CHICKASHA – A couple of street closures this month to accommodate the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma special events were approved by the City Council.
Once again the council approved the temporary closure of the northbound lane of 17th Street between Grand and Alabama avenues on Aug. 22, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., for the annual New Student Move-In Day at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
“This day is reserved for our freshmen students and their families to safely drive up to their housing facilities (Lawson Hall Apartments, Sparks Hall Dormitory and Robinson Hall Dormitory) and move in,” said Sheppard McConnell, USAO’s vice president of collaborative enrollment management.
“We will have a ‘drive-thru’ based system of vehicles entering at 17th Street and Grand Avenue to be checked in and organizationally and systematically directed to the housing facility they’ve been assigned, lessening traffic and increasing the safety” of students, staff, parents and other family members.
The four-block street closure “will allow the safe entry of vehicles” to USAO’s campus entrance “without disrupting community members and neighbors,” McConnell wrote.
The 200 block of Chickasha Avenue will be closed from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 29 for a USAO-sponsored street festival that’s open to the public. The school will host its annual back-to-school “Street and Greet” event for USAO and the Chickasha area community. “We will transport our entire freshman class of 200+ students to historic downtown Chickasha,” McConnell said.
The event will feature “various activities for all ages,” McConnell said, including live music, inflatables, food trucks, vendors, local businesses, community resources, and an art exhibit.
USAO told the council it will provide 15 polycarts from Waste Solutions for disposal of trash during the festival.
“This event is a way for everyone at USAO to engage with our wider community and celebrate the incredible partnership between USAO and Chickasha,” said Amy Goddard, the school’s communications director.
USAO – a public, four-year liberal arts school founded in 1908 by the First Oklahoma Legislature as the state’s first college – is a major economic driver in Chickasha.
The headcount as of July 25 was 846 students, and the faculty and staff numbered 159 – many of whom live in or near Chickasha, pay rent or mortgages, and buy food, gasoline, clothes, and incidentals in Chickasha.
The latest economic impact study, commissioned by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education in 2019, calculated that USAO generated expenditures of $21 million in Fiscal Year 2016 and supported approximately $33.2 million in total economic output. Research indicated USAO produced $5.10 in economic output per dollar of state appropriations.
Those were “direct, indirect, and induced economic benefits generated in the state and local regional economies through the operational expenditures of the faculty, staff and students,” the study reported.
An OSRHE “Educational and General Budgets summary and analysis” for FY 2023 showed that total budgeted expenditures at USAO that year totaled $13.74 million.
Those funds were allocated to instruction (40.6%), research (1.2%), academic support (10.1%), student services (12.8%), institutional support (14.4%), operation and maintenance of plant (13%), scholarships and fellowships (7.9%).
USAO’s income sources in FY 2023 included state appropriated funds ($6.177 million), tuition and student fees ($6.288 million), federal CARES Act stimulus funds ($227,048), budgeted carryover revenue ($46,563), and other income ($791,000.
USAO also received a $981,491 Native American- Serving Non-Tribal Institutions grant from the U.S. Department of Education in FY 2023, Goddard said. USAO has received approximately $6 million in NASNTI grants since 2017 to improve the school’s ability to increase retention, success and graduation rates of Native American and low-income students, who comprise “a significant portion of USAO’s student population,” Goddard said.