“What Is This, Field of Dreams?”

Who goes from LA to Tulsa to see their name in lights? Ummm, me.

Those of you who know me well, have heard me rave/rant over my younger brother’s bargain travel prowess. (Here’s a WSJ article noting the time he flew to Cyprus business class for $33 when the list price was nearly $2900.) In that spirit, I, too, have enjoyed finding great fares.  So, it was to my delight that I came across an $80 round-trip from LA to Wichita, KS.  And yes, delight. You see, I’m just a handful of states short of hitting all 50.  With a trip to Kansas, I could knock another one off and with a quick drive, see an old high school buddy in Tulsa.  And with a quick drive from Tulsa, I could hit Arkansas as well.  So with nothing more than that base logic, I bought my ticket.

But no trip out of LA forgoes visiting colleges–even those in the Great Plains. And even those of you who don’t know me well, know I’m a college football junkie.  So, I wasn’t about to miss one of the 17 private universities in the country that also competes in Division I football–the University of Tulsa.  Along with Rice, it’s also one of the smallest at just under 3,000 undergraduates.  For comparison’s sake, my Ohio State Buckeyes are set within a school of over 46,000 undergraduates.

So, two weeks ago, after night spent in Wichita with a wind chill of -15 (after leaving LA that afternoon at 75 degrees!), I found myself at TU having little idea of what to expect.  What I found surprised me.  Blew me away actually.  Generally-speaking, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to hype a particular school.  That’s the job of their admissions and public relations office.  But generally-speaking, I’m not so impressed with a school.  I visit colleges dozens of times a year and they mostly feel like fact-finding missions.  This visit to TU was revelatory.   I walked away feeling that it’s one of those schools that more people should know about.

Why don’t they?  Mostly because it’s in Tulsa I suspect! I can’t say that a kid seeking the urban experience a place like DePaul or Columbia affords should consider TU but certainly, it’s not far-fetched for any kid considering a place like Kenyon or U Conn which may feel a little off the beaten path.  And for a kid looking for great school spirit but who can’t find their way into Duke or Northwestern, TU’s also worth a look.  (Ten percent of the student body is National Merit Scholars.)  The reality is, Tulsa’s no cow town (trust me, I grew up in a cow town!) and has everything you’d expect from a metro area and Oklahoma City is only 90 minutes away for a kid who has a hankering for, oh, I dunno, a really bad NBA team?

Students hadn’t returned from their winter break, so escorting me around campus fell to a terrific young admissions officer, one Casey Reed who covers Southern California.  Keeping in mind that I was in the heart of the Bible Belt, perhaps my biggest “Huh?” moment was passing by a building with Arabic script on the sign.  Casey explained to me it was a mosque and that a large number of students are from the Middle East and come to take advantage of TU’s renowned petroleum engineering program.  (It’s the biggest major on campus.)  But on the same campus was a Hillel House.  And this is all on a campus with Presbyterian roots!  Needless to say, any preconceived notions of a homogeneous population were washed away.

A sculpture in one of the engineering bldgs. Drill, baby, drill!

But what impressed me most?  It’s a university that feels like a liberal arts college given its size.  That’s rare.  I had the opportunity to meet with four professors at the school who spent time talking about their programs and I was hugely impressed with how how much emphasis there is on student/faculty connections, not to mention research opportunities.  All four had that spark that undergraduates seeking strong relationships with their professors covet.  One, of them, Dr. Mohan Kelkar is chairman of the Petrochemical Engineering Department–and I later learned, one of the world’s best in this field.  In just twenty minutes, the passion with which he spoke about his work had me considering a switch to PE myself! (For example, did you know the history of energy efficiency in mankind is basically about reducing the ratio of carbon molecules to hydrogen molecules?  Hence: wood > coal > oil > natural gas > ?  Well, now you know, too, thanks to Dr. Kelkar.)

I could go on and one about each meeting I had and what I learned, but on some level, it’ll be up to you to learn about TU on your own if I’ve piqued your interest.  (And the friendly folks in their extremely professional office will be happy to assist you.)  But I will leave you with this: my afternoon tour ended with visiting the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Thomas Benediktson.  He’d been there about 28 years and really seen its growth into the place it is today.  But apparently, that quick growth caught even him off guard when recently, while watching the TU baseball team, he also heard one of the musical groups practicing a little ways off and all the while students buzzed around him.  Turning to his wife, he told me and Casey the idylic moment was so perfect he asked her, “What is this, Field of Dreams?” (One of my favorite scenes from the movie.) I have to say, I get where the professor’s coming from.  Sure, it’s not Iowa, but they’ve built it and for four years and the right kid, it just might be heaven.

Up soon…my visit with students at Oral Roberts University and a quick take on the University of Arkansas.