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May 2012

House Votes to Change Name of Ardmore Higher Education Center

Legislation approved today by the Oklahoma House of Representatives would change the name of the Ardmore Higher Education Center to the University Center of Southern Oklahoma.

Senate Bill 1111 will allow the name of the education center to reflect the student its serves from all over Southern Oklahoma, said state Rep. Pat Ownbey.

"Before we inserted language to make the Ardmore Higher Education Center a Southeastern Oklahoma State University branch campus, our original Ardmore Higher Ed bill simply changed the name, which was a request of Ardmore Higher Education officials," said Ownbey, R-Ardmore. "We’ve put that name-change language into Senate Bill 1111 to get that original request accomplished, since we have been unable to get the branch campus bill signed into law."

Dr. Steve Mills, Ardmore Higher Education Center director and CEO, knows this is just the first step.

"A name change to the University Center of Southern Oklahoma would be a benefit for our center and what we do here," Mills said. "Hopefully it can help with the economic development of our community. Ardmore Higher Education Center is the last institution of its kind in the state to still be called a higher education center."

"University center is a term that better expresses what we do here," he said. "We¹re proud to be in Ardmore, but we have a lot of students from the greater Ardmore area, too."

Senate Bill 1111 will return to the Senate, where lawmakers can either vote to accept House amendments and send it to Gov. Mary Fallin or vote to send the bill to conference committee.