City renewing push for 4-year campus at NSU-Broken Arrow, bill introduced

Written By: John Dobberstein

(BROKEN ARROW, Okla.) City leaders are expected to throw their support behind legislation introduced that would help Northeastern State University become a 4-year university in Broken Arrow and the first public university based in the Tulsa metro. 

Read this story on Broken Arrow Sentinel here.

Senate Bill 701 would change state law that currently prevents NSU to from accepting freshmen students on campus. They note Broken Arrow is one of the largest cities in the nation to not be served by any 4-year universities, and Tulsa is one of the largest cities in the U.S. with no public 4-year school. 

City officials said Broken Arrow residents have approved tax initiatives for more than three decades with the promise NSU-BA would eventually become a 4-year school, but legislation barring that has never been changed. 

The campus opened in 2001 and completed a $26 million expansion as part of the Vision 2025 program that added about 200,000 square feet of science, library and classroom facilities and updated other areas. 

The city of Broken Arrow acquired and donated 170 acres of land and improvements to the campus, and partnered with the Oklahoma Transit Authority (OTA) on improvements to the Creek Turnpike. 

Introduced by Sen. John Haste (R-Broken Arrow) and co-authored by State Sen. Christi Gillespie, SB701 modifies the location of the NSU-Broken Arrow branch to clarify the location is within the city of Broken Arrow, rather than Tulsa metro area, and it authorizes NSU-BA to offer lower-division courses on campus.

A second reading of the bill has been referred to the Education Committee. According to NSU, the Regional University System of Oklahoma (RUSO) is working with Haste and Gillespie on the bill. 

The Broken Arrow City Council will be discussing a resolution of support for the legislation at a future meeting, as Tuesday’s meeting has been cancelled.

If the bill becomes the law, RUSO’s Board of Regents would be expected to work together to implement the 4-year program at NSU-BA. Ten months ago, Broken Arrow Public Schools Supt. Chuck Perry was appointed to the RUSO board. 

The city said high school graduates lack a choice for a traditional four-year public university in Broken Arrow and Tulsa County. More than 7,000 Broken Arrow students who live in Wagoner County are ineligible for Tulsa Achieves, a scholarship program that pays 100% tuition, because of the county they live in. 

Some 33% of BAPS students live in Wagoner County. BAPS students can take advanced classes as NSU-BA, but cannot enroll as freshmen at NSU unless they attend NSU’s main Tahlequah campus. Many of them attend Tulsa Community College and transfer to NSU-BA. 

The University of Oklahoma, University of Science and Arts in Chickasha, Langston University, Rogers State University and OSU-IT are all able to legally offer lower and upper division classes in the Tulsa metro. Tulsa is also served by Oral Roberts University and the University of Tulsa, both private institutions.

The ongoing message for public universities not offering classes, the city says, is the concern that they “can’t compete with free” since students’ tuition is covered through Tulsa Achieves, a scholarship program that pays 100% tuition because of the county in which they live. 

NSU officials say the university is prepared to fill the void for this region, “to give students and families a choice to attend a four-year regional university at an affordable cost.” They add that 80% of students attending a university that is a part of the Regional University System of Oklahoma stay in Oklahoma after graduation.