The Center was pleased to host one of Oklahoma's most distinguished political figures at a special event at Harwelden. Mickey Edwards was a long time member of the Oklahoma congressional delegation, and he rose to prominence in Washington as a national leader of the conservative movement. At the time of his election to congress from Oklahoma City he was one of only two Republicans in the delegation. After leaving Congress, Edwards spent several years at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He is currently at the Woodrow Wilson Center at Princeton, and he continues to write and speak widely throughout the United States. Grandchildren in Oklahoma City give him a reason to return frequently to Oklahoma.

"Reclaiming Conservatism" was published by Oxford Press.

The Center is pleased to provide speakers to any organization or school on topics related to our purposes. Recent speaking engagements have covered subjects ranging from Latin American culture to technology's impact on modern life, and venues have ranged from an elementary school class, civic clubs, and even a live election analysis on Fox News 23 in Tulsa.

There is no charge when the Center provides a speaker within the Tulsa metro area. Providing speakers for the community is part of our public service mission and we are happy to arrange a topic that will fit your organization's requirements. If you have a request for your school or organization, please call the Center's director, Prof. Rodger Randle, at (918) 660-3495.

The Center has recently received the good news that it has been selected to participate in an exciting and innovative program for K-12 education. The program has been titled “Global Kids Connection” and is designed to stimulate interest in world cultures and world geography. Participating schools are located in rural southern Oklahoma. The Center’s role in the project will include live video conferencing events between the students and the Center’s offices at OU-Tulsa. The events will feature guests from global cultural backgrounds. The Center will also be developing a special web site for the students and the creation of special video content. The program has been funded though a rural technology grant of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Center is very honored to have been selected as a content provider.

European Consuls General from the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria were Oklahoma’s guests in October 2007 in a visit organized by the Governor’s International Economic Development Team. Governor Brad Henry extended the invitation. The Center’s Director serves on the Governor’s International Team and was the co-chair of the organizing committee. The Governor's International Team has sponsored several similar events in recent years to promote Oklahoma's international visibility. In 2006, for example, consuls general were hosted from Latin American countries and Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico sent representatives to the event. (The Center Director was also co-chair of the organizing committee in 2006.)

The Noche de Gala is the annual fundraising event of the Hispanic American Foundation of Tulsa. The gala is a traditional black-tie event, and this year was held at Tulsa’s Southern Hills Country Club (home of the 2007 national PGA championship). The Chair of the Gala for 2007 was Prof. Rodger Randle, Director of the Center. A special honoree this year was Steve Malcolm, president of Williams, who accepted a “centenary award” on behalf of Williams. Williams had been selected in recognition for their long relationship with Latin America and their support of the Tulsa community. The annual “Award of the Americas” corporate recognition was presented to American Airlines, and the individual award recipient was Tulsa City Auditor Phil Wood. Proceeds from the gala support the foundation’s scholarship program and cultural activities.

“Cultural Photography” has been a major interest of the Center, and exhibits of the Center’s photography have been held in a variety of different venues, but the most prestigious of the Center’s exhibits was held this year in the North Gallery in the Oklahoma State Capitol Building. The exhibit ran began in April and ended in June. The exhibit was organized by the Oklahoma Arts Council, and you may visit the Arts Council’s web site about the exhibit by clicking here. Many photos are also available online, and links to most of the collections are contained in the index page for Rodger Randle’s photos (click here to visit the page.) Two recent online photo page additions include photos from Turkey (click here to visit the page) and Japan (a small collection …click here to visit the page). Photos are also on exhibit at several locations at OU-Tulsa.

As shown in our video newsreel scenes of the visiting Uzbecks, the Center works in support of other organization with similar aims, as well as organizing its own agenda of activities. One of the most frequent of these is the Center’s participation in support of Tulsa Global Alliance’s role of local affiliate for the United States Department of State’s International Visitor Program. Under this program, the Department of State sponsors visits to the USA for selected foreign nationals. Most visit the United States in groups, and each group has a specialized study agenda. The Center has organized social activities and given briefings and lectures for the visitor groups. The Center was participated with groups from all the world’s continents. A large number of individual Tulsans provide volunteer support for this Tulsa Global Alliance program. (The Center’s Director is a past President and Chairman of the Tulsa Global Alliance.)

The Center also served as primary sponsor of several international visitors to the OU-Tulsa campus during 2007. Among these was Vinicius Ribeiro, a young political leader from the Brazilian southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The Center will partner in 2008 in a new speaker series with Oklahoma State University’s Stillwater-based International Education and Outreach. They share with the Center the mission to promote greater international understanding and awareness in Oklahoma. The speaker series will take place in Tulsa. The series is expected to begin in late January of 2008. The joining together of Oklahoma’s two flagship universities in support of the series underscores the importance that both place in providing leadership in expanding Oklahoma’s global horizons. The Director of International Education and Outreach at OSU is Dr. James Hromas, and Jim Sideler will coordinate the series with the Center. The series will also involved students like Firew K. Godoooo (pictured with Jim on theleft) , a masters candidate from Ethiopia.

The American Society for Competitivenes (ASC) held its 2007 annual meeting in Tulsa during the Fall of 2007 and selected two professionals from The University of Oklahoma to receive special awards. The awards were made during a luncheon during the conference. The two honorees were Rodger Randle (director of the Center) and Sharon Gallagher. Both were cited for their work in stimulating change and innovative thinking. The presentations were made by Dr. Jeff Stewart, one of the founding members of the American Society for Competitiveness and the currentcChairman of the ACR's Advisory Council.

The president of the American Society for Competitiveness is Grover Norquist, the noted conservative activist.