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Miami Herald
04-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
In some states, colleges face a double dose of DOGE
Oklahoma wants some of its less-expensive universities to cut travel and operational costs, consolidate departments and reduce energy use - all in the name of saving money. Already, earning a degree at one of these regional institutions is relatively inexpensive for students, costing in total as much as $15,000 less per year than bigger state universities in Oklahoma. And the schools, including Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the University of Central Oklahoma, graduate more teachers and nurses than those research institutions. Those graduates can fill critically needed roles for the state. Still, state policymakers think there are more efficiencies to be found. Higher education is one of the specific areas targeted by a new state-run agency with a familiar name, with the goal of "protecting our Oklahoma way of life," Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said in the first DOGE-OK report this spring. The Oklahoma Division of Government Efficiency, created around the same time as the federal entity with a similar title, counts among its accomplishments so far shifting to automated lawn mowers to cut grass at the state capital, changing to energy-efficient LED lighting and cutting down on state government cell phone bills. The Oklahoma governor's office did not respond to a request for comment about this effort. Oklahoma is one of about a dozen states that has considered an approach similar to the federal DOGE, though some state attempts were launched before the Trump administration's. The federal Department of Government Efficiency, established the day Trump took office on Jan. 20, has commanded deep cuts to federal spending and the federal workforce, with limited justification. As academia becomes a piñata for President Donald Trump and his supporters, Republican state lawmakers and governors are assembling in line: They want to get their whacks in too. Related: Interested in more news about colleges and universities? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter. Beyond Oklahoma, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched FL DOGE in February, with a promise to review state university and college operations and spending. Republicans in the Ohio statehouse formed an Ohio DOGE caucus. One of the Iowa DOGE Task Force's three main goals is "further refining workforce and job training programs," some of which are run through community colleges, and its members include at least two people who work at state universities. The current political environment represents "an unprecedented attack on higher education," said Veena Dubal, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and general counsel for the American Association of University Professors. The state-level scrutiny comes atop those federal job cuts, which include layoffs of workers who interact with colleges, interdepartmental spending cuts that affect higher education and the shrinking of contracts that support research and special programs at colleges and universities. Other research grants have been canceled outright. The White House is pursuing these spending cuts at the same time as it is using colleges' diversity efforts, their handling of antisemitism and their policies about transgender athletes to force a host of changes that go beyond cost-cutting - such as rules about how students protest and whether individual university departments require more supervision. Higher education, which relies heavily on both state dollars and federal funding in the form of student loans and Pell grants, research grants and workforce training programs, faces the prospect of continued, and painful, budget cuts. "Institutions are doing things under the threat of extinction," Dubal said. "They're not making measured decisions about what's best for the institution, or best for the public good." For instance, the Trump administration extracted a number of pledges from Columbia University as part of its antisemitism charge, suspending $400 million in federal grants and contracts as leverage. This led campus faculty and labor unions to sue, citing an assault on academic freedom. (The Hechinger Report is in an independent unit of Teachers College.) Now Harvard faces a review of $9 billion in federal funding, also over antisemitism allegations, and the list of universities under similar scrutiny is only growing. Related: The Hechinger Report's Tuition Tracker helps reveal the real cost of college Budget cuts are nothing new for higher education - when a recession hits, it is one of the first places state lawmakers look to cut, in blue states or red. One reason: Public universities can sometimes make up the difference with tuition increases. What DOGE brings, in Washington and statehouses, is something new. The DOGE approach is engaging in aggressive cost-cutting that specifically targets certain programs that some politicians don't like, said Jeff Selingo, a special adviser to the president at Arizona State University. "It's definitely more political than it is fiscal or policy-oriented," said Selingo, who is also the author of several books on higher education. "Universities haven't done what certain politicians wanted them to do," he added. "This is a way to control them, in a way." The current pressure on Florida colleges extends far beyond budget matters. DeSantis has criticized college campuses as "intellectually repressive environments." In 2021, Florida state lawmakers passed a law, signed by the governor, to fight this perceived ideological bent by requiring a survey of public university professors and students to assess whether there is enough intellectual diversity on campus. At New College in Sarasota, DeSantis led an aggressive cultural overhaul to transform the college's atmosphere and identity into something more politically conservative. The governor has cited Hillsdale College, a conservative private Christian institution in Michigan, as a role model. Faculty and students at New College sued. Their complaints included allegations of academic censorship and a hostile environment for LGBTQ+ students, many of whom transferred elsewhere. One lawsuit was ultimately dropped. Since the takeover, the college added athletics programs and said it has attracted a record number of new and transfer students. Related: A case study of what's ahead with Trump DEI crackdowns Across America, Republicans control both the legislature and the governor's mansion in 23 states, compared with 15 states fully controlled by Democrats. In those GOP-run states, creating a mini-DOGE carries the potential for increased political might, with little oversight. In Florida, "state DOGE serves as an intimidation device," one high-ranking public university administrator told The Hechinger Report. The administrator, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said "there's also just this atmosphere of fear." In late March, university presidents received a letter signed by the "DOGE Team" at the governor's office. The letter promised a thorough review by FL DOGE officials, with site visits and the expectation that each college appoint a designated liaison to handle FL DOGE's ongoing requests. The letter highlighted some of the items FL DOGE might request going forward, including course codes, descriptions and syllabi; full detail of all centers established on campus; and "the closure and dissolution of DEI programs and activities, as required by law." The state did not respond to a question about whether FL DOGE is designed to attack higher education in the state. Molly Best, the deputy press secretary, noted that FL DOGE is now up and running, and cities and counties are also receiving letters requesting certain information and that the public will be updated in the future. DOGE in Florida also follows other intervention in higher education in the state: Florida's appointed Board of Governors, most of whom are chosen by the governor, removed dozens of courses from state universities' core curriculum to comply with the Stop WOKE Act, a state law that took effect in 2022. The law, which DeSantis heavily promoted, discourages the teaching of concepts such as systemic racism or sexism. The courses removed from Florida's 12 state universities were primarily sociology, anthropology and history courses. "You can't erase history," said Meadow Swantic, a criminal justice major at Florida Atlantic University, a public institution, in an interview at its Boca Raton campus. "There's certain things that are built on white supremacy, and it's a problem." Fellow Florida Atlantic student Kayla Collins, however, said she has noticed some professors' liberal bias during class discussions. "I myself have witnessed it in my history class," said Collins, who identifies as Republican. "It was a great history class, but I would say there were a lot of political things brought up, when it wasn't a government class or a political science class." At the University of Central Florida in Orlando, political science major Liliana Hogan said she had a different experience of her professors' political leanings. "You hear 'people go to university to get woke' or whatever, but actually, as a poli-sci student, a lot of my professors are more right-wing than you would believe," Hogan said. "I get more right-leaning perspectives from my teachers than I would have expected." Hogan said. Another UCF student, Johanna Abrams, objected to university budget cuts being ordered by the state government. Abrams said she understands that tax dollars are limited, but she believes college leaders should be trusted with making the budget decisions that best serve the student body. "The government's job should be providing the funding for education, but not determining what is worthy of being taught," Abrams said. Related: Inside Florida's 'underground lab' for far-right education policies Whatever their missions and attempts at mimicry, state-level DOGE entities are not necessarily identical to the federal version. For instance, in Kansas, the Committee on Government Efficiency, while inspired by DOGE, is in search of ideas from state residents about ways to make the state bureaucracy run better rather than imposing its own changes. A Missouri Senate portal inspired by the federal DOGE works in a similar way. Yet the federal namesake isn't taking suggestions from the masses to inform its work. And at the federal level, then-DOGE chief Elon Musk in February emailed workers, asking them to respond "to understand what they got done last week," he posted on X. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation." Employees were asked to reply with a list of five accomplishments. The Ohio DOGE Caucus noted explicitly it won't be doing anything like that. "We're not going to be emailing any state employees asking them to give us five things they worked on throughout the week," Ohio state Rep. Tex Fischer, a Republican, told a local radio station. 'We're really just trying to get like-minded people into a room to talk about making sure that government is spending our money wisely and focusing on its core functions that we all agree with." Contact editor Nirvi Shah at 212-678-3445, securely on Signal at NirviShah.14 or via email at shah@ This story about DOGE cuts was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. The post In some states, colleges face a double dose of DOGE appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Missing In Oklahoma Day set April 26 at UCO
EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR) – Missing in Oklahoma Day is set to return this year at the University of Central Oklahoma on Saturday, April 26, 2025. The event is set to focus on family and friends of any missing persons at the University of Central Oklahoma Forensic Science Institute from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Two state properties added to National Register of Historic Places The no cost event is geared to assist anyone with a missing person with the following: Display a photo of their loved one(s) Initiate a missing person report with law enforcement Enter and/or review the missing person info in NamUs Provide additional information/leads Provide information about medical and/or dental records to help with identification Provide family reference DNA (cheek swab) DETAILS: Event Address: 801 E 2nd St, Edmond, OK 73034 Event Date/Time: April 26, 2025 (10am-3pm) Event Location: University of Central Oklahoma Forensic Science Institute For more information click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
University of Central Oklahoma taps former lawmaker Jason Nelson for associate VP post
A former state lawmaker has been named the University of Central Oklahoma's associate vice president for public affairs, the head of the university announced today. Jason Nelson, who served as a Republican State representative from 2008 to 2016, will begin his role at the university April 28, UCO President Todd Lamb said. 'Jason Nelson is a longtime community and state leader. His tenacity, vision and collaborative leadership will be an asset for our university. He will be instrumental as UCO interfaces with community and governmental leaders,' Lamb said in a news release announcing the change. Lamb said Nelson "brings a varied and distinguished 30-year career in public policy, campaigns, government relations and public service to the role." More: Oklahoma lawmakers grill mental health agency leader over budget gap During his tenure in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Nelson served as majority floor leader. He did not run for reelection in 2016. Nelson also worked as a legislative liaison for then-Gov. Frank Keating and later as chief of staff for Oklahoma County Clerk Maressa Treat, the wife of former Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat. Because of his legislative experience, Nelson is expected to work with both state and federal lawmakers and other elected officials. For his part, Nelson praised UCO, calling it a "special place." 'I know from attending UCO as a student and having a child who is a current UCO student that this university is a special place, playing a vital role in preparing Oklahoma students for the workforce," Nelson said. Nelson's move puts two former state lawmakers in the school's administration. Lamb served as lieutenant governor and, before that, a member of the Oklahoma Senate. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Former lawmaker Jason Nelson to join University of Central Oklahoma
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame announces 55th class, induction ceremony
Twenty distinguished journalists and a family dedicated to the field of broadcast will be honored at this year's induction ceremony for the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the organization's 55th. The hall of fame also will mark the anniversary with the dedication of a new museum at the University of Central Oklahoma. A departure from the usual luncheon induction ceremonies, this year's ceremony is scheduled for 6 p.m. May 9 in the grand ballroom of the Nigh University Center at UCO. The event will include the 2025 class, a special 55th anniversary posthumous class and a lifetime achievement induction. 'We decided to move the induction ceremony to an evening event this year because of the 55th anniversary and the large number of honorees this year,' said Director Joe Hight, who is also UCO's Edith Kinney Gaylord Endowed Chair of Journalism Ethics and an OJHF member since 2013. 'As with the 50th anniversary, we wanted to make this one a special while focusing on the journalists who have excelled both in this state and the country. This year's honorees are exceptional in many ways." The evening will begin at 4 p.m. with the dedication of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame Museum in the Liberal Arts building on the UCO campus, featuring a special film on the museum's content produced by hall of fame members Tony Stizza and Galen Culver with assistance from hall of fame intern and scholarship winner Jake Ramsey. A reception toasting the honorees will follow at 5 p.m. in the University Center's Heritage Room. Invitations to the induction ceremony will be sent by March 1, and reservations at $75 each must be made by April. More information can be found by going to the hall of fame website at Sponsorship tables can be purchased starting at $1,000 per table. The full class of honorees includes 24 journalists, chosen from among more than 100 nominations. They will join the more than 525 members inducted to the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame since its beginning. Dean Blevins: Blevins has been a highly decorated athlete and sportscaster in Oklahoma for over 40 years. He began in TV co-hosting Sportscene for Tulsa cable before working at KWTV and KOCO-TV. Blevins covered college football with ABC, CBS and ESPN and worked 40 years in radio at KRMG Tulsa, KATT-FM OKC and the Sports Animal. He is a two-time Emmy Award winner, an eight-time Oklahoma Sportscaster of the Year, former OU starting quarterback, and also received the Gaylord College Distinguished Alumni Award in 2014. Owen Canfield: Canfield's career includes coverage from hard news to sports for newspapers from the The Duncan Banner to The Oklahoman. He was named AP-Oklahoma sports editor in 1985 and spent nearly 20 years with The Associated Press. Canfield was AP's first reporter at the Edmond post office massacre in 1986, helped with the Oklahoma City bombing coverage in 1995, witnessed two executions and assisted with coverage of major weather stories and trials. He became The Oklahoman's editorial writer in 2003 and was named chief editorial writer in 2011. Four years later, he was named opinion editor until he left the newspaper in 2021. David Christy: Christy is a third-generation Oklahoma journalist who began his career at age 12 at the family's weekly in Waukomis, The Oklahoma Hornet. He has worked in every facet of the newspaper industry — back shop to newsroom. He worked as sports editor at the daily Sherman (Texas) Democrat, and returned to Waukomis to serve as editor, reporter, columnist and photographer. He currently is news desk editor and columnist at the Enid News & Eagle. He has been part of eight Sequoyah Awards over an ongoing 63-year career. David Fallis: Fallis is deputy editor for investigations at The Washington Post. He began his career in 1991 at the Tulsa Tribune as a police reporter, before going to the Tulsa World, where he eventually became an editor, leading a criminal justice team and running investigative projects that won regional awards. He joined The Washington Post as an investigative reporter in 1999 and became an editor in 2014. He helped lead an investigation of fatal shootings by police that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2015 and has been an editor or reporter on five other Post investigations that were recognized as Pulitzer Prize finalists. Thomas C. Maupin: Maupin worked as a reporter/photographer in Missouri and as a copy editor in Kansas before joining OPUBCO in 1982. He became copy chief in 1989 and helped write The Oklahoman's Style Manual. He was a finalist for the American Society of Copy Editors' Copy Editor of the Year Award in 2009 and won first in Newspaper Headline Portfolio - Great Plains Journalism Competition and first in Headlines in the AP/ONE Competition in 2010. He retired in 2016, continuing to freelance for The Oklahoman until early 2018. Maupin has also done freelance work for the Moore Monthly and Moore Parks Department. Vicki Monks: An enrolled Chickasaw Nation member, Monks is one of Oklahoma's pioneering women journalists. After beginning her career in Tahlequah as a "teen reporter" for the local paper, she went on to OU, and was a journalism fellow at Stanford and the University of Colorado. She worked as a reporter/photographer for KWTV, then KDFW in Dallas, where she won a Peabody Award. Monks served as the Center for Investigative Reporting's managing editor before traveling worldwide freelancing for NPR, BBC, CBS, National Geographic TV, Rolling Stone, Vogue and American Journalism Review. Oscar Pea: Pea has been a photojournalist for nearly 40 years. After work at stations in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Amarillo, Texas, he joined News on 6 in Tulsa in 1988. He has covered local, national and international stories including the Oklahoma City bombing, the Summer Olympics bombing in Atlanta, Bosnia and other countries where Oklahoma soldiers were sent, as well as all types of crime in Green Country. Pea has served as chief photojournalist and director of operations at News 6. Dawn Shelton: Shelton founded the Luther Register News, an online newspaper and community resource, in 2015 to address a critical need for local coverage in a rural news desert. She began her career as a reporter and producer for KTOK and the Oklahoma News Network. Shelton also launched the popular Luther Pecan Festival in 2017. A member of LION Publishers, she is nationally recognized for championing community journalism and the ongoing challenge to make it sustainable. Marshall L. Stewart: Stewart's first taste of radio air time came on a Northern Oklahoma College campus station in 1970. He would return to college radio following four years in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, at both campus stations at OSU in Stillwater, KVRO and KOSU. His 40-plus year career was spent in Oklahoma and would take him to stations in Ponca City and throughout Tulsa, including the NPR affiliate at Tulsa University, winning him numerous awards including UPI, AP, OAB, RTNDA, an Edward R. Murrow Award and a Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Award for a series on poultry farm pollution. Mike Strain: Strain worked at Oklahoma's two largest newspapers for a combined 31 years. After starting his career at the Shawnee News-Star, he joined The Oklahoman in 1990 and left 15 years later as deputy sports editor. He then joined the Tulsa World as sports editor, became news editor in 2011 and managing editor in 2014. Strain was the Oklahoma Press Association president in 2020, before he retired from journalism to run his family's farm in Bray. Frederick Barde: Considered "the dean of Oklahoma journalism" at the turn of the 20th century and working in the field before statehood, Barde helped establish the profession in Oklahoma from 1894 until 1916. First writing as a "stringer" in Guthrie from 1894 until 1910 for publications such as the Oklahoma City Times, Sturm's Magazine, The Daily Oklahoman, New York Sun and Philadelphia Ledger. Best known as the author of Field, Forest, and Stream in Oklahoma (1912) and Outdoor Oklahoma (1914), the state Legislature authorized $5,000 to purchase his papers and photographs, which are now at the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City. Nolen Bulloch: Bulloch was a political and criminal reporter for the Tulsa Tribune. Lauded by the Tulsa City Commission and KTUL-TV for his work, Bulloch was also an advocate for fair treatment. His work on an article on 'Kansas City Fats,' a McAlester prison inmate sentenced to life for armed robbery for a 15-cent Tulsa robbery, and helped lead to Fats' (whose real name was George O. Jones) freedom and return to society to live a productive life. Louisa McCune: McCune was a journalist, advocate and visionary who began her writing career with her hometown newspaper, the Enid News & Eagle in 1994, before she became editor of Oklahoma Today Magazine in 1997, where she made editorial content 'sparkle.' In 2011, McCune joined the Kirkpatrick Foundation as executive director and in 2013 founded ArtDesk, a quarterly publication. Dayle McGaha: After starting as the newspaper's mailroom attendant and working in the classified advertising department, McGaha eventually served as publisher of the Blackwell Journal-Tribune for 20 years. He said he was proudest of having mentored young journalists and helped women obtain leadership roles, while supporting the Blackwell community with quality news and information. Johnny McMahan: McMahan joined the Woodward Daily Press in 1979 and worked as a photographer, news editor and sports editor until his death, helping to guide the hometown paper through changes in technology, political upheaval and cultural changes. He was awarded for his work in news, sports and photography, while simultaneously leading his team to numerous awards over the years, including the Sequoyah Award. He was inducted into the Woodward Hall of Fame in 2021. Ora Eddleman Reed: Having grown up in the newsroom, writing was natural for Reed, whose family bought the Muskogee Morning Times and the Twin Territories: The Indian Magazine in 1898. Reed also let her voice to fiction under the name Mignon Schreiber — 'little writer' — with themes, characters and tensions in the coming together of cultures. The Muskogee Daily Phoenix remembered Reed for recording Native American history at the turn of the 20th century, a time of great transition in Indian Territory. Louise Earthman Rucks: Nicknamed "Kue," Rucks was known for her weekly column 'Hound Hill' that was published in The Daily Oklahoman for 36 years. Rucks' was named National Dog Writer of the Year by the Dog Writers Association of America in the 1950s at the Waldorf Astoria the night before the Westminster Dog Show. She also wrote for ZOO Sounds, a publication of the Oklahoma City Zoo. Before her journalism career, she was a registered nurse, having received her degree from St. Thomas/Vanderbilt University Hospitals in Nashville. Ellie Sutter: Sutter dedicated her career to enthusiastic journalism through her time at the Billings Gazette and The Norman Transcript. In 1983, she joined The Oklahoman, where she stayed until retiring in 2004. She reported on many historically significant events, including the Oklahoma City bombing and tornado outbreaks. Sutter had the only reporting byline on the front page of The Oklahoman's extra edition on the Edmond post office massacre in 1986. Jack Stamper: Stamper assumed control of the Hugo Daily News with fellow OU Journalism School alumni, eventually buying them out and growing his stake in local journalism alongside his wife, Marie, with the acquisition of The Antlers American and the McCurtain Gazette. He also served in state government roles at both the Oklahoma Wildlife Commission and the Department of Charities and Corrections as it morphed into the Department of Corrections. Bill Teegins: Teegins was an award winning broadcast journalist who worked as the sports director for both KOTV 6 in Tulsa and KWTV 9 in OKC. He also lent his voice to radio for OSU football and basketball play-by-play from 1990-2001 until his untimely death in a plane crash returning from an OSU basketball game. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. The Ogle Family: Jack Ogle and his sons, Kevin, Kent and Kelly Ogle are honored together as a family dedicated to broadcast journalism in the state of Oklahoma. Jack Ogle's career began in Norman radio in the 1950s and in 1963 he joined WKY-TV 4 as a reporter and anchor, while also providing color commentating for both The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. After retiring from day-to-day reporting in 1978, Ogle produced commentaries for WKY-TV 4, KOCO-TV 5 and KWTV-TV 9 until 1990. Kevin Ogle, the oldest son of Jack Ogle, began his career in news stations in Lawton and Fort Smith, Arkansas, before returning home to OKC where he has been the principal anchor at KFOR-TV 4 for 27 years. Kent Ogle began his career in radio and with time at OETA, before joining his older brother in 1994 at KFOR-TV 4, where he has anchored the morning news program for 30 years. Kelly Ogle, the youngest son of Jack Ogle, spent early career stints in radio and at OETA and KFOR-TV before heading to KWTV 9, where he was principal anchor from 1990 to 2022. He currently teaches broadcast journalism at OSU. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Who will enter the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2025?
