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Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) is a co-educational Christian liberal arts university located in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and owned by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Established in 1910, OBU is ranked among the top five baccalaureate colleges in the western region in the 2013 ''U.S. News & World Report'' “America’s Best Colleges” ratings and has been Oklahoma’s highest rated regional college in the ''U.S. News'' rankings for 18 consecutive years. According to The Princeton Review, OBU is a 2013 “Best in the West” institution and one of "America's Best Value Colleges." OBU was named among Oklahoma's top-ranked university in the Forbes.com 2013 listing of "America's Best Colleges" and was the state's top college in the Forbes.com list of "America's Best College Buys." ==History== Prior to the creation of the Baptist University of Oklahoma by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma in 1910, several other Baptist-affiliated schools were started in Oklahoma Territory. Oklahoma Baptist College in Blackwell began operation on September 4, 1901. The school fought financial problems throughout its history and closed in 1913. In the fall of 1907, the Baptists of Hastings, Oklahoma, Comanche County, Oklahoma and Mullins Baptist Associations opened Hastings Baptist College in the southwestern part of the state. A year later, the name was changed to Southwest Baptist College and then to Southwest Baptist Academy. It suffered similar financial challenges and ceased operation in 1912. Baptists in nearby Mangum were able to pay off debts of Southwest Baptist College and move the school to their city. It was reopened in the fall of 1912 in the First Baptist Church building and was called Southwestern Baptist College, then Western Baptist College. It was closed in 1915.〔http://www.okbu.edu/100/centennial_history.pdf〕 A commission to plan the founding of a Baptist university in Oklahoma was established by the Baptist Convention in 1906 (one year prior to Oklahoma statehood) while in session in Shawnee. At the second annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO) at Ardmore in November 1907, the Baptist Education Commission unanimously passed a resolution stating its sense that "as soon as practicable a new Baptist University be established.” A board of trustees was elected soon thereafter in 1907. A site for the university was sought, and from 1908–1909 negotiations were held with entities in El Reno, Lawton, Chickasha and Oklahoma City without reaching agreeable terms. At the 1910 annual meeting of the BGCO in Enid, the trustees reported that Shawnee had been selected as the site of the new university and that an incorporation certificate for "the Baptist University of Oklahoma" had been issued by the State of Oklahoma on February 9, 1910. The school’s Board of Trustees then signed an agreement with the City of Shawnee for sixty acres of land northwest of the town. The Kickapoo site, as the campus location became known, was deeded to the university by the Development Company of Shawnee. Shortly after the campus location was finalized, W.P. Blake, chairman of the trustees, and G. Lee Phelps, missionary to the Native Americans, visited the future building site. They gathered and arranged twelve stones, commemorating God’s leadership of the Israelites across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Plans for the administration building had been drawn and a contract for construction of the building had been signed on June 3, 1910. The total estimated cost to construct, equip, and furnish the building was $140,000. The trustees reported that the City of Shawnee “through its development company, gave to the denomination sixty acres of land worth $1,000 per acre and a cash bonus of $100,000.” Dr. J.M. Carroll, San Marcos, Texas, was selected as the school's first president and construction on an administration building commenced in February 1911. The university opened in September 1911, holding classes for 150 students in the basement of the First Baptist Church and in the Convention Hall of Shawnee. Students came from other universities and preparatory schools, and at the close of the 1911–12 school year nine students received degrees. Included in the first student body were three men who later served as United States Senators: Josh Lee and Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma and Huey P. Long of Louisiana. A general depression in the State in 1911 however had a negative effect on the finances of the BGCO, as well as the development company that had promised the $100,000 cash bonus, which it was unable to deliver, and construction on the Administration Building was halted. After the completion of the first school year in 1912 Dr. Carroll resigned and recommended that operations of the school be temporarily suspended. His recommendation was adopted and the university was placed in a period of "suspended animation" while further organization and fund-raising progressed. The report submitted by the Board of Trustees to the BGCO annual meeting in 1914 discussed the need for completion of the construction of the administration building and recommended the convention "begin at once to provide for the equipment of the building and make other necessary provisions for the opening of school in September, 1915." Frank M. Masters, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Ardmore and a member of the BGCO's Education Commission, was selected by the school's Board of Trustees as the president who would re-open the university. The Administration Hall (renamed Shawnee Hall in the 1920s) was finally completed in September 1915 in time for the re-opening. The university reopened for the fall 1915 semester with a total enrollment of 143; with about a third of them ministerial students. OBU has been in continual operation in Shawnee since that time. The name of the university was officially changed to "The Oklahoma Baptist University" in 1920. In 1915, Shawnee Hall housed faculty, staff, classrooms, library, an auditorium which doubled as a gymnasium, and the women's dormitory. Shawnee Hall did not house male students, as they were housed in two privately owned off-campus homes, known as "Hill Hall" (located half of a block south of the intersection of Kickapoo and MacArthur streets) and "Douglas Hall" (located on south University street where Bailey Business Center now stands). Shawnee Hall did not provide enough space for women's housing, therefore, in 1916 ground was broken on a new dormitory for women. The new residential unit was opened in 1917 and named Montgomery Hall, in honor of Dr. and Mrs. D.M. Montgomery, who provided significant financial support for the project. Montgomery Hall served as a dormitory, the fine arts center, the student center, and the location for administrative services. The original Montgomery Hall was located between Shawnee Hall and WMU Memorial Dormitory on the campus oval. The building was removed in 1989 due to structural concerns and a new Montgomery Hall was located on south University street west of the Bailey Business Center. From 1919 to 1928, campus facilities consisted of three buildings, Shawnee Hall, Montgomery Hall, and the combination men's dormitory and gymnasium. In the mid 1920s under the leadership of Berta K. Spooner; Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Oklahoma Women's Missionary Union, Baptist women of Oklahoma recognized the need for a new dormitory for women on Oklahoma Baptist University's campus. After a fundraising effort to procure sufficient financial support for the new dormitory, groundbreaking occurred in 1927 for the new facility. When WMU Memorial Dormitory opened in 1928, the building housed rooms for 200 female students, the university dining hall, parlors, assembly rooms, a recreation room, an infirmary, and a swimming pool. Due to the challenges of "The Great Depression" in the late 1920s to the 1930s, it would be another decade before another building was constructed on campus. Oklahoma Baptist University served as an army aviation training site from February 1943 through the summer of 1944, hosting the 91st College Training Detachment. Cadets lived in WMU Dormitory, attended classes in Shawnee Hall, drilled on the campus oval, and exercised on the athletic fields. During the time of the U.S. Army attachment during World War II, approximately 2,000 cadets were trained during the sixteen months of OBU retaining military detachment. According to John Wesley Raley, OBU's president during that time, "OBU's participation in the military program provided several benefits: Satisfaction that the university had participated in the war effort; favorable advertising through the cadets who had been on campus; the ability to maintain a strong faculty, despite the decline in regular enrollment which had dropped to 326 in 1943, the smallest enrollment since 1918; the maintenance and enlargement of the physical plant; and operating without a deficit during a 'most difficult period for colleges'". Although the university participated in the war effort during World War II, the university does not have an active ROTC program at this present time. Total annual enrollment in the university exceeded 1,000 for the first time in 1946. OBU was officially racially integrated in 1955, when the Board of Trustees approved a motion by Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs, pastor of Oklahoma City's First Baptist Church, to allow African American students admission to the university. In January 1964, during final examinations week, the school narrowly missed disaster when a man flew a small airplane into Shawnee Hall. The man had been hospitalized for mental health problems but had been released and was able to rent a plane in Tulsa. He radioed the Shawnee airport and reported that he was going to fly his plane into OBU's administration building. Authorities evacuated Thurmond Hall, which had been the university's administration building since 1954, and moved students to Shawnee Hall, the primary classroom building. Shawnee Hall had been the administration building prior to 1954. The pilot then flew his plane into one of the few empty classrooms in the building and when the plane crashed into room 307, the students made a calm and orderly exit. The pilot was killed and the exterior impact area along with two classrooms were badly damaged. None of the 300 students, faculty, or other staff were injured. Today, Shawnee Hall bears the scars of this incident. Although all damage has been repaired, the brick and mortar on the south side of the building is discolored in one area on the third floor when Shawnee Hall is viewed from the campus oval. Enrollment passed 2,000 for the first time in 1989 and a record enrollment of 2,440, with 2,011 on campus, was set in 1994. In 1999, acquisition of land north of the campus enlarged OBU property from 125 to approximately . Under President Mark Brister, by 2005, the university's endowment exceeded US$80 million.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 date = Oct 17, 2007 )〕 In 2007, OBU's International Graduate School opened in Oklahoma City, offering a master's of business administration degree. Acquisition of 10 additional acres of land at the southwest edge of the campus in 2008 increased OBU's property to , and in 2010, the university celebrated its first centennial. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oklahoma Baptist University」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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