University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma

The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, or USAO, is a public liberal arts college located in Chickasha, Oklahoma. It is the only public college in Oklahoma with a strictly liberal arts-focused curriculum and is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. USAO is an undergraduate-only institution and grants Bachelor's Degrees in a variety of subject areas. The school was founded in 1908 as a school for women and from 1912 to 1965 was known as Oklahoma College for Women. It became coeducational in 1965 and today educates approximately 1,000 students. In 2001, the entire Oklahoma College for Women campus was listed as a National Historic District.

History

After Oklahoma was admitted to statehood in 1907, the new state legislature was tasked with establishing institutions of higher education in the former Indian Territory. Statistics gathered by the State Superintendent of Education showed that many young women from Oklahoma chose to attend women's colleges in Kansas, Texas, and Missouri. Colonel J.T. O'Neil, the state senator from Grady County, and his daughter, Anne Wade O'Neil, who had graduated from a women's college in Mississippi, appealed to the legislature to authorize the creation of a women's college. The University was founded on May 16, 1908, with the signing of Senate Bill 249 by Governor Charles Haskell. The bill, authored by Senator N.P. Stewart of Hugo, Oklahoma, authorized the foundation of the Oklahoma Industrial Institute and College for Girls. The legislature subsequently appropriated $100,000 for the establishment of the initial buildings for the school.