Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
land-grant research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
in
Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the
Morrill Act. Originally known as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (Oklahoma A&M), the Oklahoma State University campus in
Stillwater is the flagship institution of the
Oklahoma State University System, which enrolls more than 34,000 students across its five institutions with an annual budget of $1.86 billion for fiscal year 2024.
As of Fall 2023, 26,008 students are enrolled at the university.
OSU is
classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the
National Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
, the university spent $226.5 million on research and development in 2023.
The
Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls
The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Stillwate ...
have won 55 national championships including 53 NCAA championships, which
ranks sixth in most NCAA team national championships after
Stanford,
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
,
USC USC may refer to:
Education
United States
* Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico
* University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina
* ...
,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, and
Penn State. Oklahoma State University students and alumni have won
34 Olympic medals (21 gold, 5 silver, and 8 bronze). The university has produced 48
Fulbright Scholars, an
astronaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...
, and a
billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...
.
Students spend part of the fall semester preparing for OSU's Homecoming celebration. Starting in 1913, the celebration now draws in more than 40,000 alumni and over 70,000 participants each year to the Stillwater campus. It is billed by the university as "America's Greatest Homecoming Celebration."
The
Oklahoma State University alumni network exceeds 250,000 graduates.
History

On December 25, 1890, the
Oklahoma Territorial Legislature finally gained approval for Oklahoma Territorial Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) College, the
land-grant institution established under the
Morrill Act of 1862. The legislature specified that the college was to be within
Payne County. Such an ambiguous description created a rivalry among towns in the county, with Stillwater ultimately gaining the campus. Upon statehood in 1907, "Territorial" was dropped from its title.
The first students assembled for class on December 14, 1891. For two and a half years, classes were held in local churches, until the first academic building, later known as
Old Central, was constructed and dedicated on June 15, 1894, on the southeast corner of campus. It was surrounded by a flat plowed prairie.
In 1896, Oklahoma A&M held its first commencement with six male graduates. The first Library was established in Old Central in one room shared with the English Department. The first campus building to have electricity, Williams Hall, was constructed in 1900. Because of its turreted architecture, it was referred to as the "Castle of the Prairies"; It survived until 1969.
One of the earliest campus buildings was also a barn, used as part of an agricultural experiment station, which was served by a large reservoir pond created in 1895. The barn burned down in 1922, but the pond, enlarged and remodeled in 1928 and 1943, is now known as Theta Pond, a popular campus scenic landmark. In 1906, Morrill Hall was completed and became the principal building on campus. A fire gutted the building in 1914, but the outside structure survived intact, and the interior was reconstructed.
On-campus housing at Oklahoma A&M College began in 1910, with the opening of the Boys' Dormitory.
Later renamed Crutchfield Hall, the
Historic American Buildings Survey
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
said it was significant as "... the first permanent boy's dormitory in Oklahoma ...
ndthe sole surviving example of a pre-1930 utilitarian dormitory that is characteristic of modified Italian Renaissance Revival architecture". Crutchfield Hall later served the School of Music and the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology before it was ranked as outdated and demolished in 1995.
Also opened in 1910 was the Women's Building, a dorm for female students that also contained a dining hall, home economics classes, and a women's gymnasium. It was later named Garner Hall. Today it is known as the Bartlett Center for the Studio Arts and houses the Gardiner Art Gallery.
By 1919 the campus included Morrill Hall, the Central Building, the Engineering Building (now
Gundersen Hall), the Women's Building, the Auditorium (replaced later by the Seretean Center for Performing Arts), the Armory-Gymnasium (now the Architecture Building) and the Power Plant.
At the beginning of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Oklahoma A&M was one of six schools selected by the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
to give the Primary School in the
Electronics Training Program
The Electronics Training Program (ETP) was the name commonly used for an unusual, difficult, and selective training activity of the United States Navy during World War II.
The ETP combined college-level classroom instruction with laboratories i ...
(ETP), also known as Naval Training School Elementary Electricity and Radio Materiel (NTS EE&RM). Starting in March 1942, each month a new group of 100 Navy students arrived for three months of 14-hour days in concentrated electrical engineering study. Cordell Hall, the newest dormitory, was used for housing and meals; lectures and lab sessions were held in the Engineering Building. Professor Emory B. Phillips was the Director of Instruction. ETP admission required passing the
Eddy Test, one of the most selective qualifying exams given during the war years. At a given time, some 500 Navy students were on the campus, a significant fraction of the war-years enrollment. The training activity continued until June 1945 and served a total of about 7,000 students; among these was
Robert B. Kamm, a future professor and president of Oklahoma State University.

Much of the growth of Oklahoma A&M and the architectural integrity of the campus can be attributed to
Henry G. Bennett, who served as the school's president from 1928 to 1950. Early in his tenure, Dr. Bennett developed a strategic vision for the university campus's physical expansion. The plan was adopted in 1937, and his vision was followed for more than fifty years, including the predominant
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarchs of the House of Han ...
style that permeates the campus. He intended the focal point to be a centrally located library building: this was the
Edmon Low Library, which opened in 1953. Another major addition to the campus during the Bennett years was the Student Union, which opened in 1950. Subsequent additions and renovations have made the building one of the largest student union buildings in the world at .
Oklahoma A&M's global engagement at an institutional level began in the 1950s when President Bennett was appointed in 1950 to be the first director of US President
Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
’s “Point Four Program,” a technical assistance program for developing countries. As part of the Point Four program, Oklahoma A&M College entered into an agreement in 1952 with the government of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
to establish a technical high school, an agricultural university, and an agricultural extension service there. Faculty and staff from the Stillwater campus traveled to Ethiopia and established Jimma Agricultural Technical School (now
Jimma University), the Imperial Ethiopian University of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (now
Haramaya University), and an agricultural and research station at Debra Zeit. In recognition of the contributions of the OSU staff, Ethiopian Emperor
Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...
visited the Stillwater campus in 1954, the first foreign head of state to visit Oklahoma and the only one to visit Stillwater.

On May 15, 1957, Oklahoma A&M changed its name to the Oklahoma State University of Agricultural and Applied Sciences, to reflect the broadening scope of its curriculum. Oklahoma Gov.
Raymond Gary signed the bill authorizing the name change passed by the 26th Oklahoma Legislature on May 15, 1957. However, the bill only authorized the Board of Regents to change the college's name, a measure they voted on at their meeting on June 6. However, the name was quickly shortened to Oklahoma State University for most purposes, and the "Agricultural & Applied Sciences" name was formally dropped in 1980. Subsequently, the
Oklahoma State University System was created, with the Stillwater campus as the flagship institution and several outlying branches:
OSU-Institute of Technology in
Okmulgee (1946),
OSU-Oklahoma City (1961),
OSU-Tulsa (1984), and the
Center for Health Sciences also in
Tulsa
Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...
(1988).
In 2005, OSU announced its "Campus Master Plan", a campaign to enhance academic, athletic, and administrative facilities. Over $800 million is earmarked for campus construction and renovation over twenty years. The Plan calls for an "athletic village", where all of the university's athletic facilities will be located on the main campus. To accomplish this goal, the athletic department bought all (or nearly all) the property north of
Boone Pickens Stadium up to McElroy between Knoblock and Washington streets. The city of Stillwater and property owners criticized this land gram. While the vast majority of the real estate was rental property appealing to college students, a few owners were longtime residents. A lone holdout in this parcel of land sued OSU over their right to use
eminent domain
Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...
to condemn and acquire their land.

In 2006, OSU received a gift of $165 million from an alumnus
T. Boone Pickens to the university's athletic department, and in 2008 received another gift from Pickens, of $100 million for endowed academic chairs. It was the largest gift for academics ever given in the state. Ethical concerns have been raised by the media questioning the propriety of some of the Pickens' gifts, which were in media reports about the propriety of how some of the Pickens gifts have been made, were immediately returned to Pickens, and then placed in hedge funds owned by Pickens' companies In February 2010, Pickens announced that he was pledging another $100 million to fund a scholarship endowment as part of a $1 billion fund-raising campaign titled "Branding Success." The pledge brought the total pledged or contributed to OSU by Pickens to over $500 million.
On October 24, 2015, during the annual homecoming parade, Adacia Chambers
drove her vehicle into a crowd of people, killing 4 people and injuring 47. She faced 2nd-degree murder charges.
Colleges
The medical campus has an affiliation with
Oklahoma State University Medical Center for clinical training and offers residency/fellowship opportunities. Also with the medical school, OSU established a campus in
Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
and the nation's first, and currently only, tribally-affiliated medical school.
In 2020, the College of Education and Human Sciences was created, which merged the College of Human Sciences and College of Education, Health, and Aviation into a single college. In August 2021, the university announced the creation of the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education (OAIRE).
Admissions
For the class of 2023 (enrolling Fall 2019), OSU received 15,277 applications and accepted 10,691 (70.0%), with 4,200 enrolling.
The middle 50% range of
SAT
The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...
scores for enrolling freshmen was 530–635 for evidence-based reading and writing, 510–630 for math, and 1040–1255 for the composite.
The middle 50%
ACT score range was 19–27 for math, 21–27 for English, and 21–28 for the composite.
Rankings and Reputation
*OSU is one of six U.S. universities where
Sun Grant Research Initiative programs have been established by the U.S. Congress in the Sun Grant Research Initiative Act of 2003 to research and develop sustainable and environmentally-friendly bio-based energy alternatives.
*The Math Department has been recognized by the American Mathematics Association as one of four innovative programs in the nation and has produced four
Sloan Fellowship winners.
*OSU is headquarters for the
International Ground Source Heat Pump Association, which has members from as far away as Sweden, Japan, Australia, England and South Africa.
*The School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, housed in the Spears School of Business, is ranked 11th in the United States and comes in at 22nd in the world.
Student life
Housing
Current university-owned housing options include 31 residence halls, more than 15 dining options, and six family-first apartment complexes. In recent years, on-campus housing has been undergoing significant transformation. Student living was previously dominated by traditional residence halls; however, apartment-style buildings now comprise approximately half of the living quarters.
In 2005, the high-rise Willham North and South residence halls that once dominated the Stillwater skyline were demolished and replaced with the Village suites on its site. Iba Hall, another traditional hall, was closed in 2007 but was reopened in 2011 due to an increase of incoming freshman. In 2017, Iba Hall underwent significant renovations which lasted through most of that year, before reopening in time for the Fall 2018 semester.
Iba, Parker, Wentz, and Stout Halls continue to offer traditional residence hall accommodations. In addition, three residence halls were opened in the fall of 2015, collectively known as the University Commons. North houses female students, south houses male students, and West is a co-ed facility that also houses the twenty-four-hour service desk for the area. Kerr-Drummond was slated to be closed with the opening of the University Commons, however Drummond was temporarily kept open in fall 2015 due to increased occupancy of campus housing while Kerr was closed. Drummond was then closed in 2018 due to facility issues. Kerr-Drummond is planned to be demolished sometime after Fall 2024. Apartments for single students are Bost, Davis, Morsani-Smith, Peterson-Friend, Kamm, Sitlington, and Young Halls. Housing in suite-style accommodations are provided in the named Village CASNR (College of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources), Village HS (Human Sciences), Village C, Village D, Village E and Village F. Deluxe suites are provided in Patchin & Jones, Bennett, Zink & Allen, and Stinchcomb & Booker Halls. Graduate students and families are offered accommodations in seven apartments "neighborhoods" with a variety of floor plans and amenities: Brumley, Demaree, Prosser, Stevens, West, and Williams.
Athletics

:
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Division I-A
:Conference:
Big 12
:Major Rivalries:
University of Oklahoma Sooners
:Minor Rivalries:
University of Texas Longhorns,
University of Kansas Jayhawks,
Iowa State University Cyclones (wrestling)
::
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Championships: 53 (#6 after Stanford, USC, UCLA, UT Austin, and Penn St.)
Football
11 conference titles – 34 bowl games played – 1945 National Champions - 1988 Heisman Trophy winner and single-season rushing record (
Barry Sanders).
Basketball
Men's basketball is tradition rich at Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State made the
Final Four
In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...
in 1995 and 2004 and was the first ever Division 1 basketball program to win back-to-back National Championships in 1945–1946.
Wrestling
The
Cowboy wrestling team brought home their 33rd
NCAA championship in spring 2005, scoring the most points ever by an Oklahoma State wrestling team in the NCAA. OSU won their 34th overall (and 4th consecutive) title in 2006. OSU's 34 team titles are the most ever collected by a school in one sport. The Cowboys have also produced 143 individual national champions, including the sport's first-ever four-time champion,
Pat Smith.
Other sports
Since the
1924 Olympics, 68
Oklahoma State University Olympians have won a total of 31 medals: 20 gold, four silver, and seven bronze.
Fight songs
Notable among several songs commonly played and sung at various events such as
commencement,
convocation
A convocation (from the Latin ''wikt:convocare, convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Ancient Greek, Greek wikt:ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a specia ...
, and athletic games are: ''The Waving Song'', ''Ride 'Em Cowboys'' (the Oklahoma State University
fight song
A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand, these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...
), and the ''OSU Chant''. At the end of every sporting event win or lose, OSU student-athletes face the
student section and sing the
alma mater along with other students, faculty, alumni, and staff.
Notable People
Alumni
Today, there are more than 200,000 living OSU alumni worldwide. Prominent alumni include billionaire business magnate and philanthropist
T. Boone Pickens, actor
James Marsden, "the father of the personal computer"
Ed Roberts, country singers
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American Country music, country singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him his immense popularity, particularly in the United States, ...
and
Hoyt Axton,
Governor of Oklahoma
The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor serves as the head of the Oklahoma Executive (government), executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma. The gover ...
Kevin Stitt, former Prime Minister of South Korea
Nam Duck-woo, former Prime Minister of Jordan
Adnan Badran, former U.S. Senator
Tom Coburn, former
Governor of Oklahoma
The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor serves as the head of the Oklahoma Executive (government), executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma. The gover ...
Mary Fallin, former acting
Surgeon General of the United States Robert A. Whitney, Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice
Steven W. Taylor, former
Central Bank of Somalia Governor
Yussur A.F. Abrar, production designer and drummer
K.K. Barrett, legal scholar
Anita Hill, and Indian politician
Ponnala Lakshmaiah. Former dean of the
Tecnológico de Monterrey university system
David Noel Ramírez Padilla took courses at OSU in 1975.
Campus buildings
:''Listed below are just a few of the buildings at OSU. For a complete list, visit
List of Oklahoma State University buildings.''

Other buildings
* O'Brate Stadium – Baseball
*
Bennett Memorial Chapel
*
Boone Pickens Stadium – Football stadium named after
T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire business magnate, philanthropist, and alumnus of the university
*
Cowgirl Stadium
* Historic
Gallagher-Iba Arena – Named top collegiate venue in the United States by
CBS Sportsline. It is named after
Edward C. Gallagher and
Henry Iba. It is home to practice facilities, weight, and locker rooms as well as the original white maple wood basketball court. The court is named
Eddie Sutton Court, in honor of the former OSU Men's Basketball Coach. Sutton led the Cowboys to two Final Four appearances during his time as coach.
*
National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
*
Student Union – Known as the largest
student union in the world. Portions of the 1992 film ''
All-American Murder'' were filmed at the Student Union.
*
Whitehurst Hall administration building
See also
*
Gift of a Lifetime
*
Johnny Bright incident – An incident that occurred during a football game on Saturday, October 20, 1951
*
List of forestry universities and colleges
This is a list of tertiary educational institutions around the world offering Bachelor's degree, bachelor's, Master's degree, master's or Doctor of philosophy, doctoral degrees in forestry, agronomy, animal sciences, or related fields. Where note ...
*
Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station
Notes
References
External links
*
Oklahoma State Athletics website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oklahoma State University-Stillwater
Buildings and structures in Stillwater, Oklahoma
Education in Payne County, Oklahoma
Universities and colleges established in 1890
Land-grant universities and colleges
Veterinary schools in the United States
Tourist attractions in Stillwater, Oklahoma
1890 establishments in Oklahoma Territory
Universities and colleges accredited by the Higher Learning Commission
Aviation schools in the United States
Public universities and colleges in Oklahoma