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OC Secures Access to $170,000 Special Effects Software
OC’s Jeff Price, an art and design faculty member, has secured access for students to use $170,000 worth of special effects software known as Houdini. The high quality, 3-D animation effects package was developed by Side Effects Software out of Canada. It is highly regarded in the film and television industry and was used heavily in the “Transformers” movies.
According to Price, the program costs about $6,500 per seat for professionals.
“We now have 26 copies,” he said. “We’ll be the only school in the Midwest teaching this other than Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Our students are pretty pumped about it.”
Price secured the seat licenses by talking to a representative of the software company at a conference for video game designers and instructors.
Earlier this year OC’s gaming design program, which is directed by Price, was named among the top 50 undergraduate programs in the country by The Princeton Review and GamePro magazine. OC was the only school in Oklahoma and among just a few faith-based universities in the nation to make the list.
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Prayer Night 2010
Please join the Alumni Office and the greater OC Community in prayer for the upcoming school year on Sunday, August 29th at 7:30 pm in Scott Chapel.
God has blessed OC so much over her 60 year history. Let’s take time to stop and thank Him for the blessings and ask Him to lead and guide us through another school year.
Come for a short program and prayer followed by a time to walk about the campus individually and pray for the student body, faculty, staff, and administration.
If you cannot make it to campus that night (as many are too far to make the drive), please make plans to stop and pray for Oklahoma Christian at that time.
Here are some topics you may want to pray for:
The University and its mission
- Faithfulness to the mission
- Faithful and wise stewardship over the resources God has entrusted to us
- Boldness in setting the vision and humility as God gives the increase
- Spiritual, academic, and financial strength of OC
- That OC will be an effective instrument of peace
Students and Prospective Students
- For the spiritual and academic growth and the purity of the students
- Young people considering enrolling at OC
- That chapel will be beneficial in the growth of our students
The Trustees
- Thankfulness for the time and sacrifice of each trustee family
- Wisdom in selecting new trustees
- Trustee wisdom and insight in providing guidance for the University
Faculty and Staff
- Spiritual insight, wisdom, courage and health of faculty and staff
- Families of faculty and staff
- Spiritual development of faculty, staff, and administration
Our Community
- For the Christian Chronicle and its staff
- That alumni may be good examples and reflect the values of OC
- For OC and CCC Alumni
- For missionaries and those preparing to do mission work around the world
- Stronger relationships with the Churches of Christ
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Oklahoma Christian Welcomes New Faculty
Oklahoma Christian University is proud to announce the addition of two faculty members for the 2010-11 school year. Rebecca Briley has been hired as an associate professor of English and as coordinator of the composition/rhetoric program in the department of language and literature. Richard Trout has been hired as an associate professor of biology in the college of arts and sciences.
“Oklahoma Christian is excited to have such experienced and creative individuals to join our talented faculty,” said Allison Garrett, vice president of academic affairs. “Dr. Briley’s deep experience and Richard’s proven teaching abilities help enhance two of the strongest programs on our campus.”
Briley holds holds a doctorate in American literature and drama from the University of Kentucky, where she also earned a master’s degree in creative writing and British literature. She was awarded the English-Speaking Union Scholarship by the University of London in 1987, and was awarded the Fulbright Award to teach American literature at Wulfrun University in Wolverhampton, England from 1990-1991.
Briley was also awarded the Metroversity Instructional Award for a women’s prison project called “Piecing Together Our Mother’s Stories.” This writing/quilting project reconnected women prisoners with their mothers at the Pee Wee Valley Correctional Institute for Women in Kentucky from 1999-2000. Kentuckiana Metroversity, Inc., is a consortium of seven institutions of higher education in the Louisville metropolitan area. It offers annually awards to persons who present the best designs for instructional development in college teaching.
While most of Briley’s career has been spent at the University of Kentucky and the Jefferson County Community College, she has also taught at several other universities such as the University of Maryland in Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands; the Department of Defense American Schools in Bitburg, Germany; and Girne American University in the city of Girne, located in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.
Briley has written and produced numerous plays such as Shakespeare’s Sisters, Oprah’s Book Club, Colors of Autumn, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Somebody Like I Am: Eula Hall’s Story, The Spiral & Arch, Of the Mothers and Scars. In addition, she published a book of poetry entitled Inside Out: Poems from a Workshop.
“Rebecca’s accomplishments and skills will help her department to continue to receive national recognition,” Garrett said.
Oklahoma Christian’s student literary publication, Soundings, was named number one in the nation in 2008 by Sigma Tau Delta, the National English Honors Society.
Richard Trout holds a masters degree in natural science from Oklahoma State University. He also did doctoral work in human ecology and environmental health at the OU Health Sciences Center. Trout recently retired from Oklahoma City Community College after 24 years as a professor of biology. He has also taught at Rose State College and the University of Central Oklahoma.
Trout has received numerous awards throughout his career such as the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Oklahoma City Community College in 2007.
In addition, Trout has authored seven action novels for young adults published by Pelican Publishing. His latest book is to be released in January. Two of his novels were selected by National Geographic for the JASON Project curriculum. Trout was also selected as curriculum advisor the project’s “Resilient Planet” ecology section. While at OCCC, he participated in an Eisenhower Foundation grant to teach secondary science teachers new laboratory skills.
“Rick’s excellent teaching reputation and creativity will help our Biology Department continue to have one of the highest placement rates for medical school of any university in the state,” Garrett said.
OC Student Papers Chosen By Highly Selective National Journal
Two of Oklahoma Christian University’s language and literature majors, Wil Norton of Edmond and Cady Haas of Wichita, have had their papers from the Film as Literature course accepted for publication in the National English Honors Society journal, The Sigma Tau Delta Review.
The students submitted their scholarly articles to a blind review process, wherein a board of editors read and accepted their work based solely on the papers’ scholarly and literary qualities. They were two of only 15-20 essays accepted from among thousands of submissions.
“Clearly, Wil and Cady’s papers represent the very highest level of undergraduate research possible in their discipline,” said language and literature professor Cami Agan, who teaches the Film As Literature course.
Cady’s paper was titled “The Pregnancy Problem: Complicating Unique Femininity in Contemporary Romantic Comedies.” It explored the representation of women’s bodies in pregnancy in recent comedic films such as Knocked Up and Juno. She also presented a version of the paper for her project in the class Race, Class, and Gender.
Wil’s paper was titled “The Uncanny, Castration, and Sight as Perceived Remedy in Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket.” It combined Freudian and Film theories of The Gaze to examine masculinity and violence in the works of director Stanley Kubrick.
Cady and Wil also presented their papers, along with relevant and integrated film clips, as part of the final project for the Film as Literature class.
“As their professor in the course, I am extremely proud of the work Wil and Cady produced, and I encouraged them to submit to the Review,” Agan said. “Their acceptance reveals the strength of the OC English major at the national level. Editors and reviewers recognized the superb level of their writing, their insights and their research. Such a publication is on par with undergraduate research in humanities programs across the nation.”
Agan noted that Wil and Cady are the first OC students to have work from the same course accepted for the same edition of the Review.
Norton and Haas are active leaders in the language and literature program. Cady will serve as president of OC’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta this year and is already making fundraising plans to help the chapter attend the national conference in 2011. Wil serves as one of the club’s chaplains and will organize weekly devotionals.
“They are outstanding examples of intellectual, spiritual and communal leaders on campus and particularly in our department,” Agan said. “Their success helps their peers see what strong critical skills can achieve.”
The Sigma Tau Delta Review is an annual journal that publishes critical essays on literature, essays on rhetoric and composition and essays devoted to pedagogical issues. Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society, with over 750 active chapters located in Europe, the Caribbean and the United States. There are more than 1,000 faculty sponsors, and approximately 8,500 members inducted annually.
Oklahoma Christian Ranked by U.S. News and World Report
Oklahoma Christian University was ranked above almost two-thirds of peer institutions in the U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of Best Regional Universities. The university was ranked 44th in the West region of the United States in the college guidebook, “America’s Best Colleges, 2011 Edition,” which was released today.
The West region includes a number of much larger universities in Texas and California. This is the 12th consecutive year that U.S. News has ranked Oklahoma Christian in its America’s Best Colleges Guidebook.
“We are honored to be ranked among the top 38 percent of regional universities in the West region,” said Mike O’Neal, president of Oklahoma Christian. “This is a reflection of the hard work of our dedicated faculty, staff and students, as well as the generosity of our alumni and other supporters.”
Notable donors and supporters of Oklahoma Christian include Dr. Ralph Harvey, CEO of Marlin Oil Corp.; Jose Freede, philanthropist; Charles Branch, world-renowned brain surgeon and Don Millican, chief financial officer for Kaiser Francis Oil Company.
U.S. News bases its regional university rankings on academic reputation, peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. Oklahoma Christian is well represented in these categories.
For example, the university’s chapter of the national history honor society has been named a top chapter in the nation among universities under 3,000 students for the past 14 years. Graduates from OC’s School of Business Administration routinely achieve the highest pass rate on the CPA examination of all of Oklahoma’s universities.
Nearly all of OC’s science students who have conducted undergraduate research and applied to graduate, medical or other professional programs have been accepted. All of OC’s history, political science, and language and literature students who applied to graduate school were accepted as well, with many going on to highly ranked graduate schools in the U.S. and abroad.
Oklahoma Christian is one of only two members of the 112 schools in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities with full accreditation for three engineering programs from ABET—the recognized accreditor for college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering and technology.
This fall, the university became one of the first in the country to offer iPads available to all new students.
“The Oklahoma Christian community truly embraces our mission of transforming lives for Christian faith, scholarship and service,” O’Neal said. “We are excited about the impact our faculty and students continue to have on the world, an impact that fuels honors such as this ranking.”
“America’s Best Colleges” issue will be available on newsstands Aug. 31.
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