Stratton Taylor

For the first time in the history of the School on the Hill, Rogers University, under president Rodger Randle, was able to offer upper-division and graduate courses.

But it couldn’t actually grant a four-year degree, because the degree programs were offered only through the four schools that had comprised University Center at Tulsa.

That sounds confusing, and it was. So, in 1998 – only two years after the Rogers University-Tulsa experiment – the two campuses were split, with Oklahoma State University taking over the Tulsa campus, and the Hill becoming the home of a new four-year school, to be called Rogers State University.

Leading the charge for that institution was, once again, legislator Stratton Taylor, who is to Rogers State University what his predecessor, H. Tom Kight, was to Oklahoma Military Academy several generations before.