By Susan Simpson
Staff Writer
As printed in The Oklahoman, December 8, 2007.

Oklahoma State University regents Friday approved a new name for their Okmulgee campus and authorized the $720,000 purchase of land near Ardmore for a biofuels research center.

If also approved by the Legislature, OSU-Okmulgee would be renamed Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology at Okmulgee.

The change aims to promote the campus' emphasis on technology programs, including bachelor and associate degree programs in areas such as automotive, engineering, information technology, orthotics and prosthetics, and watchmaking.

"It clearly communicates that technology is the focus, preparing people to go to work in technical fields," said campus President Bob Klabenes.

The campus, which started as a Muscogee (Creek) Nation orphanage in 1892, later served as a World War II military hospital before it was changed to a vocational and technical school for war veterans in 1946.

College degrees were offered beginning in 1979.

About the biofuels center
OSU will buy 90 acres near the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation from a group of 26 landowners.

The purchase price is $1,000 an acre more than appraised value.

That was the sellers' asking price and worth it for its proximity to the Noble Foundation, said Bob Whitson, a partner along with the University of Oklahoma in the biofuels project and vice president of agriculture and natural resources for OSU.

The Legislature last year gave $10 million to OSU to build the station, which is expected to open in about two years.

Scientists will study forage and timber use for ethanol.

OSU's next president, V. Burns Hargis, also attended the regents meeting Friday in Oklahoma City.

He was introduced but didn't speak publicly.

This article appeared in The Oklahoman, www.newsok.com, on December 8, 2007.