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Former names | Northeastern State Normal School (1909–1921) Northeastern State Teachers College (1921–1939) Northeastern State College (1939–1974) Northeastern Oklahoma State University (1974–1985) [1] |
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Motto | ᎦᏟᏐᏗ. ᎢᏅ ᎠᎾᎩᏍᏗ. (Cherokee) |
Motto in English | Gather Here. Go Far. |
Type | Public university |
Established | March 6, 1909 [2] |
Parent institution | Regional University System of Oklahoma |
President | Rodney Hanley |
Provost | Carla Swearingen |
Academic staff | 325 |
Students | 8,548 (Fall 2014) [3] |
Undergraduates | 7,418 (Fall 2014) [3] |
Postgraduates | 1,130 (Fall 2014) [3] |
Location | , , United States 35°55′30″N94°58′03″W / 35.925100°N 94.967542°W |
Campus | 200 acres (0.81 km2) (Tahlequah) |
Colors | NSU green and gray [4] |
Nickname | RiverHawks |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA Division II – The MIAA |
Mascot | Rowdy the RiverHawk |
Website | www |
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Northeastern State University (NSU) is a public university with its main campus in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The university also has two other campuses in Muskogee and Broken Arrow as well as online. Northeastern is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of Oklahoma as well as one of the oldest institutions of higher learning west of the Mississippi River. [5] Tahlequah is home to the capital of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and about 25 percent of the students at NSU identify themselves as American Indian. [6] The university has many courses focused on Native American linguistics, and offers Cherokee language Education as a major. [7] Cherokee can be studied as a second language, and some classes are taught in Cherokee for first language speakers as well. [8]
On May 7, 1851, the Cherokee Nation founded the Cherokee National Female Seminary at Tahlequah, the same year that it opened a male seminary in its territory. This was after its removal to Indian Territory and part of its building institutions to support its future.
On March 6, 1909, after statehood, the State Legislature of Oklahoma passed an act providing for the creation and location of Northeastern State Normal School at Tahlequah, Oklahoma for the training of teachers. For this purpose, it purchased from the Cherokee Tribal Government the building, land, and equipment of the Cherokee Female Seminary.
In 1921, the name was changed to Northeastern State Teachers College as it had expanded to a full four-year curriculum. [6] In the 1950s Northeastern emerged as a comprehensive state college, broadening its curriculum at the baccalaureate level to encompass liberal arts subjects and adding a fifth-year program designed to prepare master teachers for elementary and secondary schools.
With addition of graduate-degree programs, in 1974, the Oklahoma Legislature authorized changing the name of the institution from Northeastern State College to Northeastern Oklahoma State University; in 1985 it authorized a change in name to Northeastern State University. In 1979, NSU opened its College of Optometry, making it one of 14 schools in the United States to offer a doctorate degree in that field. [6]
In the early 21st century, NSU is the fourth-largest university in Oklahoma. [9] On March 6, 2009, NSU celebrated its centennial with Founders Day celebrations.
The Tahlequah campus, which spans over 200 acres (0.81 km2), was developed on the grounds of the Cherokee Female Seminary. The original building for the seminary is now used as Seminary Hall, an academic building. The campus has numerous classroom, laboratory, residential, and athletic facilities. In recent years the university constructed a $10 million Science Center, funded by a bond issued by the university. [11]
NSU offers 69 undergraduate degree programs, 18 graduate degree programs, and 13 pre-professional programs in five colleges (Business & Technology, Liberal Arts, Education, Optometry, and Health & Science Professions). The student-to-faculty ratio is 26 to 1, and in the Spring of 2008 the total enrollment for the Tahlequah Campus was 6,216. [12] There is also a distance-learning program, by which students who cannot attend the university due to work or family obligations can complete courses via the Internet or videoconferencing.
The Northeastern State (NSU) athletic teams are called the RiverHawks. [13] The university is a member of the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) for most of its sports since the 2012–13 academic year; [14] [15] [16] while its men's soccer team competes in the Great American Conference (GAC). The RiverHawks previously competed as an NCAA D-II Independent during the 2011–12 school year; in the D-II Lone Star Conference (LSC) from 1997–98 to 2010–11; and in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference (OIC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1974–75 to 1996–97.
NSU competes in 11 intercollegiate sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf and soccer; while women's sports include basketball, golf, soccer, softball, spirit squads and tennis.
In 2003, the men's basketball team won the NCAA Division II National Championship, beating Kentucky Wesleyan 75–64. [17]
Northeastern State University announced on May 23, 2006, that they would be dropping "Redmen" and selecting a new mascot. The change was made proactively in response to the 2005 NCAA Native American mascot decision. [18] The university announced its new athletic name as the RiverHawks on November 14, 2006. [13]
There are several campus organizations such as NAB (Northeastern Activities Board), NSUSF (Northeastern State University Student Foundation), and NSGA (Northeastern Student Government Association) that provide alternate activities, usually free of charge for students to enjoy on campus. The NSGA is the official organization to represent the students of NSU. The purpose of the NSGA is to establish a representative student government and to provide a forum for student's views and ideas for the purpose of promoting and representing the students of NSU. RHA caters to on-campus residents and hosts such annual events as "Welcome Week Luau," Freshman Move-in Day, Mardi Gras, and "Resident Round-up". Northeastern State University also has several fraternities and sororities located on the Tahlequah campus.
Rho Theta Sigma est. 1920's
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Created in 1993, the Jazz Lab building serves as a place where jazz musicians can practice performing and listeners can enjoy live music. In addition to a performance venue, the Jazz Lab is also the site of the jazz program offices and classes. The university offers a Bachelor of Arts in Music with a major in Jazz Studies and has two student jazz ensembles, as well as several different combo groups ranging in style from fusion to Latin to straight ahead. The NSU Jazz Ensemble performs with regional, national, and international guest artists at the Jazz Lab every year. Many famous musicians have performed at the Jazz Lab since its creation, including T.S. Monk, Henry Johnson, Diana Krall, Mulgrew Miller, Bobby Watson, Bob Mintzer, Slide Hampton, Robin Eubanks, Wynton Marsalis, and Bobby Shew.
NSU's Muskogee campus was opened in 1993 as a 27,700-square-foot (2,570 m2) facility located on 23 acres (93,000 m2). The campus offers upper-level and graduate courses in education, business, general studies, nursing, and industrial management. [19] In 2001 the NSU Muskogee opened the Mike Synar Center in honor of Mike Synar, former U.S. Congressman from the 2nd District of Oklahoma from 1979 to 1995. The Mike Synar Center is a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) facility that is used for offices and classrooms. The center also houses the Master of Business Administration and the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program for the campus.
NSU's Broken Arrow campus was opened in 2002 with a little over 1,000 students. Funding for the campus came from a one-half percent sales tax which was approved by Broken Arrow voters. The first phase of the campus included an administration building, a maintenance facility, and two classroom buildings. [20] In 2004 the campus began a $26 million expansion made possible by Tulsa County's Vision 2025, which also funded Tulsa's new BOK Center. The expansion doubled the size of the campus and also allowed room for up to another 5,000 students. It also added a library along with science and classroom buildings. Construction was completed in the fall of 2007. [20]
Cherokee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 47,078. Its county seat is Tahlequah, which is also the capital of the Cherokee Nation.
Tahlequah is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century Cherokee Nation in 1839, as part of the new settlement in Indian Territory after the Cherokee Native Americans were forced west from the American Southeast on the Trail of Tears.
The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) is a public university in Edmond, Oklahoma. It is the third largest university in Oklahoma, with almost 14,000 students and approximately 430 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty. Founded in 1890, the University of Central Oklahoma was one of the first institutions of higher learning to be established in what would become the state of Oklahoma, making it one of the oldest universities in the southwest region of the United States. It is home to the American branch of the British Academy of Contemporary Music in downtown Oklahoma City.
The Cherokee Heritage Center is a non-profit historical society and museum campus that seeks to preserve the historical and cultural artifacts, language, and traditional crafts of the Cherokee. The Heritage center also hosts the central genealogy database and genealogy research center for the Cherokee People. The Heritage Center is located on the site of the mid-19th century Cherokee Seminary building in Park Hill, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tahlequah, and was constructed near the old structure. It is a unit of the Cherokee National Historical Society and is sponsored by the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and other area tribes. The center was originally known as Tsa-La-Gi but is now known as the Cherokee Heritage Center.
Arthur Grant Evans was the third president of University of Tulsa and then the second president of the University of Oklahoma. Born to English parents in India, and educated in London, he emigrated to North America in 1883 and lived briefly in Canada.
Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a private college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by missionary Almon C. Bacone, it was originally affiliated with the mission arm of what is now American Baptist Churches USA. Renamed as Bacone College in the early 20th century, it is the oldest continuously operated institution of higher education in Oklahoma. The liberal arts college has had strong historic ties to several tribal nations, including the Muscogee and Cherokee. The Bacone College Historic District has been on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Muskogee County, Oklahoma since 2014.
Sequoyah High School is a Native American boarding school serving students in grades 7 through 12, who are members of a federally recognized Native American tribe. The school is located in Park Hill, Oklahoma, with a Tahlequah post office address, and is a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) grant school operated by the Cherokee Nation.
The Cherokee National Capitol, now the Cherokee National History Museum, is a historic tribal government building in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Completed in 1869, it served as the capitol building of the Cherokee Nation from 1869 to 1907, when Oklahoma became a state. It now serves as the site of the tribal supreme court and judicial branch. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 for its role in the Nation's history.
The Cherokee Female Seminary was built by the Cherokee Nation in 1889 near Tahlequah, Indian Territory. It replaced their original girls' seminary, the first Cherokee Female Seminary, that had burned down on Easter Sunday two years before. The Seminary was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Cherokee Male Seminary was a tribal college established in 1846 by the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. Opening in 1851, it was one of the first institutions of higher learning in the United States to be founded west of the Mississippi River.
The Northeastern State RiverHawks football program represents Northeastern State University in college football and competes in the NCAA Division II. In 2012, Northeastern State became member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA), and has remained in the league. NSU's football program will become an independent program, beginning in August 2024. NSU's home games are played at Doc Wadley Stadium in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
The Northeastern State RiverHawks are the athletic teams that represent Northeastern State University, located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) for most of its sports since the 2012–13 academic year; while its men's soccer team competes in the Great American Conference (GAC). The RiverHawks previously competed as an NCAA D-II Independent during the 2011–12 school year; in the D-II Lone Star Conference (LSC) from 1997–98 to 2010–11; and in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference (OIC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1974–75 to 1996–97.
The Central Oklahoma–Northeastern State football rivalry, commonly referred to as the Battle for the President's Cup, is an American college football rivalry game played annually between the Central Oklahoma Bronchos football team of the University of Central Oklahoma from Edmond, Oklahoma, and the Northeastern State RiverHawks football team of Northeastern State University from Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Both schools currently compete in the NCAA Division II level, and are members of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA). Central Oklahoma, formerly Central State, has a 54–27–2 advantage in the series but Northeastern State has kept the series record close since the introduction of the President's cup in 1998.
Barbara Masterson Staggs was a longtime educator in Muskogee, Oklahoma and a legislator in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. During her time in the legislature, Staggs assisted as a member of the Common Education Committee and was integral in passing many bills, such as one that lead to the creation of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in Muskogee.
Dr. Isabel Keith Baker was a former educator in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Throughout her 43 years as an educator, Baker taught in several Oklahoma schools, retiring as Professor Emeritus from Northeastern State University in 1994. Baker served on the Oklahoma State University A&M Board of Regents from 1991 until 1999. She played a major role in the renovation of Willard Hall, the home of OSU's College of Education. During her career and throughout her life, Baker has been recognized as a champion of gender equity. In the 1980s, Baker ran for Congress and was defeated by Republican candidate, Tom Coburn.
The 1900 Kendall Orange and Black football team represented Henry Kendall College—now known as the University of Tulsa—as an independent during the 1900 college football season. Led by F. M. Whitmore in his first and only season as head coach, Kendall compiled a 2–1 record. The team defeated Indian University (33–0) and Krebs High School (11–5) and lost to the Cherokee Male Seminary (18–0).
The 2016 Northeastern State RiverHawks football team represented Northeastern State University in the 2016 NCAA Division II football season. The RiverHawks played their home games on Gable Field in Doc Wadley Stadium in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, as they have done since 1915. 2016 was the 102nd season in school history. The RiverHawks were led by third-year head coach, Rob Robinson. Northeastern State has been a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association since 2012.
Mary Adair is a Cherokee Nation educator and painter based in Oklahoma.
Isabel "Belle" Cobb was a Cherokee physician and educator best known for being the first woman physician in Indian Territory.
Kenneth Gwane Evans is a retired American football coach. Evans previously served as head football coach at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and East Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Evans has worked as an assistant coach at Oklahoma, Florida, North Texas, and Louisiana Tech.