and instructors, whether they're in Tulsa, Norman or Oklahoma City.

In the auditorium, pharmacy student Matt Davidson can easily talk with his instructor at the pharmacy school 100 miles away.

"If we have any questions, we can hit a button and the camera focuses on us so we can talk with our instructor and other classmates, so we can get that feedback," said Davidson.

The ribbon was cut by OU president David Boren and some of the donors who, along with taxpayers, helped pay for the building.

The money was in place 3 years ago, well ahead of the economic downturn, which Boren says won't stop the vision for the Tulsa campus.

"This isn't going to stop the progress of the University of Oklahoma.  We're going to pull together, but what might have been a two year plan might turn into a three year plan," said Boren.

OU has more building plans; the next step is a library building just north of the new classroom building. The money is already in place for that.