[JOE HARROZ] Hi, I’m Joe Harroz. President of the University of Oklahoma. I want to welcome you to our Conversations with the President. This platform gives me the chance to talk to some of the great people who make OU so special. Make sure that you’re subscribed to Conversations with the President, and you’ll be the first to know when new episodes are released. Let’s get started.
Welcome back to Conversations with the President. The last time we were together we had the legendary coach Patty Gasso talking about Title IX, the impact it’s had over the fifty years and the impact it's had at the University of Oklahoma. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to Coach Gasso, it’s not every day you get to listen to a GOAT (greatest of all-time), and she’s the GOAT.
Now turning to today’s topic. First of all, you’ll probably notice I’m dressed more formally than usual. We had the first ever Oklahoma Aerospace & Defense Institute Symposium today. It was a sold out crowd. You don’t often hear that with a first ever symposium. Tickets only went on Stub Hub. No they didn’t go on Stub Hub, but the fact is that it was a successful conference which once again speaks to the strategic plan that we’ve talked about. Which for us is four key areas of research. We were talking with Vice President for Research Tomás Diaz de la Rubia. That was one of the areas that we discussed. Spent the morning with him, the governor, with several three-star generals and industry partners with OU making its mark in that space and doing what we can for our students, our state, our country and global security.
It brings us to our topic today. We’ve talked a lot about the strategic plan, about the five pillars that make it up and about the idea of changing lives. When we look at this at the very center of this, are the ideas that we can provide and that a comprehensive research university must provide: both excellence and opportunity. There are plenty of pockets of excellence across the country but the idea that you can find academic excellence at a public research university where the American dream is still alive, is something that is precious and scarce. Here at the University of Oklahoma, part of our strategic plan, that is what we are trying to achieve and will achieve. It’s the idea that if you, regardless of economic circumstances, if you have the talent and you have the drive, you can come to the University of Oklahoma, you can receive a world class education and you can go off to achieve dreams that you would otherwise would not be able to do so with.
So, as we sit here today for all of the planning, all of the hard work that’s gone on over the last several years, all of the planning, all of that centers on not just having a great plan, but making sure it can be accessed. In looking at that, a central element to that is that just like private schools have raised money all of these past years, to be a truly great public research university today, one thing has to be true and that is you have to raise money so that you can make sure that it truly is accessible for all.
I know. I am the beneficiary of that. My father was the first of his family to go to college. The son of an immigrant family, youngest of nine, only one to go past high school. Didn’t have the resources to afford college, in fact they took turns living in orphanages because they couldn’t afford to feed all the kids. Never the less, he had a great public research university to go to because he had the ability and because he had the drive. Went on to complete undergraduate and went on to become a physician. Chaning my life and our family’s life, and providing me with this opportunity. I went to OU and now my oldest is a freshman at OU this year.
So when we talk about what do we mean how do we change lives, it has to start that making sure that the dream, the promise, the American promise is alive and well, and to do that that means we have to have a fundraising campaign that is worthy of this university. Typically, universities don’t wait two or three years between major fundraising campaigns. Our last one concluded in the year 2000. For those of you who aren’t great at math, that’s 22 years ago, roughly, plus or minus two.
So here we are 22 years later. When I came into this role, I asked how soon can we launch a major giving campaign. And the answer was it would take five or six years to build up and be able to launch it. We hired a true expert in Amy Noah away from Purdue (University). We brought her in and over the last couple of years have put ourselves into a position to have a fundraising campaign worthy of our students and of this flagship research university.
And so, we stand here today in a moment of incredible excitement. We are launching the Lead On University Campaign. It’s a two-billion-dollar campaign. We’re already two years into it. You do a quiet phase first before you formally announce it. Over that quiet phase we had to see if we could do. During that time raised a scorching record-$600 million dollars. So, over the next five years, we endeavor to raise $1.4 billion dollars to make sure excellence and opportunity is available to everyone with the drive and ability.
So this is no ordinary campaign. The first of its kind and certainly the biggest in the history of Oklahoma and one that will change the lives of so many in so many possible ways. So, in doing this you put together a campaign committee. That campaign committee is central in making sure that this occurs. We looked across the over 275-thousand living OU alumni and wondered who the perfect Chairs would be to run this campaign. We landed on two individuals who could not be more remarkable, Jonny “Jon” Rex also known as Jonny Jones and his wife, Brenda.
Jonny is a 1982 graduate of the University of Oklahoma graduating in geology. I can’t wait for you to hear his full family story and his wife Brenda, who graduated in 1984, who graduated with a degree in special education. They’ve given a remarkable gift but most importantly they’re a true representation of the OU family and are giving in ways that will make this campaign a reality. So now let’s welcome Jonny and Brenda Jones.
Jonny and Brenda, it’s so great to see you all. We only met a little while back. And you two already feel like family and we’ve already done our best to deplete your resources like family, but whenever we were talking about who should be our campaign chairs, you all jumped off the list. Let me just start by saying how grateful we are that you did that, and while I know your history and what brought you here to this moment, those that are listening haven't heard this story yet. So, first thanks for being here and second would you share your story with us?
[JONNY JONES] Well it is great to be here, but our OU story goes back one hundred years. My grandfather’s family moved from Tennessee to Okemah, Oklahoma when he was a young boy. He graduated from high school there, and it just happened that one of OU’s early registrars a guy named George Wadsack, was his high school football coach. So, he came to OU in 1919 which happens to be the same year Jacobson Hall was built, which we hold very dear with our gift. It was transformational to our family. He was the first-generation college student and since that time there’s been almost forty members of our family attend OU. I had 10 cousins that were OU students so it was really easy to get to know people, but it all started with my grandfather. He ended up getting a degree in geology and worked for the Marlen Company which was Oklahoma’s early governors. The family has been coming to OU ever since then.
[HARROZ] Thankfully. That keeps people like me employeed. Thanks for sending the family. Brenda, tell us a bit about your story.
[BRENDA JONES] Well, I’m the youngest of four. My oldest sister went to the health sciences center and my other sister went to dental school and my brother graudated from here as well. So, I came in 1984 and actually from 1980 to ‘84 and I was a special education major. We met here on a blind date. Our son, our youngest son met his wife in his freshman year as well.
[HARROZ] Wow you got to be careful that freshman year.
[B. JONES] Right.
[J. JONES] We know how to get them early.
[HARROZ] Can you talk about the process of making this most recent gift. Tell them about what the gift is and the why behind the gift.
[J. JONES] We’ve supported OU for multiple generations. My family is big into philanthropy, and it won’t be there unless you support it. Brenda and I joined my father with several gifts, which turned out to be forty years. This is really a situation where every year we set goals for ourselves. We were on a long walk January second or third, and we looked at each other and said we need to find something we can both get into. We’ve supported things differently, individually and so forth. The first word out of both of our mouths was OU. It surprised me because I thought OU was my thing. And so, we made the decision that we were going to do something impactful with OU but had no idea what it was going to be, just that it was OU.
So, we called some people we knew in the Foundation and started to explore some things that were out there. We’ve supported athletics in the past, but it seemed like athletics was well-taken care of at the time to me. We centered in on two things. They both had similar characteristics. It was both about being the front door to the university, one was the aviation school because we have a nice airport but the other was Jacobson Hall which I frankly have never been in until I took a tour in it. We had the team tell us a little bit about what was going on in there. I actually read the strategic plan; I was probably one of the few alums who did.
[HARROZ] No. Everyone reads the strategic plan.
[J. JONES] Well, it’s so well-written.
[HARROZ] It’s a work of art.
[J. JONES] The real story there was you captured something that has really been sort of a hole for me as it relates to OU. The whole idea of really reaching for academic excellence and you do that through recruiting great students. The recruiting department here has done a great job. But there’s this sort of issue that’s going to happen as we go forward with fewer students, it’s going to be so competitive. So, I just asked the question, what is it going to take to make this happen? And I’m going to make sure that it happens. I don’t want to fall short. I don’t want there to be a big fundraiser where we must raise money amongst a bunch of people. So, we decided to make a gift, and this was several months ago. For us, it’s gotten more exciting. Usually, it’s more like you give the gift and you move on. But when we’ve seen the impact that it can have and how broadly it’s affecting people who are doing this, it’s almost overwhelming. That’s part of what it’s like about giving back to OU is that it’s very genuine. We are very excited about that process. It’s more than that. When we started doing this, I wasn’t aware there wasn’t a big capital campaign. The next step of doing that was automatic.
[HARROZ] Yeah, and I love that the first conversation we had. You mentioned the strategic plan, you had said you read it. You said, tell me about achieving AAU status. You understood the importance of achieving true academic excellence. Being a true first-tier research university. To me it’s not so intuitive, but you homed in on it. Is that because of the business background?
[J. JONES] Well my background is more of a technical, scientific background. I’ve really recognized the importance of undergraduate research. I had an opportunity to do some undergraduate research here back in an era when it was done ad hoc but I went to graduate school and did quite a bit of research early in my life. I saw the impact it had on forming people and who they are. A lot of AAU status was about the research. I know we need to raise research dollars and that’s a critical issue. But getting the right students here was where it all kind of came together. We are all excited about the opportunity to do that here and it’s going to be fun to watch the changes of people walking through that front door because OU is a truly special place.
[HARROZ] I love everything you had to say. For those of you who don’t know, this started January first, but they have now provided a fifteen-million-dollar gift with plans to fully renovate Jacobson Hall, which is the welcome center here at OU, now known as the Jones Family Welcome Center. We bring every student that we recruit and the percentage rate of those that visit versus those that coming here is incredibly high. So to have this resource is incredibly critical.
Brenda, what do you want to add? You were on that walk, it was the two of you. Why did OU jump into your mind as the logical choice?
[B. JONES] Well, we’ve been involved in different fundraisers, gift giving, and OU was just something we could come together and agree on. It was obvious to both of us that this is where we wanted our gift to go to.
[J. JONES] One of the things she shared with me on that walk was that she brought two of our kids here to go through the tour.
[B. JONES] I brought Jack and Madelyn on their tour here at OU. So you just don’t ever forget when we went back up there with Jeff and Amy Noah and their group. It just brough back all those memories. This is the first impression of your time at the OU campus. It was obvious to us at that point that this is what we wanted our gift to go to. We are so excited about that.
[J. JONES] She batted fifty percent. Only one of the two kids. We have to do better than that, right?
[HARROZ] I’m not going to be critical of anyone. I feel like this worked out well for everyone. I mean, yeah, there’s magic in this. You know, your grandfather being the first to go to OU, the fact that Jacobson Hall was built in 1919, you referenced this. Your grandfather first came on campus in 1919. Here you are three generations later. Now it’s named in honor of the family. I think it’s remarkable. We met two generations ago, Walker at the event celebrating you all. To me that’s the stunning combination that makes OU. You have a fifth generation when Walker comes to school here. I think we can go ahead, he’s going to commit here.
[J. JONES] Grandpa made sure he had a full ride here.
[HARROZ] That’s right. Grandpa’s taken care of it. Hopefully it is restricted to OU in terms of the 529 and whatever that is. To me, it’s stunning. You see our freshman class, a record freshman class. And 25.4 percent of those students are the first in the history of their family to come to OU. So, it is literally the story that your grandfather started and has now been plowed. There’s a beauty of different generations and different families coming together that’s special.
I loved that you focused on every time you spoke, it was special. You talked about the impact of undergraduate research and how important that was in your college experience. The reality is today students that come to OU need to encounter and to me to fully realize their undergraduate experience, understand what undergraduate research is. Be apart of it because it applies to the rest of your life.
[J. JONES] I was fortunate to have an advisor in the geology school named Charlie Harper. I believe he was in it for 40 or 50 years. He sat me down my junior year and said I had to go to graduate school. I said, graduate school, why would I do that. He said, geologists go to graduate school, that’s what you do. He sat me down and helped me make a plan. He personally helped me with a research project that I worked on for him. It shows you the impact that just one teacher can have on me. I’ve mentored probably 30 or 40 kids in geology itself. You don’t realize it until you look back on the experience is what I am today is because of that. To try and understand that in a more systematic way to those who come here.
[HARROZ] That’s important and compelling.
Brenda, when you think of your time here in the college of education. You’ve been back the last few weeks on campus, what are the most special memories you have of OU?
[B. JONES] Oh gosh, there’s so many. Just seeing the different buildings, going to the library. So much learning goes on in the classroom on campus as well. It’s just special everytime we come back.
[HARROZ] Like I said, my father was born in 1929. He studied here and I love the fact the library. I walk past the library and look at that south façade and I realize that it is the same scene my father saw and it’s the same my son can see. I sit in the Great Reading Room and I know that he sat somewhere near where I sat as a student. There really is such a life changing component in us.
Alright, so we wrangled you all in to serve as Chairs of the Committee. Tell us your thoughts on the committee and what you see over the next five years.
[J. JONES] Let’s get one thing straight here, there was no wrangling. End of the day, we’re at a point in our lives where we really want to serve. OU is the thing we are looking towards. Anytime we can help, they can call on us. How can we get involved in ways besides just money? Obviously, there’s a huge need in this campaign for financial resources. We actually had a conversation with some friends who went to the Gala that next evening after the OU football game. Everything really centered on that. We thought it was going ot be hard to convince people that giving money to students is important. People want to build buildings, but it was a no brainer. We know that’s where the need is. We gotta figure out how to do it. There are so many first-generation students at OU, its stunning to me. I’m not really sure how that’s possible. My grandfather was one of them. It’s really about having an impact on their lives. We hope that there are ways to continue to get people excited because OU really appreciates what you’re doing they’re doing great things with it. There’s no question that your money will be well spent and go to a great cause.
[HARROZ] Yeah. I don’t know a way that can change more lives. I really don’t. We talked about when we were working on this campaign. I had never done a big one. I had been the law school dean, spent nine years doing that. We had our capital campaigns and our initiatives. But not at this scale. So thankful to Amy Noah and her team and all those folks who got involved. They really lay it out with discipline. In this two-billion-dollar campaign they really call for in the strategic plan is around need-based student aid. We’re going to raise at least 500 million to make sure that these students have the opportunity that they otherwise wouldn’t have. To me it’s great to have a clear plan and a path. I do think there’s sort of an infectious sort of component to this. Yesterday for lunch, we had an individual who had given before and he wanted to lunch. He came by, he sits down. He happened to be at the event on Friday night and sat down and this individual had a very focused area of interest. He said, you know what, I want to give more to this focused area of interest, but I heard the pitch and I see what others are doing, he referenced you all, and he said go ahead and count us in for two million. And I said, what part? He said the students.
I think once you lay the plan out, where it’s going to go and what that benefit will be to me is compelling and the two of you are just a huge part of it. Because you’re right, there was no wrangling, when we called you asked where could we help, how can we do it? You didn’t care about recognition, we did, we were the ones who said, no you have to put your name on it for this. I’m just forever grateful for you both.
Now you brought up a prop to the announcement, do you have that prop with you here?
[J. JONES] I do, let’s see where it is?
If you can see this, this is my grandfather, who was on the OU track team. This is him long jumping in 1922 and on this the inscription says, “A.V. Jones in the air against Missouri, 1922.” There’s a little story about this. My grandfather’s little brother also came to OU, he was on the baseball team. He came to watch his brother after track workout to see him play baseball. Intercollegiate athletics were a little less formal in 1922 than they are today. He was in the stands or bleachers, the coach of the baseball team yelled out, “Hey Jones, come steal second for me.” So, he runs out to the field, after the first pitch, he goes in, slides to second, looks up and he compound fractured his femur because he didn’t play baseball. The family lore says that he was the best broad jumper west of the Mississippi River, going to the Olympics. He won the Big 6 championship but then he basically walked with a limp the rest of his life.
[HARROZ] Wow, we’re not focused on OU baseball right now. That’s remarkable to break your femur. That’s why I stayed as a one sport athlete – I didn’t do one sport.
So, what do you think as you sit here about what it’s going to look like in five years. Do you have a good image of how this fundraising campaign is going to be made?
[B. JONES] Absolutely. Two billion dollars is quite a campaign, but it’s headed in the right direction and it’s going to make a transformational difference to this university.
[J. JONES] I see two different things with it. Obviously, Jacobson Hall will be finished. You probrably don’t know this but the pitch they gave now, when they move the back wall, and they get finished with the presentation there’s going to be a big piece of glass that looks right in Evans Hall so they can see what you’re doing.
[HARROZ] Yeah, working hard. I can’t wait to see it. We’re going to have a ton of celebrations around. Going to break ground. Have it completed when the students start showing up.
One of the great things about the job that I hold is to hear these stories. To hear the family stories and the individual stories about what OU has meant in the lives of those who have gone here and those who have been impacted. We had four spotlight speakers who went through the various departments, HSC, the Tulsa campus, the impact on individuals. To me, I get to speak to people a lot like yourselves. I get to hear so many of them. Just over the past several weeks. People tell their stories and talk about what it’s done for them. But to me what’s even more special is their desire to then return what they’ve gained from university and give to make it happen for someone else. For all the remarkable things that are going to happen, it’s about building stories for individuals in their lives. Meaning and value. Your generosity both with the gifts you’ve given, the most recent 15-million-dollar gift as well, and the time you’ve invest in this and will over the next five years, I just hope you two know how grateful we are.
[JONES] Thank you.
[HARROZ] Now you’re stuck with me.
Anything you’d like to wrap up with?
[J. JONES] One thing I hope comes from this, is what I see OU as is sending a very unique student experience but we gotta get them here. But once we do, we have to continue to have this amazing student experience. That’s what everyone talks about that’s gone here. The wonderful four years they had on campus. I think we need to use some of that scholarship. We get the best and the brightest, attain AAU status. The freshman experience.
[HARROZ] I completely agree. This idea that you’re preparing them for life in the classroom with co-curricular things, extra curriculars, I know you both were in the Greek system, as was I. The various things that help you grow emotionally and socially and help prepare you to be someone that is multidimensional and that will lead a life that matters.
Brenda, before we wrap up, anything you care to close with?
[B. JONES] We’re so excited about this gift and where this campaign is going. We look forward ot the next five years and what comes of this.
[HARROZ] Well, so am I. When you look at the momentum we have right now, I know you’ve seen the numbers, but our average fundraising total was 134 million a year for the previous 10 years. Then when we started the quiet phase of this campaign the last two years, even as we’ve been ramping up, we’ve seen our alumni respond. We jumped to 237 million and this past year 317 million. We sit here today with just over 600 million dollars raised towards that two-billion-dollar goal. Amy did some math that was very concerning that all we have to do to reach that additional 1.4 billion that we have yet to raise I think 17 hundred and so many days left in the campaign that equates to the five years, and we needed to raise 814 thousand a day for the next 17 hundred days.
So, yesterday went well. We picked up two or three days there. We have a lot to do, thank you all for your leadership. Thanks for being involved and thanks for soon to be five years and generations of members of your family that are at OU, and we look forward to many more. Because of your contributions, that’s going to be possible.
[JONES] Thank you
[HARROZ] Jonny and Brenda, thank you all. It means the world that you were here for this. When we thought about this campaign, we thought about the name and it was Lead On Campaign. This is fundraising for the next generation of OU and generations of students to come. We hope that all of our students come here that their lives are changed, and they change the lives of others.
On behalf of all the students that comes from muti-generations at OU and that 25 percent of our freshman class that’s never had anyone go to college, the American Dream, the ability that you have driven and talent, then you can get an education that will allow you to move your life forward and your family’s life forward. It’s going to be a life for generations to come. Because of this campaign and your leadership. The name Lead On could not be more appropriate, thank you all.
To all of those who are listening at the end of the show, thank you for listening. We can’t wait for our next broadcast of Conversations with the President, thank you!
