Dodge family gift changes future
for OU College of Arts and Sciences

Members of the Homer L. Dodge family and OU community celebrate a landmark gift and the naming of the College of Arts and Sciences with OU President Joe Harroz (center left), Dean David Wrobel and OU Regent Rick Nagel (center back).

A historic gift from the family of Homer L. Dodge will transform the future of the University of Oklahoma’s oldest and largest college.

The contribution to the OU Foundation will be split evenly between the new Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences and the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, which resides within the college and was renamed in Dodge’s honor in 2005.

A renowned educator and scientist, Dodge was an early pioneer of the OU sciences. He was recruited in 1919 as professor and chair of the Physics Department and became director of the OU School of Engineering in 1924. He was appointed dean of the Graduate College the following year and later founded OU’s Research Institute. Dodge also helped establish OU’s University Senate, now known as the Faculty Senate, and played a key role in organizing the American Association of Physics Teachers.

“This incredible bequest will allow us to attract and support outstanding undergraduate and graduate students, as well as nationally and internationally known faculty, and will fund field-changing, life-changing research,” said Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences Dean David M. Wrobel.

The largest portion of funds allotted to the arts and sciences will benefit the Dean’s Undergraduate Scholar Fund to expand recruitment and scholarships.

“With more than 10,000 students, the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences is OU’s largest and most disciplinarily and demographically diverse college, and has many students with significant need,” Wrobel said.

“The Dean’s Undergraduate Scholar Fund will enable the college to provide hundreds of new scholarships to students each year. Access to academic excellence is at the heart of everything we do at OU–that access ensures the democratic power of higher education. We must change lives by offering a world-class education, regardless of socioeconomic status,” he said.

Dodge - Within the arts and sciences, the gift also will establish two research chairs, a graduate fellows research fund to expand graduate student recruitment, and a research fund to equip faculty with resources needed to drive success.

At the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, the majority of monies will support the Dodge Family Postdoctoral Research Fellows Fund, which will create eight postdoctoral research associate positions.

Other endowments will provide seed funds to accelerate the department’s research mission, establish four research faculty positions, diversify and enlarge the graduate student applicant pool, foster collaboration with visiting scientists from national and international labs, and retain graduate and postdoctoral students.

“We are committed to the growth of our graduate programs and ensuring that the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy remains at the vanguard of research and scientific exploration in alignment with OU’s ambitious strategic plan,” Wrobel said. “The Dodge family’s influence on our bold ambitions as a student-facing, public research university will exist as long as OU itself.”