OSU Bus Tour introduces new Arts and Sciences faculty to state

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

(Nov. 24, 2009, STILLWATER, Okla.) – Eleven new professors in the College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma State University spent a November weekend getting to know the state of Oklahoma and its people a little better.

The group recently traveled from Stillwater to Bartlesville to Tulsa with a few stops on country back roads. At each stop, they caught a glimpse of the state’s geography, culture and heritage.

The day kicked off with a visit to Bartlesville where the group toured a National Historic Landmark, the Price Tower that was completed in 1956 by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. “It’s hard to imagine Bartlesville without this great building,” said Bartlesville resident Joe Williams, a 1967 OSU journalism graduate. “It’s a piece of art and we’re very lucky to have it here.”

After a tour of the Bartlesville Community Center, the group lunched at the home of Joe and Barbara Williams.

Williams led a tour of Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve, located in the Osage Hills of Northeastern Oklahoma. Woolaroc was established in 1925 as the ranch retreat of oilman Frank Phillips. Today it is a 3,700 acre wildlife preserve and home to a collection of western art and artifacts, American Indian materials and one of the largest collections of Colt firearms in the world.

New faculty touring were Maria Beach, theater; Yongtao Du, history; Mark Fishbein, botany; Duane Gill, sociology; Priyank Jaiswal, geology; Jeffrey Mermin, math; Tracy Quan, geology; Eve Ringsmuth, political sciences; Louise Siddons, art; Stephanie Mullins-Sweatt, psychology; and Wayne Wanta, journalism.

Others on the tour were Brad Bays, geography; Jason Caniglia, OSU Foundation; Will Focht, environmental sciences; Lorene Roberson Hickey, alumni and media relations; Angie Kelly, outreach; Sallie McCorkle, art; Nancy Sherman, outreach; Gillian Sherwood; Peter M.A. Sherwood, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; and Walter Shaw, outreach.

Other new faculty, by department, are Frank Blum, chemistry; Lynn Lewis, English; Nicole Rizzuto, English; Erik Ekman, foreign languages and literature; John Kinder, history; Jesse Johnson, mathematics; Wendy Picking, microbiology and molecular genetics; William Picking, microbiology and molecular genetics; John Seesholtz, music; Meredith Blecha, music; Z. Randall Stroope, music; Yingmei Liu, physics; William Pessemier, political science; and Darren Lusis, theater.

The idea of the tour was born in 2004. Bays, a geography professor, and Shaw, director of the College’s outreach office, coordinate the day’s events each year. For more photos, visit cas.okstate.edu.