OSU President James Halligan Announces Retirement

Nestor Gonzales
Commuinications Services
Oklahoma State University
(405) 744-6260

 

Dr. and Mrs. James Halligan respond to questions at a news conference announcing Halligan's retirement from the presidency of Oklahoma State University.

May 29, 2002--Oklahoma State University President James Halligan today asked the OSU/A&M Regents to move quickly to replace him as President and CEO of OSU in Stillwater and the OSU System.

“I’m turning 66 years old, and Ann and I have been at the head of a campus for 20 years now,” Halligan said.

“Our time at OSU has been a joy, but at this point in our lives, we also want the flexibility to spend time with our eight grandchildren. Time is one perk no one can promise a university president.”

Halligan has agreed to remain on the job until his replacement is hired, but hopes that can happen in the next six to eight months.

“We said from the day we arrived that we are a 10-year team and so expected to announce our retirement next year to occur in 2004,” said Halligan.

But he says a series of recent events have convinced him the timing is right for a transition to occur now so that a new leader can be involved in important planning and decision-making.

“I’m sorry this announcement occurs at a time when our students and faculty are away, but once Ann and I told the board our decision, it was the general consensus that we needed to move ahead,” said Halligan.

“I’ve told the board I’d like to continue to work on several current initiatives including OSU’s efforts to attract federal and private funds for sensor research, plans to renovate the OSU stadium and the initiative to resolve OSU’s participation in OTRS.”

However, Halligan says he believes he can do those things uncoupled from the seven-day-a-week schedule of a university president.

Chairman of the OSU/A&M Regents Fred Harlan, Okmulgee, said the board accepts Halligan’s request for reassignment, but also intends to accept his offer of active service.

According to Harlan, “Dr. Halligan has had a truly remarkable presidency at Oklahoma State University, taking the university to new heights and firmly establishing it as one of the finest institutions of higher education in the country.”

He continued, “The Board of Regents and the entire OSU family appreciate Jim and Ann for their inspired leadership since 1994 and will look forward to working with them during their remaining six to eight months in office. Further, we are pleased Jim and Ann agreed to remain involved after retirement with OSU and assist a new president as a means to ensure the positive momentum we enjoy today will continue.”

At OSU, Halligan reversed 12 years of declining enrollments with student-centered programs and facilities. OSU was named America’s Best College Buy and a Truman Honor Institution. The university has produced 15 national scholars in the past nine years.

Freshman-to-sophomore retention increased to 85 percent on the way to Halligan’s goal of 60 percent graduation rates. Classrooms were converted into multi-media venues. An addition to the Student Union brought offices serving students under one roof, and new student housing reversed a trend of students moving away from campus. The university now has waiting lists for on-campus housing. The Halligans hosted thousands of students in the President’s home each year.

The Halligans took an apartment in Tulsa in order to be personally involved in the launch of OSU-Tulsa. Halligan helped OSU’s first capital campaign double its original goal, eventually raising more than $270 million dollars. He also helped raise the money to “Raise the Roof” on Gallagher-Iba Arena, now called the nation’s top collegiate basketball venue by CBS Sportsline.

He lowered administrative costs to concentrate on faculty salaries and stressed the university’s role in research and economic development. Among $380 million in new facilities brought online during the Halligan years are the Advanced Technology Research Center, designed to host joint industry-university research, and the Food & Agricultural Products Research & Technology Center, which offers pilot plant space to Oklahoma entrepreneurs. He opened the first university technology transfer office.

OSU now has 51 active patents. The university joined the City of Stillwater and Meridian Technology Center in winning two federal grants totaling $2.3 million to build the Oklahoma Technology and Research Park west of Stillwater.

Halligan marshaled OSU research efforts on homeland security through sensor and sensor-related applications and helped convince the Oklahoma Legislature to invest $19 million dollars in equipment and lab renovations to make OSU even more competitive in the national security grant arena.

The Halligans hosted OSU’s faithful at the Final Four in 1995 and saw the institution through the painful loss of 10 members of the basketball family in a deadly plane crash in 2001.

Halligan expressed appreciation to students, faculty, staff, alumni, Stillwater community, regents, legislators and supporters.

“I can’t begin to tell you how much Ann and I appreciate the support we have received from day one at Oklahoma State University,” he said.

“I learned early in my life one cannot truly succeed without an extraordinary team. You must remember the achievements we have enjoyed over the past nine years are the result of the collective talents, energies, efforts and capabilities of a number of fine people Ann and I have been blessed to work with at OSU. That’s an important reason we intend to retire here in Oklahoma.”

The search for the 17th President of OSU, according to Chairman Harlan, will be a national one and will involve a search committee of regents and representatives of campus constituencies.



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