In a post-Enron, post-Bernie Madoff world, the phrase “creative economist” is almost always followed by discussion of a trial and a lengthy prison term. When applied to Dr. Erik Guzik, associate professor of economics at the University of Science and Arts, however, it is in recognition of his journey to understand the mechanisms of creativity as well as his mission to improve the way that children are educated in the 21st century through a revolutionary technology known as Virtual Problem Solving (VPS).

Food is something we often take for granted. For many, it comes in boxes, cans or wrapped in plastic. To others, though, food represents something more important than just the sum of calories and nutrition that can be wedged in between daily errands. For them, food is culture. Food is tradition and, in some cases, that tradition is on the edge of extinction.

As if USAO’s deaf education program wasn’t already completely unique, a $1.2 million cash infusion will only strengthen and further distinguish the only public program of its kind in Oklahoma and the oldest similar degree program west of the Mississippi.

When deaf education moved into the wholly redesigned Canning Hall in 2009, USAO took another leap forward in the field, welcoming a satellite school from the Oklahoma School for the Deaf (OSD) and crafting a unique partnership to better serve the deaf and students in deaf education.

 Long advertised as “located on a heavily-wooded national historic district,” USAO has now earned the national distinction of “Tree Campus USA” from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
 
The award, which recognizes tree care, was awarded to university representatives at the State Capitol. This is the first year USAO has participated in the program.

Responding to painful budget cuts with characteristic ingenuity, USAO staff and faculty are imagining new ways to harness available dollars. The school shaved $350,000 a year off its energy bills by creating Oklahoma’s first energy performance contract in higher education back in 2001, but now more state budget cuts are requiring even more imagination.

USAO is healthy and headed in the right direction says the team of scholars who visited the campus just before the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools granted USAO accreditation for another 10 years – the maximum allowed. The NCA-Higher Learning Commission’s report was made public earlier this year.

One man’s commitment to USAO has literally helped change the face of the university, and for that, he was conferred with USAO’s first-ever honorary degree in April.

He helped build one of Oklahoma’s most successful global companies and now brings his energy and enthusiasm to the University of Science and Arts. Entrepreneur David McLaughlin, co-founder of Advance Food, was named by Gov. Brad Henry to the USAO Board of Regents in the spring – giving USAO an ever-widening breadth in leadership, boasts USAO President John Feaver.