OSU opens first out-of-state office in key Dallas/Fort Worth market

Friday, November 4, 2005

With two million more people than the state of Oklahoma, the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area has been selected as the site for the first out-of-state regional office for Oklahoma State University.

OSU administrators and area alumni will unveil the Dallas office at the opening ceremony and celebration on Nov. 7.

“We selected Dallas as the first site for a regional office because Dallas-Fort Worth is our largest out-of-state market for current students and has unlimited potential for growth,” said OSU System CEO and President David J. Schmidly. “We’re excited to offer Texas a ‘brighter orange.’ With nearly six million people and located only 270 miles from Stillwater, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is a natural market for OSU.”

This year’s OSU enrollment consisted of 1,669 Texas students, including 615 students from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The OSU Dallas Regional Office at Dallas Lincoln Centre, Suite 390 at 5420 L.B.J. Freeway, will house two full-time recruiters working with students who want more information about attending OSU. Also working from the suite will be Kathy Wilson, representing the OSU Foundation, OSU Alumni Association and Career Services.

“Our regional office will strengthen our recruiting, fundraising, career services and alumni efforts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Schmidly said. “Various areas of the university will partner to strengthen our ability to show everything OSU has to offer the people of North Texas.”

In a letter to OSU, Dallas mayor Laura Miller said, “It is an exciting day for us — we recognize that a world-class city needs to have a strong presence from world-class universities — and I believe that OSU opening recruiting and alumni offices in our city is a step in the right direction.”

A reception and brief program will feature Schmidly; Dr. Bill Ivy, interim vice president of enrollment management; Kirk Jewell, president and CEO of the OSU Foundation; and Dr. Jerry Gill, executive director of the OSU Alumni Association.

Tours of the new office will be given before and after the program.

The investment in the Dallas office has been needed for some time, Schmidly said, due to the large numbers of alumni and students in the area. According to the latest figures of the OSU Alumni Association, nearly 11,000 active OSU alumni live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which continues to increase each year.

Ivy said OSU also awards a significant amount of scholarship aid to students from the Dallas-Fort Worth area each year, with area students averaging approximately $3,455 a year in scholarship funds.

Dr. Amjad Ayoubi, director of OSU Career Services, sees this expansion as an opportunity to diversify the employment base for OSU students from Texas who return to their home state after graduation and seek employment there.

“Our plans include diversifying our employer base in the area, and we have launched an ambitious project to recruit 3,000 new employers to hire our students,” he said. “This office will allow us to continue to expand our relationships with employers in the area, including our long-term relationship with the defense industry.”

A new chapter of the OSU Parents Association is set to begin this fall in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Fran Gragg, coordinator of the association, has been working for several months with parents of OSU students from the Dallas area, many of whom are OSU alumni.

“We have had numerous requests from parents of current students and alumni with children who plan to attend OSU in the future, who want a stronger connection to OSU in Texas, and have asked us to set up a chapter,” she said.