For the second consecutive year, the Oklahoma Legislature appropriated additional money to Langston University for campus maintenance efforts and the expansion of an agriculture outreach program, but both Black members of the State Senate say more resources are needed for the 1897 land-grant institution as it navigates a changing and competitive higher education landscape.
“The funding will help us make prioritized improvements which are essential to providing our students, faculty and staff with the quality learning, working and living environments they deserve,” Langston President Ruth Ray Jackson said in a press release. “Langston University is committed to responsibly stewarding these resources to advance our mission and continue serving our students and communities with excellence.”
The Legislature’s increased appropriations for Langston come as the HBCU’s longstanding needs have been highlighted each of the past two sessions.
In September 2023, a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt from Cabinet secretaries in President Joe Biden’s administration calculated the historic amount of Langston’s underfunding to be at least $419 million, although state budget leaders questioned the exact methodology of that figure. Nonetheless, when the Fiscal Year 2025 budget was revealed in May 2024, it included a new line-item requiring the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to direct $2.5 million to the Sherman Lewis School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences for expansion of its cooperative extension program from 19 counties to 28 counties. However, Democratic lawmakers voiced concerns during budget hearings that major capital projects were being funded at Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma, while Langston was only receiving an additional $3.5 million for deferred maintenance projects.
Around the same time, a massive shakeup in the State Senate seated Sen. Chuck Hall (R-Perry) as chairman of the Senate Appropriations and Budget Committee. Hall’s Senate District 20 includes the City of Langston, one of Oklahoma’s original all-Black towns that is home to LU’s main campus. As Fiscal Year 2026 budget negotiations unfolded this spring, Hall and House Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Trey Caldwell increased Langston’s extension program line-item from $2.5 million to $5.5 million. In addition, lawmakers specified that Langston and the University of Central Oklahoma — recently designated as a type of “research” institution — would receive higher proportions of deferred maintenance funding. For Langston in FY 2026, that amount equals $10.1 million.
“As the senator from Senate District 20, that represents Langston, it’s certainly my duty to advocate for the continued success of Langston University,” Hall said May 27. “I really got acquainted with the new president, Dr. Jackson, and really think very highly of her. We had a lot of good conversations about some of the deferred maintenance needs there on campus. And I was very pleased to be able to deliver some additional funds for that campus for deferred maintenance. Very excited about that.”
But speaking on the same day as Hall, two of his Senate colleagues remained dissatisfied with the appropriations made to Langston University, Oklahoma’s only historically black college and university — or HBCU.
“They’ve still been cheated out of their $419 million or so since 1987 that had to do with land-grant institution monies that they were owed from [The Morrill Act of 1890] — had to do with their per pupil funding,” Sen. Regina Goodwin (D-Tulsa) said May 27, days after the FY 2026 budget bills had passed. “That has not been what it should be.”
Mirroring the Morrill Act of 1862, which established Oklahoma State University as a land-grant institution, the 1890 Morrill Act required states with land-grant institutions either to admit Black students or establish an alternative school in order to qualify for the federal funds. As a result, the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature established the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (CANU) in 1897 to avoid integrating the state’s other universities — a desire that continued for decades and culminated with the 1948 unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Sipuel v. Board of Regents for the University of Oklahoma.
In their September 2023 letters to Stitt and 15 other governors, then-U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and then-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack highlighted states’ decades-long under-funding of HBCUs.
“Unequitable funding of the 1890 institution in your state has caused a severe financial gap, in the last 30 years alone, an additional $418,986,272 would have been available for the university,” Cardona and Vilsack wrote to Stitt. “These funds could have supported infrastructure and student services and would have better positioned the university to compete for research grants. Langston University has been able to make remarkable strides and would be much stronger and better positioned to serve its students, your state, and the nation if made whole with respect to this funding gap.”
‘Langston University acknowledges and appreciates the strategic investment’
Oklahoma’s higher education landscape features 25 separate institutions with more than 40 campuses and convoluted rules governing how general appropriations flow from the State Regents for Higher Education to each college and university. Factoring in the competitive nature of federal research funding and other revenues, comparing each institution’s apples can be challenging. Regents meetings regularly feature a slew of statistics that can be difficult to contextualize among institutions of different sizes and scopes.
Named interim LU president in 2023 and appointed to the full-time position a year later, Jackson‘s message has been for legislators to raise Langston’s state appropriations to an amount that constitutes a “one-to-one” match between state and federal research dollars. During her August 2024 opening convocation remarks, Jackson said Langston’s state-federal proportion had hovered around 47 cents for a decade, climbing to 72 cents in FY 2024.
“I am pleased to report that the state of Oklahoma has met, for the first time, the one-to-one match for the 2025 fiscal year, resulting in an additional $2.5 million allocated for the Sherman Lewis School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences,” Jackson said to applause. “This money will be used to fund outreach throughout several counties in Oklahoma, expanding our footprint from 19 counties to 28 (and) bringing educational opportunities and resources to rural farmers who rely on our services.”
For FY 2026, the Legislature increased that $2.5 million figure to $3 million, the impact of which Langston leaders are preparing to announce as the 2025-2026 school year begins next month.
“In conjunction with the Sherman Lewis School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, we are currently working on a campus message and press release that will have more details regarding the plans for cooperative extension,” said Jet Turner, LU’s assistant director of communications.
While Jackson and others have celebrated Langston’s increased appropriations, the impact of historic underfunding has been revealed in tangible ways. At the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, HVAC and other infrastructure issues caused several main campus buildings to be closed for months.
In their 2023 letter, the U.S. Cabinet secretaries acknowledged the unlikelihood that the Oklahoma Legislature could address the historic funding disparity through an individual state budget, suggesting instead “a combination of a substantial state allocation toward the 1890 deficit combined with a forward-looking budget commitment for a two-to-one match of federal land-grant funding for these institutions in order to bring parity to funding levels.”
While that “two-to-one match” of federal funding has not been achieved, the FY 2026 budget deal included an additional $10.1 million for deferred maintenance projects at Langston. Turner said that funding will support for “large-scale” projects such as:
- Completing the replacement of rooftop units responsible for providing heat and air conditioning in the C.F. Gayles Fieldhouse, Atrium and John Montgomery Multipurpose Building;
- Repairing and cleaning plumbing stacks in student housing, including Scholars’ Inn, Centennial Court Apartments and Young Hall;
- Replacing roofs on the I.W. Young Auditorium, Jones Hall and other buildings; and
- The installation of new chillers for the Allied Health Building, which houses the School of Nursing and Health Professions.
“Langston University acknowledges and appreciates the strategic investment,” Turner said. “This increased funding marks meaningful progress in our ongoing efforts to address critical infrastructure needs across all Langston University campuses, especially our historic flagship campus in Langston, Oklahoma. Over the years, we have made targeted investments through federal grants and other funding sources to improve our facilities. However, the demand for campus improvements has consistently outpaced available resources. This new allocation will allow us to make high-impact, prioritized upgrades that are essential to delivering the quality learning and working environments our students, faculty and staff deserve.”
Turner specifically thanked Stitt, the state regents and Hall, the Senate’s budget chairman.
Caldwell, Hall’s counterpart in the House, praised his colleague and the increase in cooperative extension funding for Langston.
“That was a Senate priority from Sen. Chuck Hall,” Caldwell (R-Faxon) said May 28. “But I think the general gist of it is that we’ve seen them make progress when it comes to animal husbandry, especially along the lines of goats, and really filling a need that OSU Extension hasn’t done and trying to reinforce success.”
Legislators question, compare LU, OSU and OU allocations
Although Hall said supporting Langston as an HBCU is important and that he was thrilled to “deliver” on the additional funding toward the county extension services, Goodwin said that “congratulations are not in order.”
“The bottom line is that is a far cry from the money that they’re owed, and it’s a far cry from monies that will help them to be sustained and to grow, so it remains problematic,” Goodwin said. “And they have no problem giving $250 million to OSU. I voted [‘Yes’] on that. I support all these schools, but not when you continue to systemically undermine and underfund Langston.”
Freshman Sen. Nikki Nice, a Langston alumnae, said she shares Goodwin’s sentiments and remains disappointed with the Langston’s overall funding.
“I believe we were still an afterthought — Langston is still an afterthought,” Nice (D-OKC) said May 27. “I share that same sentiment. It’s not enough.”
Nice and Goodwin highlighted the disparity between capital allocations appropriated to Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma in comparison to the allocation given to the state’s only HBCU.
“If you can put in your budget $250 million (for the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine), $200 million (for the OU Pediatric Heart Hospital), whatever the case may be, and find the extra somewhere else, figure out how to work the rest out,” Nice said. “Surely you can do that for another land-grant institution, such as Langston University.”
Goodwin also said legislators have requested additional “unrestricted” state funds for Langston beyond the increases for the cooperative extension program.
“They didn’t get any monies as related to unrestricted funds,” Goodwin said. “We’ve been saying over and over, when we have these meetings, that they need unrestricted funds so they can have money for programming and professors.”
Asked his response to those who might believe the state’s allocation to Langston remains insufficient, Caldwell said “Langston is still the highest-funded public institution of higher learning in the state of Oklahoma per student.”
Goodwin said that claim compare apples to oranges.
“They keep telling this lie,” Goodwin said May 27. “It’s not true that Langston receives more money per pupil than any other school. That’s not true. And [Caldwell] tried to repeat that again, like last week. I said, ‘They’re not calculating it the same when they calculate Langston’s numbers.’ (…) When they calculate Langston’s numbers, they put the research dollars, all of that in one category — per pupil funding, research dollars — and they’re supposed to be separate categories. With OSU, they do separate categories.
“When you calculate things differently, well, they might look like they get more money per pupil, but you didn’t do OSU’s numbers that way.”
Two days after Goodwin, Nice and Hall made their remarks about Langston’s appropriations, the State Senate ground to a halt the evening of May 29 as the vote on an omnibus military bill was held open for five hours as Republican leaders of both chambers worked to gain the support of two additional senators for its passage.
As behind-the-scenes politicking unfolded, Nice flipped from red to green on the Senate board — a signal that the freshman lawmaker was working to build relationships for the future. Asked about her decision, Nice said her conversations with budget leaders involved ways “to benefit my district as well as Langston University.”
“I’ll just stay this. There were some conversations that I feel are promising. I would like to work in [next] session and get to the end of it to make sure those promises are kept,” Nice said. “I’m hoping this next session we will be able to figure out how to work toward making sure this university is able to thrive and do what it needs to do to serve students, because at the end of the day that’s what it’s made for. It was made as institution to serve a certain group of students because they were denied the opportunity to [thrive] and go to other institutions.”
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Bill allowing program competition could affect LU-Tulsa enrollment
Causing additional concern for Goodwin, Nice and Langston University officials, Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 701 to eliminate program duplication restrictions for higher education institutions in the Tulsa area. The bill also expands the opportunity for course offerings at certain institutions.
As it relates to Langston, SB 701 allows Langston to offer full undergraduate courses at its campus in Tulsa. But it also eliminated language prohibiting Oklahoma State University-Tulsa from duplicating courses offered at Northeastern State University in Tulsa and the LU-Tulsa campus.
“It legalized what had been illegal,” Goodwin said May 27. “That’s what 701 did, and it gave OSU-Tulsa free reign and those regents to duplicate their programs. (…) And in the meantime, they continue to heavily fund OSU.”
The issue of duplicated courses is not new to Langston, which saw a civil rights dispute between LU and OSU-Tulsa linger for about 17 years.
Langston became Oklahoma’s first publicly funded university to offer courses in Tulsa in 1979, 20 years before OSU established its Tulsa campus, the OSU Center for Heath Sciences. In 2002, the Langston University National Alumni Association filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights against the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education. The LUNAA alleged that state regents discriminated against LU by underfunding LU-Tulsa while continuing to push funding toward OSU-Tulsa. The complaint accused the state of diminishing LU-Tulsa’s programs by allowing OSU and other institutions to duplicate their courses.
After obtaining reports from the state regents, The Oklahoman reported that between the Fall 2000 and Spring 2003 semesters, enrollment at OSU-Tulsa “soared” from 1,425 to 2,333, while enrollment at Langston-Tulsa declined from 1,551 to 756.
In September 2020, the state regents reached a settlement agreement to provide $750,000 of funding within a three-year period to expand course offerings at LU-Tulsa, and OSU agreed to pay Langston $15 million over a 10-year period. In return, Langston stopped offering its entrepreneurial studies master program and undergraduate programs in accountancy, business administration, elementary education, liberal education, psychology, sociology and special education. OSU agreed to take over those programs for a minimum of three years to allow enrolled students to complete their program and receive a Langston University diploma.
Although Langston at one time held exclusive rights to offer a long-list of bachelor’s degree programs in Tulsa County, the settlement resulted in Langston’s exclusive program offerings to decrease to just two bachelor’s programs in nursing and rehabilitation counseling, as well as two master’s programs in rehabilitation counseling and visual rehabilitation services.
With SB 701 signed into law May 28, Langston University no longer holds exclusive rights to offer those programs, a policy amendment that Jackson and others fear could further decrease LU-Tulsa enrollment and state funding.
Turner said the legislation “poses significant challenges for smaller institutions like Langston University and specifically our campus in Tulsa.”
“The passage of SB 701 serves to disrupt the progress made in Tulsa by introducing unnecessary duplication of programs and systemic inefficiencies which will impact all institutions,” Turner said. “Despite these challenges, Langston University remains steadfast. We will continue to serve our students with excellence, advocate for access to higher education, and persist in our commitment to transforming lives through education.”
Asked during a June 25 State Regents for Higher Education meeting about LU’s new option to offer freshman and sophomore courses at LU-Tulsa, Jackson said stakeholder and community feedback indicated that offering such courses would not be in Langston’s best interest.
“We have talked about it internally — talked with stakeholders, talked with families, particularly those who attend the Langston campus but are from the Tulsa area — and what we were told is students who choose to attend Langston University from the Tulsa area, particularly the traditionally aged students, are looking for that residential experience,” Jackson said. “Secondly, when we talk to their parents, they will say, ‘If I wanted to stay in Tulsa, I would not choose Langston University for year one or year two, I would take advantage of the (Tulsa) Community College and the incentives available through that.’ And so that’s really the crux of our decision not to invest limited resources in offering year one and year two in Tulsa.”
Expressing a need for more advocacy on behalf of Langston, Goodwin alleged that “the very [state regents] that are supposed to be allocating these dollars” were lobbying in support of SB 701.
“They literally are creating and picking winners and losers and the funded and the underfunded,” Goodwin said. “They told them, we’re going to let you guys focus on on health sciences. So you thought that they were going to leave them alone when it comes to nursing and rehabilitative services or rehabilitation counseling. And you see, they came back just a few short years later (and opened up competition).”
Nice said she remains concerned about how the Legislature vetted SB 701 and that she would have liked to see a study done on higher education programming to understand “what’s happening on these campuses.”
“Let’s understand what the programming has been already,” Nice said. “Let’s understand what impacts have already taken place, because some programs have already been duplicated from Langston, and that has dropped the enrollment tremendously because of that. So do we really want this university to survive or not? And I think that’s where some of us can read between the lines and understand that (the answer is) ‘probably not.’”
