NORMAN – The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents will consider a naming in recognition of a major gift made to support the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education as well as a resolution and naming of the Department of African and African American Studies in honor of civil rights leader Clara Luper when it meets on Wednesday, March 7, in Norman. Agenda items for Cameron University, Rogers State University and OU will be considered beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Dunham College of the OU Residential Colleges, 250 W. Lindsey St.

The OU Board will consider a recommendation to approve the naming of the Collings Hall courtyard in recognition of retail executive Sharen Jester Turney and Charles A. Turney’s gift to the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education. The leadership gift provides graduates of the college who remain in the state of Oklahoma with student loan forgiveness each year they teach in the state, up to four years. Focus is placed on those with a commitment to teach in high-need subject areas, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics, world languages, special education and early childhood education, as well as in high-need geographic areas.

The OU Board also will consider a resolution and naming in recognition of civil rights pioneer Clara Luper and her impact on the state of Oklahoma and her legacy as a model for the community-engaged research mission of the Department of African and African American Studies. Luper, who led the first sit-in of the modern Civil Rights Movement on August 19, 1958, at the then-segregated Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City, was among OU’s first black graduates and helped lead the fight to end segregation in Oklahoma.

The next regular meeting of the OU Board of Regents is currently scheduled for May 10-11 in Norman.