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Show Puts Langston U. on the Map

By Tonya Grant
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Langston University Black Oklahomans raised the money to buy the land to create Langston University.

Some of the fun of having "College Hill" based at your college is guessing what's real and what's scripted, but the true benefit of the reality show coming to the Langston University campus is that it puts the school on the map.

On TV, a lot is left to the imagination, but this much is reality:

Langston University is a historically black institution with three campuses, including the main one in Langston, and urban campuses in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The main campus has an enrollment of more than 3,000 students.

The college is named for John Mercer Langston, a Reconstruction-era congressman from Virginia, the founding dean of Howard University's law school, an inspector general of the Freedman's Bureau and a diplomat. He died the same year that Langston University was founded, in 1897.

According to historical accounts, the all-black farming town of Langston, Okla., was formed after Emancipation, along with several others in the state that attracted newly freed families. Black Oklahomans asked the state to provide higher education for their children, and then raised the money to buy the land for the college. Langston University was founded as a land grant college to educate black teachers and laborers in agriculture and mechanical fields.

Dr. Ernest L. Holloway is the school's 14th president and has served Langston for 25 years.

The university's mascot is the lion, and the band is called the Marching Pride.

Viewers of "College Hill" this season might catch a glimpse of some of Langston's main student hangouts, including the Scholars Clubhouse, the Student Union and the yard.

The Scholars Clubhouse has a workout gym, a computer lab and lounging space with a big-screen television and couches. The William H. Hale Student Union is where students can go to eat and chat: It houses the cafeteria and a small food court, the bookstore, and the Student Government Association offices.

The yard's open grassland sits in the center of all the major buildings. It holds the fraternity and sorority monuments, shady trees, and bench- and table-seating areas.

Langston University offers 27 majors within the schools of business, nursing/health professions, arts/sciences, education/behavioral sciences and agricultural /applied sciences.

According to the admissions department, a student seeking admission to earn a bachelor's degree should have a 2.7 grade point average, score at least a 20 on the ACT, and/or have a ranking in the top 50 percent of his or her high school class.

No matter what image "College Hill" leaves with viewers, Langston University is a place of student pride.

Tonya Grant is a sophomore broadcast journalism student at Langston University.

Posted Jan. 31, 2005