| |
| Vision 2025: Ground broken for
NSU-BA expansion |
| ROD WALTON World Staff Writer |
| 10/08/2004 |
| Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page A1 of News |
BROKEN ARROW -- The soil around Northeastern State University-Broken
Arrow must be rich. Twenty-six million dollars rich, that is.
Higher-education leaders, locally and statewide, joined city and Tulsa
County officials and NSU-BA students Thursday for a groundbreaking on
the school's $26 million expansion project. The new construction will add
300,000 square feet of library, science and classroom space in three
buildings.
"The expansion will dramatically enhance the ability to meet the needs of
Broken Arrow," NSU President Larry Williams said.
The NSU-BA expansion was funded by last year's successful Vision 2025
countywide vote. Proposition 3 of the four-part ballot set aside more than
$100 million for building projects at various higher-education institutions
around Tulsa County.
More than 60 percent of voters approved the proposition. All of Vision
2025's four parts passed by similar measures.
The electoral thumbs up mirrored a Broken Arrow election six years ago
that first brought the NSU campus to the city. Voters then approved the
$16 million first phase of the school.
"It was a long-term dream of Broken Arrow residents to have their own
university in the city," Mayor Richard Carter said. He noted that nearly
2,700 students now attend classes there.
"There'd be more here if they could find parking," the mayor noted.
Phase II will see to that, NSU-BA officials said. The added classrooms,
library and parking spaces will leave room for another 5,000 students.
One of those current students, Andrea Selvidge, is happy for the growth.
A single mother and business major who carries a 4.0 grade-point
average, Selvidge said she believes NSU-BA is all about the future of
greater local higher-education options.
"The first person I thought of was my daughter, who 10 years from now
will be making a very important decision -- that of which university to
attend," Selvidge noted. "The job opportunities and educational
opportunities this will create are exciting for Broken Arrow."
Such forward thinking moved state Regent Jan Gordon emotionally. She
remembered that her late husband, David, a Broken Arrow builder and
state regent himself, was instrumental in persuading Tahlequah-based
NSU to come to his city.
David Gordon died in 1999.
"When David and I first talked about NSU in Broken Arrow, we had no
idea how powerful and important and what an impact that would have,"
Jan Gordon said. "I thank you very much for participating in that dream."
The school's enrollment has more than doubled since the campus opened
in fall 2001.
The NSU-BA groundbreaking joins other Vision 2025 ceremonies held in
the past two weeks. The design for the $183 million downtown Tulsa
arena was unveiled last week.
A groundbreaking for a $13.5 million street widening on 61st Street also
was held last week. |
|
Rod Walton 581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com |
| |
| RELATED PHOTO & GRAPHICS |
| |
 |
Higher education leaders join Broken Arrow and Tulsa County
officials to break ground Thursday on the $26 million expansion of
Northeastern State University°Øs campus in Broken Arrow.
MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
