Snow!

We got a little snow yesterday.  Here's a picture of the mansion.  The snow was beautiful!

Here's a picture of the chapel with a little snow on it!

Here is a picture of my house.  You can see the pond freezing.  It has been cold!!!

Beautiful Day On Campus

The day started with a great sunrise.  Cheri actually took this picture from our front porch.

Just a shot of the mansion.

Here is a shot of the side of the library that faces the chapel.

This side of the library faces the mansion.  All the windows are in now.  It's looking great!

OWU's Prelude to Christmas

Each year OWU hosts the Prelude to Christmas with the Bartlesville symphony performing a wonderful concert.  Afterwards the entire community enjoys hot chocolate together.  Tonight was the night.  Above is a picture of Josh and me heading out to prelude.

Here is a picture of Cheri and Joy heading out to prelude with the boys.  We just snapped a few pictures on the way out.

Visit to Vennard College

We had a great visit with faculty, staff, and students at Vennard College in Iowa this week. They are a wonderful group!  The picture above is of two new friends we made there.  We may soon be seeing them in Oklahoma!!!

President's Advisory Council

We had a great time with 16 Wesleyan pastors from the western region of the US.  These are some SHARP guys who have a heart for OWU.  They all came to spend some time on campus. I wish I could have spent a week with them. They were full of great ideas and just fun to be with.

On the right in the grey sweater is Dr. Everett Piper, the President of OWU.

OWU Library Progress

Here are some pictures of the new OWU library.  This shot is from the first floor looking up to the second floor railing.  There will be seating along the rail so that students, staff, and faculty can sit and watch the activity taking place on the first floor.

The picture above shows the second floor and the library staff offices that are being framed in on the first floor.

This is a shot of the first floor looking toward the library staff offices.  The steps on the left go to the second floor and will be wooden steps with a glass background.  This allows those on the first floor to see through the steps and provides an open feeling.

This is another shot of the steps.  There will be tables and seating along the wall here.

This is a shot on the second floor.  The building you see is the sports center.  The area around the arches will have comfortable seating for reading and studying with a great view and wonderful natural light.

New Students Arriving At OWU

Yesterday we had the new freshman class arrive at OWU.  The campus was busy!  Above are some current student leaders welcoming each other back to campus.

This is Jamie...one of the admissions reps.  He is one of the team that has worked hard all year to get the freshman class to campus.

Above is our university photographer, Jess.  She was taking pictures all over the place yesterday!

Here are a few of the new students and families checking in for the first time.  It will be a great year!

OWU Choir

The OWU choir performed in chapel last week. They are wonderful to hear. Take a look at the video clip below and you'll see what I mean.

The Recital for Rachel Hammon

Today I went to hear Rachel Hammon at her senior recital.  Rachel is soooo talented.  The picture above is Rachel playing her clarinet.  The recital was part of her graduation requirements.  Rachel is one of our talented music majors at OWU.  In fact, she played at Carnegie Hall this summer.  The recital today took place in the OWU chapel.

This picture is of Rachel and Dr. Randy Thompson playing some clarinet pieces during the recital.  It was a wonderful time and Rachel did a great job!

Here are some video clips of Rachel during the recital.  The video below is of Rachel finishing her last clarinet piece and enjoying the applause of the crowd.  Great job, Rachel!!!

SOAR 2008

We just finished several days of SOAR 2008 on campus.  The band we had lead worship this year was Jezreel. Two of the three pictures above show them leading worship in one of the SOAR  events. The top picture is my family with Jezreel during a practice session.  The OWU community had a wonderful time with them and we're thankful they were on campus for a few days.  Jezreel is wonderful!

Eleventy Seven also performed on one of the nights.

We also had Josh McDowell speaking on campus for SOAR.  He is a remarkable speaker. We had a packed chapel for our SOAR events.  All of the pictures here are from inside the OWU chapel.  It's a beautiful building and wonderful place to worship.

During SOAR weekend we have high school students visiting campus and had special events for them all weekend.  We had about 230 visitors attend SOAR this year.

The video below is of Jezreel leading worship at OWU.  If you ever get a chance to hear them or can get them to your church, do it!

Valentine's Day

Had to get a quick shot of the new library construction! It's really taking off!

Everybody in our family loves Valentine's Day! It's a great day for surprises!!!

Library Construction Has Started

The construction started this week on the new library! The equipment is making the first "dig" in this picture.




Good-bye to the old sidewalks...





Of course the trees have to go too! This is projected to be a 14 month project. This is exciting stuff. The new library will be remarkable!!!

Our Sound Guys

We have students all over campus who work to make OWU the wonderful place it is. Here are some of our sound guys working from the sound room in the chapel.



These guys take care of sound, video, and all the electronic stuff that makes our events int he chapel so much fun. Thanks guys!!!

Thank You Dinner

In December we had a group of students represent OWU at the Wesleyan Youth Conference called "Set Apart". There were about 6,000 young people at the conference that was held in Orlando, Florida.

Our traveling team of students did a wonderful job representing OWU and we are sure proud of them. Tonight we had a thank you dinner for them at President Piper's house. Marci (his wife) and her parents made the dinner and we just had a wonderful time together. Everyone you see in these pictures traveled to Orlando to help our admissions team.



Some of the guys loading up their plates...




Standing are President Piper and his wife, Marci.

OWU Eagles Now 12-2

The OWU Eagles won again tonight beating Southwestern College. The team played a great game. Coach Donnie Bostwick is giving advice to the team in the last few minutes of the game.

Staff Christmas Party

We had a GREAT staff Christmas party this week. More food than you can imagine. This is a great event to get all the staff together and just eat and have fun.




Here is a picture of some of the gang at my table. These are three of the outstanding workers from our buildings and grounds department. Not only are they hard workers, they are a lot of fun!





Here are our undergraduate admissions counselors. They would love to talk with you about coming to OWU. Dr. Piper, our President, is in the lower left corner.

OWU December 2007 Graduation

Today was the December graduation for OWU. We had about 150 students graduate. Here is a picture of the stage and diplomas before graduation started.




Students and faculty are getting ready for graduation rehearsal here in Lyon Hall on the OWU campus.





In a few minutes this chapel will be packed with graduates and their families.






Soon this platform will be full of faculty!







After four years on undergraduate work or several years of graduate work, the students are waiting for one of these!








Here is one of our graduates who has already moved on to graduate work. Congrats, Eric!







Professor Cochran (on the far right) with an excited graduate.

Dr. Brian Turner Receives Award

Dr. Brian Turner was voted the "Best University Professor" in Bartlesville by the local newspaper. Dr. Turner is the one who had his class make boats and float them on the OWU pond to learn about buoyancy. He does a lot of fun things in his classes. He tied in the voting with Dr. Bob Bonner who wasn't able to get his award that day.

I had the pleasure of giving the award to Dr. Turner who is standing on the left.

Prelude to Christmas

For the past four years, OWU has presented "Prelude to Christmas" as a way of giving back to the Bartlesville community for all the community does to support OWU throughout the year.

This event has about one hour of Christmas music from the Bartlesville symphony and then everyone goes outside for hot chocolate and cookies. After everyone is enjoying the great snacks, the fireworks start.

If you look closely at the picture above, the man in the suit is our President, Dr. Everett Piper. He was welcoming everyone just before the music started.




This event is held in the OWU chapel and is well attended by the Bartlesville community.





The fireworks were great!!





It was a fun evening thinking of the things we should be thankful for as well as preparing our hearts for the Christmas season. This is a great event!!!