OU Board of Regents Concludes October Meeting

The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents approved a number of agenda items – including the appointments of OU’s vice president of diversity and inclusion and dean of nursing – and selected the 2020 board chair and a replacement for the open vice chair during meetings held Oct. 22-23 on the Norman campus. Regent Gary Pierson was named the next chair, beginning March 2020.

“We’ve made some difficult decisions in the past year, particularly related to OU,” said Pierson. “After I become chair next March, I will continue to work collaboratively with my fellow Regents and our diverse university communities at OU, Cameron, and Rogers State to make sure they have the resources and support as well as decisive leadership to help them move forward with their missions and visions.”

Regent Pierson was also elected vice chair during Wednesday’s meeting to replace Regent Renzi Stone, who resigned from his board position following Tuesday’s meetings, citing new opportunities.

“We appreciate Renzi’s dedicated service to the OU Board of Regents,” said Chair Leslie Rainbolt. “He cares deeply for OU and has represented our University well in various capacities for many years. We respect his decision and wish him tremendous success with his future opportunities.” 

Belinda Higgs Hyppolite, Ed.D., will serve as vice president of diversity and inclusion beginning in January 2020. Hyppolite will join OU from the University of Central Florida, where she currently serves as assistant vice president for student development and enrollment services.

Julie Hoff, Ph.D., was appointed as dean of the Fran and Earl Zeigler College of Nursing. She is currently the dean of nursing at the Texas A&M Corpus Christi College of Nursing and Health Sciences and will also join OU in January 2020.

The board approved the formation of search committees for other open dean positions in the Honors College, College of Professional and Continuing Studies, and University Libraries.

The board also considered the development of a new Executive Master of Business degree program in Aerospace and Defense. The proposed program will now go before the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education for final approval. The program is set to offer business management education to the growing aerospace and defense market. It will be open to working professionals in the aerospace and defense industry within Oklahoma, the United States and the broader global community. The program is set to launch in the fall of 2020 pending approval by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

“We are excited today to announce key leadership appointments and to continue our work in strategic areas that create opportunity for our students and faculty,” said OU Interim President Joseph Harroz Jr. “OU is making immense progress around our priorities of diversity and inclusion and building our research efforts to support the state and nation. With these recent hires and our focus on developing programs that advance our mission, we are continuing to position OU as a national leader.”

The Regents approved the University’s updated Conflict of Interest policy, which reflects recent changes in the state’s ethics rules. The revised policy now better aligns with emerging best practices on a national level. During the revision process, a taskforce identified functional areas in the administration of the policy in which it could be updated to promote improvement in education, disclosure, decision-making, management and recordkeeping.

For a full list of agenda items discussed, visit http://www.ou.edu/regents/agenda.html. The next meeting of the OU Board of Regents is slated for Dec. 2-3.