Bill making NSU-BA a 4-year university headed to governor’s desk

Written By: John Dobberstein

(BROKEN ARROW, Okla.) Following a successful vote in the Senate, a bill essentially making Northeastern State University’s Broken Arrow campus a 4-year school is headed to the governor’s desk.

Read this story on Broken Arrown Sentinel here. 

Senate Bill 701, co-sponsored by state Senators Christi Gillespie and John Haste of Broken Arrow, was approved this week by the Senate in a 29-15 vote after being approved by a narrower margin in the House a few weeks ago.

A veto of the bill by Gov. Kevin Stitt would seem unlikely, as he told business leaders in Broken Arrow last month that he supported the idea of NSU-BA being able to compete with other institutions for undergraduate students. Stitt essentially has voiced support for a more free-market approach to higher education.

“I’m not opposed to the four-year (university) and I’m certainly not opposed to Langston teaching something or TCC teaching something. If I want to take an accounting class at your college, I should be able to do that,” Stitt said. “But there’s all these rules about how you can only do this here, you can only do that here.

“That makes no sense. So we’d love to get the four-year university here, but I want to break through some of that silo and not give you a monopoly. I want you to be able to compete against OSU or TCC or Langston or whoever else decides to be here.

“But we believe in that free-market system, so you have a four-year university. I think it’s great.”

Previously, state law prohibited NSU-BA from offering lower-level classes, which forced local students to attend Tulsa Community College, NSU in Tahlequah or some other institution. With a population of 122,000, Broken Arrow is one of the largest cities in the U.S. to not be served by a 4-year university — and Tulsa is also one of the largest metro areas in the U.S. with no public 4-year school.

An amendment to Senate Bill 701 and House Bill 2854 would end a host of restrictions in place among higher ed institutions such as Oklahoma State University, Langston University, Tulsa Community College, NSU-BA and NSU-Muskogee, and return control of programming decisions to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

The amended SB701 declared a moratorium on the following higher education course and program restrictions:

Oklahoma State University-Tulsa’s restriction to upper division undergraduate courses and degree programs;

Oklahoma State University’s prohibition from duplicating undergraduate courses offered by Tulsa Community College;

Oklahoma State University’s prohibition from duplicating undergraduate degree programs offered by Langston University in Tulsa;

Langston University in Tulsa’s restriction to upper division undergraduate and graduate courses;

Northeastern State University in Broken Arrow’s restriction to upper division undergraduate and graduate courses;

Oklahoma State University-Tulsa’s prohibition from duplicating undergraduate degree programs offered by NSU-BA; 

Northern Oklahoma College’s exclusive authority to offer all lower division courses and programs at the University Center at Ponca City;

Connors State College’s restriction to lower division classes and programs;

Northeastern State University-Muskogee’s restriction to upper division classes and programs and graduate classes at masters level; and,

Any restrictions imposed by law preventing two-year community colleges and junior colleges from offering upper division undergraduate courses and undergraduate degree programs.

The amendment says the State Regents for Higher Education can approve “functional exceptions,” such as an expansion or exception to assigned institutional function or mission to permit an institution of higher education within the State System of Higher Education “to offer courses or degree programs outside the institution’s assigned function or mission to meet unmet workforce needs.”

The changes would allow a host of schools to begin offering lower-level instruction in the 2026-27 school year.