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OU Daily student staff members interview University of Oklahoma president, Joe Harroz

Support our independent local journalism

Robust news organizations like ours generate civic good that informs, improves and inspires communities. For those invested in OU and Norman, OU Daily uniquely has:

  • Free independent local journalism that's routinely honored at collegiate, state and national levels
  • The city's largest reporting staff largely drawn from one of the nation's top journalism colleges
  • A veteran advising staff with a mission to build on our legacy as a launching pad for media professionals 

Whether in a one-time or recurring pledge, we appreciate your support.

CONTRIBUTE TO OUR MISSION

Areas you can support

Scholarships and wages

Learn more and contribute

Travel

Learn more and contribute

Equipment

Learn more and contribute

The next big thing

Discuss innovative gift ideas

Scholarships and wages

We currently offer these scholarships that supplement student experiences beyond our staff positions paying $9 to $10/hour:

R.A. Hall Editor-in-Chief Scholarship
Endowed, OU Regents fund 6163000

  • Amount: $1,300 each fall, spring and summer
  • Purpose: Financially support the most-demanding role on the Daily staff.
  • Eligibility: Awarded to only the editor-in-chief of OU Daily. 
  • Testimonial: Karoline Leonard, 2023-24 recipient

Becky Willis Memorial Scholarship for News Leadership (OU Foundation fund 0043554)

  • Amount: $1,000 each fall, spring
  • Purpose: Established in memory of Becky Willis, the spouse of longtime Daily adviser Jack Willis. In her career, Becky built relationships and broke barriers in banking, sales and human resources. In the rest of her life, Becky was a competitive athlete, devoted wife and loving mother whose passions burned as brightly as her fire-red hair. A news junkie and fierce defender of the Daily, she loved hosting and keeping in touch with the Daily’s students, whom she and Jack viewed as their kids.   
  • Eligibility: Awarded to only the news managing editor of OU Daily.  
  • Testimonial: Anusha Fathepure, fall 2024 recipient

Gaylord College Memorial Scholarship for Oklahoma Daily Students Fund (endowed, OU Foundation fund 0040767)

  • Amount: $3,300 in total
  • Purpose: From 1978 to 1997, the OU Foundation received gifts to establish four endowed scholarships that memorialized OU journalism alumni, beloved professors or Oklahoma journalists/publishers. Before the OU Foundation consolidated them into a single award, those were:
    • The Louise B. Moore Award, which honored the Daily's adviser from 1952-71
    • The C.T. House "Man Bites Dog" Award, which honored the Daily's adviser from 1973-88
    • The Maria Kay Fotopoulos Award, which honored a former Daily student
    • The Jeannett Baumert Turner Memorial award, which honored a 1934 journalism graduate who was the wife of Daily alum Ralph Sewell  
  • Eligibility: Candidates must:
    • Be a full-time, enrolled student in Gaylord College
    • Be in good academic standing in Gaylord College
    • Have a minimum 3.0 grad-point average on a 4.0 scale
    • Work for the OU Daily

Stacy Wehrenberg Memorial Scholarship (endowed, OU Foundation fund 0042660)

  • Amount: $1,000 annually
  • Purpose: This scholarship was established in memory of Stacy (Thrailkill) Wehrenberg, who for 25 years was Student Media's buisness office manager. Before dying due to a rare breast cancer in 2012, she was the glue of our organization, helping make everything run smoothly for students. Although Stacy always wore a smile and maintained an incredible sense of humor, her greatest attribute was her selfless, caring love and concern for others.  
  • Eligibility: An individual who demonstrates success amid adversity and: 
    • Is a full-time, regularly enrolled OU student
    • Works for Student Media
    • Faces an adversity in their lives, such as a life-threatening disease, disabilities, financial need, sudden loss of a parent, family crisis, recurring health-related issues
  • Testimonial: Peggy Dodd, 2024-25 recipient

Zelbert Moore-Guinnevere Hodges honorary support fund (not endowed)

  • Amount: $500 annually
  • Purpose: This fund is intended to help further systematic change at OU Daily, from the composition of its staff to the substance of its coverage to the community trust it must continue to earn with historically marginalized groups on campus. It honors the legacies of the first Black students to work for OU Student Media. In 1964, Zelbert Moore was the first Black man to join OU Daily. OU's first Black journalism graduate, he went on to become a professor emeritus in Black studies at SUNY New Paltz. In 1965, Guinnevere Hodges became the first Black woman to join Sooner yearbook. She went on to help design Project Threshold, a program meant to recruit, retain and graduate more people of color from OU. 
  • Eligibility: This fund is awarded to a person with experience in or a special committment to working with marginalized communities who aspires to a career in media, with a priority given to applicants for whom it can make a financial difference in their ability to work on our staff.

Other areas to support

Two key ongoing expenses in our department are the costs of going where OU stories demand to be covered, and maintenance on and upgrades to the gear our students use in the field.

Travel

We send students where stories of pressing interest to our communities demand to be told as well as to training opportunities that enrich their skill sets. That can be regents meetings in Tulsa or Lawton. That can be football games in Dallas and beyond. That can be professional and collegiate media conventions. Your support — specifically to the Student Media Staff Development fund — can help finance:

  • Gas reimbursements
  • Airfare 
  • Accommodations
  • Conference registrations 
  • Testimonial: Gracie Rawlings, fall 2024 sports editor

Equipment

Media is a rapidly evolving field, and with it comes continual needs to upgrade the equipment we want every student in our organization to have access to — independent of personal privileges. Also, each piece of our equipment is used by multiple students, accelerating the wear such equipment absorbs. Your support — specifically to the Student Media Staff Development fund — can help finance: 

  • Photo/video camera repairs/upgrades
  • Cards and card readers
  • Audio/podcasting tools
  • Software licenses for photo/video editing
  • Testimonial: Kaly Phan, fall 2023-spring 2024 video editor

The next big thing

Have bigger ideas, initiatives and more you'd like to help fund? We would love to hear your concepts, brainstorm about how they align with our mission and work together make them a reality for the communities we serve and the careers our students build here. 

OU Student Media
860 Van Vleet Oval
Room 160
Norman, OK 73019
Phone: (405) 325-2521

Updated 7/3/2024 by OU Student Media: studentmedia@ou.edu