Claremore Daily Progress

Top Stories

Related Photos

  • RSU will have a public dedication ceremony for Baird Hall at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20.

    9.8-BairdHall01.jpg
September 8, 2010

NOON UPDATE: RSU to dedicate Baird Hall Sept. 20

From Staff Reports Staff Writer

CLAREMORE — Baird Hall has long held a reliable yet unassuming presence at Rogers State University. For more than a half century, Baird provided a dependable place for learning, but was considered out of date and even drab by some.

However, at the beginning of the fall semester, an expanded and renovated Baird Hall reopened as another crown jewel on the RSU campus in Claremore.

The reopening occurred as RSU experienced another semester of record enrollment with more than 4,400 students.

“We were just bursting at the seams in terms of enrollment, so bringing this important facility back online came just in time,” said RSU President Dr. Larry Rice.

A dedication ceremony will be held for the new Baird Hall at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20. The public is invited to attend.

The barely recognizable Baird Hall has doubled in size and contains many of the leading-edge features associated with higher learning today, including classrooms equipped with Smart Boards, a performance studio and an amphitheater-style outdoor classroom for learning outdoors on sunny days.

Baird Hall always provided a location for the university’s art gallery, and when the building reopened, it boasted a new gallery for RSU students and faculty artists, as well as visiting artists, to exhibit their work.

“We anticipated improvements to this building for a long time and couldn’t be happier with the result,” said Gary Moeller, art professor and one of the university’s longest-serving faculty members, who wore a tuxedo on the first day of classes held in the building.

The 57,000-square-foot building also is the new headquarters for four academic departments including the Department of Communications, Department of English and Humanities, Department of Fine Arts and Department of History and Political Science.

Those entering the main plaza entrance on the southeast corner of the building will be greeted by a six-foot-tall statue of Will Rogers, the area’s iconic folk hero.

The new Baird Hall also provides a new home for the university’s burgeoning Honors Program, with a special classroom, computer laboratory and conference room for advanced placement students.

And of course, the building is still a “work horse,” providing classrooms and faculty offices on the rapidly growing campus.Funding for the $9.5 million expansion and renovation project includes $4 million in bonds from the Oklahoma Higher Education Promise of Excellence Act of 2005, $1 million in facility revenue bonds issued in 2007, $4 million through the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Master Lease Program in 2010, and $500,000 in private funding.

Text Only
Top Stories
  • BARGASweb.jpg NAIA WORLD SERIES: RSU upsets No. 1 LSU-Shreveport

    The ninth-seeded Rogers State baseball team choreographed its second straight come-from-behind victory at the Avista-NAIA World Series with a 2-1 upset over top ranked and top seeded LSU-Shreveport on Saturday evening at Harris Field on the campus of Lewis-Clark State.
    The Diamond Cats snapped the Pilots 16-game winning streak and handed them just their fifth loss of the season. It’s the first time in program history the Cats have topped the No.1 team in the country.

    May 27, 2012 1 Photo

  • commissioners-02web.jpg Rogers County candidates face off

    Rogers County candidates faced tough questions Thursday during a debate at Rogers State University.

    May 27, 2012 2 Photos

  • KidsCamp-iconweb.jpg Send a Kid to Camp fundraiser kicks off

    Forty Rogers County children will have the opportunity to attend the Heart O’Hills Salvation Army Camp in Tahlequah — if generous Progress readers can raise the needed funds.

    May 26, 2012 1 Photo

  • SpecOlympic-family01web.jpg Copelands get state Special Olympics honor

    Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer presented the 2012 family of the year award to the Copeland family at the opening ceremonies of the Oklahoma Special Olympic Games May 9 in Stillwater.

    May 26, 2012 1 Photo

  • Memorial Day event to mark bridge collapse

    The Oklahoma Department of Transportation says a Memorial Day event will mark the 10-year anniversary of the collapse of the Interstate 40 bridge into the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls.

    May 26, 2012

  • Eagle Academic All-Stater

    Sequoyah High School senior Cadence Wong was named as part of Oklahoma’s Academic All State Class of 2012.

    May 25, 2012

  • TSCRA Rangers deliver reward money to sheriff’s department

    Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton recently received reward money from agents with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, which will soon be distributed to tipsters in a case involving the bow and arrow deaths of several livestock.

    May 25, 2012

  • GRDA is bringing power into the future

    The Claremore Chamber of Commerce hosted Dan Sullivan as the guest speaker during the monthly luncheon Thursday at Rogers State University Centennial Center.

    May 25, 2012

  • FEC postpones Mullin advisory opinion ruling

    The Federal Election Commission requested an extension today to review 2nd District Congressional Candidate Markwayne Mullin’s request for an exception to federal electioneering laws.

     

    May 24, 2012

  • Special session looms as House rejects $6.8B budget

    The Oklahoma House failed Thursday to pass a $6.8 billion general appropriations bill to fund state government, setting up the possibility of lawmakers returning for a special session.

    May 24, 2012