The shield on the left is the seal of the Center for Studies in Democracy and Culture, representing the island of Rokovoko at sunset.
You Are the Reason
We Are Here.
Our activities are designed to bring citizens together, build community, spread knowledge, and support vital grassroots democracy.
Our success is measured by your involvement.
Our Mission Is Our Focus...
Our mission is to strengthen grassroots democracy by engaging citizens and building community.
We achieve our mission by bringing people together for events and programs that may cover any of a diversity of topics. Although we are most known for our highly attended luncheons, we also organize a variety of smaller activities that involve participants on a more personal level and provide opportunities for informal conversations with important leaders from varied backgrounds. An example of the kinds of special opportunities we have offered is illustrated by our month-long program of field trips and mini-programs in October of 2025 (Click here to see the full program of these activities). A fuller list of examples of programs we have offered is available at the bottom of this page.
We also enthusiastically partner with other organizations to expand our programming, including groups like the Museum of Tulsa History and the Tulsa Global Alliance, plus other institutions of higher education.
We Are a Program of OU-Tulsa...
We were created at OU-Tulsa over twenty years ago. Our programming was as diverse in those days as it is today. Participation was smaller in the beginning, of course, but we have grown substantially over the years. We once though thirty people was an overflow crowd (and it was for the Faculty Lounge were we met) but today we typically have 200-250 guests at our big luncheons on the OU-Tulsa campus.
We have been an academic center of The University of Oklahoma from the start. We are located on the campus of OU-Tulsa, and OU-Tulsa supports the Center in various ways and provides a modest stipend to the Center's director. Although OU-Tulsa provides essential basic support for the Center, we are dependent on the financial help of our generous supporters for our continued operation.
The Center helps fulfill the mandate announced by the president of OU at the time of the creation of OU-Tulsa's campus that urban campuses should be tightly connected to the cities where they are located.
Your Participation and Support Will Be Welcome!
We are able to do all that we do because of the help of our wonderful volunteers. Would you like to be one? Volunteers help at events and in preparation for events. The time commitment involved is not great, but the importance of the help that volunteers provide is great indeed!
Our programs are free and no one is obligated to financially contribute, but we would not exist without the gifts that we receive from supporters. If you would like to join the many others that contribute by making your own gift to The University of Oklahoma Foundation (a 401c3 entity) designated for our Center.
To volunteer, or for information on how to make a financial contribution through the OU Foundation, please contact the director by phone at 1-918-779-5713 or by email at randle@ou.edu.
Examples of Recent Past Activities of the Center
The following events are example of activities 2024-25 and is not a complete list.
The Center hosted nine higher education leaders from nine different countries to a dinner and program on the cultural formation of Oklahoma. Their visit was sponsored by the State Department.
Over 200 guests attended a Center luncheon on the OU-Tulsa campus to hear the Rt. Hon. Henry McLeish, former head of the government of Scotland.
Former Oklahoma Congressman (and professor at Harvard and Princeton and Yale) Mickey Edwards spoke about the balance of power between the three branches of government in Washington.
Why Are Oklahoma City and Tulsa So Different? was a luncheon program on the OU-Tulsa campus. 200 guests in attendance.
“American Unhappiness" was the luncheon program in Founders Hall featuring OU-Tulsa faculty member Linda Barnum, Ph.D. in psychology. The program explored the roots of the declining levels of happiness in our country.
The Center hosted Tulsa commemorations of the King's Official Birthday, the national day of the United Kingdom.
Oklahoma Historian Bob Burke entertained a luncheon crowd of 250 on the OU-Tulsa campus with stories of Oklahoma political history.
A reception was co-hosted by the Center at the Summit Club honoring Urs Broennimann, Consul General of Switzerland (Atlanta)
Charles Garrett, CEO of Cherokee Nation Businesses, and Bryan Warner, Deputy Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, spoke at a large luncheon on the OU-Tulsa campus.
The Center hosted a forum on polarization in American politics featuring Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn (Republican) and State Rep. Melissa Provenzano (D-Tulsa)
Black History Month special presentation with Dr. LaVerne Ford Wimberly, Rebecca Marks Jimerson, and Vanessa Adams-Harris was held on the OU-Tulsa campus.
The Center's Circle of Honor was hosted at a luncheon in OKC. (The Circle is made up of current and past state government leaders and is a program sponsored by the Center.)
Historian Russell Cobb spoke to over 200 on the OU-Tulsa campus: "The Ghosts of Crook County: The Forgotten Crime Behind an Oil Capitol Fortune".
Nearly 250 people attended the Center's luncheon on the OU-Tulsa campus: "Is the Free Press in America Really in Danger?"
