OSU-Tulsa joins Coalition of Urban Serving Universities
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Media Contact: Aaron Campbell | Communications Coordinator | 918-594-8046 | aaron.ross.campbell@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University-Tulsa now serves as a member of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities as part of its commitment to serving as a premier urban-serving metropolitan research university for Tulsa.
The USU Coalition is a national network of 40 public urban research universities and is affiliated with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. USU seeks to create sustainable, affordable and innovative urban communities free of poverty and inequitable growth through transformative reforms.
“We want to harness the collective power of partnering with other urban-serving research institutions to improve the lives of our community members, to focus on our role in Tulsa’s economic development, and also to share our research and knowledge with similar universities nationwide,” said Pamela Fry, president of OSU-Tulsa. “Joining this coalition provides us the opportunity to develop and implement some of the best practices that have helped other urban-serving research universities better serve their communities.”
University presidents created the USU Coalition to leverage the intellectual capital and economic power of urban research universities to improve urban life and competition in the global economy.
OSU's Division of Institutional Diversity provided support for OSU-Tulsa to become a member of the Coalition.
“We are delighted to support this meaningful and transformative effort to assist OSU-Tulsa in joining this innovative network of urban-serving universities across the nation,” said Jason Kirksey, vice president for institutional diversity and chief diversity officer at OSU. “Becoming a member of CUSU helps cultivate and strengthen OSU’s commitment to enriching the culture of inclusion throughout the university system while simultaneously broadening and deepening our opportunities to support the Tulsa community.”
The coalition manages grant funding and provides resources and programming to accomplish initiatives that focus on needs of urban university communities. Initiatives of the coalition include improving the health of diverse populations, fostering student achievement, 21st century workforce development and building smart resilient cities.
Further details regarding the mission and purpose of the USU Coalition can be found on their website at https://www.usucoalition.org/.