By Amanda Purser
President Hunt hit the ground running this fall with big goals, ambitious plans and a promise to help propel Cameron University to the best version possible, for all current and future students, staff, faculty and alumni.
If you have been paying attention, you’ve seen each aspect that he set out to do, plus some extras along the way come to fruition as he has set an incredible new standard for this institution.
In just the past five months, Hunt has immersed himself in the local community and reinforced partnerships among the Lawton-Fort Sill civilian and military organizations, Tribal partners, Lawton Public Schools and other local agencies like FISTA, Rotary Clubs and more.
Hunt has secured an extraordinary gift from the McMahon Foundation, as part of their school naming initiative that marks a new precedent for Aggie fundraising.
“I got to visit with their board a month ago, and they have enthusiastically given us $3 million to name the McMahon School of Business,” Hunt said. “That is one of the two or three largest gifts in the history of Cameron University.”
This donation is one of the largest any regional public University has acquired in the state of Oklahoma’s history of higher education. The sizable public institutions like Oklahoma State University (OSU) and University of Oklahoma (OU) are designated as “research universities” and categorized differently as flagship institutions for donation record purposes.
The McMahon School of Business program will provide a variety of valuable resources and possibilities for the current and future business students at Cameron University.
“So that comes with four endowed faculty positions, two endowed chairs, and two endowed professorships,” Hunt said, “that will help make sure we can recruit and retain the best faculty in business, forever.”
In addition, there will be significant scholarships to help cover financial support going towards student’s tuition, books and supplies.
Hunt adds, “It will allow us to have a really state-of-the-art innovation lab and Bloomberg terminals.”
Among other endeavors and support such as no-cost summer camps for local youth to learn about business and entrepreneurship.
“There’s an endowment in there for an executive in residence, where it provides funding for us to
bring in leading executives from across the country to come in and spend a week with our students and talk about their industry and company,” he said.
“It will provide a permanent building endowment, so that we can always make sure we’re doing the types of technology-advances in our classrooms and program areas that our students need to get the best possible education,” Hunt said.
This is clearly a trans formative gift for Aggie’s, affecting how and what students have the opportunity to experience and learn, which will impact Cameron for generations to come.
“I am so overwhelmingly thankful to the McMahon Foundation for making this investment,” Hunt said.
As a first-generation college student and business major at OU, Hunt witnessed the Michael F. Price College of Business naming, as part of its inaugural undergraduate class. As his son’s education journey continues, (Andrew is pursuing his MBA at his parent’s alma mater) Hunt gets to witness the price naming gift impacting a new group of students.
“That gift, in just one generation, has completely transformed the opportunities that he (Andrew) and his classmates have,” Hunt said.
“So, I can tell you for the (Cameron) students a generation from now, we will look back and say, ‘that was one of the most important and impactful gifts in the history of Cameron University.’”
Prior to the McMahon School of Business naming gift, Hunt had a unique opportunity to honor his predecessor, Interim President Jari Askins, who he felt made a significant impact on his new role as Cameron’s 18th President.
“Jari was just so helpful, supportive, and kind,” Hunt said, “and we’ve been able to do a lot of things over the past five months that I’ve been here, because of how smooth and positive that transition was.”
On Askins’ last day working for Cameron, Hunt held a farewell event that brought together students, faculty, staff, alumni and family of Askins, to thank her for her time and dedication to this institution and the Oklahoma judicial and legislative efforts.
At the event, Lawton Mayor Stan Booker presented Askins with a plaque and recognition for all she has done for the Lawton-Fort Sill community, and President Hunt proudly announced the newly endowed President Jari Askins Leadership Scholarship, that will forever remember Askin’s effort and commitment in every role she has taken on.
“I knew it would mean so much to Jari, that we get to honor her legacy of service at Cameron and the state of Oklahoma,” Hunt said, “but also, in a way that helps students have educational opportunity for decades and generations to come.”
That endowment was amongst the tremendous fundraising activity Hunt has spearheaded, along with the Coca-Cola First-Generation Scholarship, a recent $25,000 gift from AT&T, and a number of private donations, to name a few.
Aside from monetary contributions, Hunt knows the importance of understanding the constituent groups of Cameron and our surrounding communities. In order to better direct future efforts and hear from these groups, Cameron is conducting targeted listening sessions.
“We have done four of the eight so far, as we’re sitting here — we have done Cameron staff, students, faculty and alumni,” Hunt said. “We have one coming up for the Lawton community, for the Duncan community, one for our Tribal partners, and one that’s a catch-all that we’ll do in mid-December.”
While some of the concerns and ideas can be addressed and implemented immediately, much of the feedback from these assemblies will help dictate the most effective and efficient ways to conduct strategic planning and allocate resources moving forward.
“As a relatively new person, it’s been incredibly helpful for me to understand the historical context of some things,” Hunt said. “To understand some of the challenges around previous decisions, and to look for ways that we can best support our entire campus community.”
The steering committee for strategic planning is a 15-member representative group, which consists of five professors at all levels and ranks, including a department chair. The committee also has the Dean of Students, Vice President of Enrollment Management, several staff members, an alumna from the Cameron Foundation, as well as the Student Government President, Connor Holt.
“Now, there’ll be a lot of people even beyond that group that’ll be a part of you know, shaping and molding what that looks like, but that’s a core group really to facilitate the listening sessions,” Hunt said. “Dr. Chris Keller is an awesome part of the steering committee, taking all of the audio data from there and using AI to get themes out of that has been really powerful to provide summaries of different things.”
Hunt aims to have all of the listening session information organized and the plan fully outlined by the spring. As most strategic plans go, it will be laid out for a five-year period with goals to achieve by the year 2031.
Many aspects of the plan will be prioritized based on importance and potential impacts to various groups within the Cameron community. Hunt said they strive for complete transparency with this process, adding that the plan will be public knowledge and shared online from the Cameron website, along with follow-ups on the progress being made along the way.
“So, every semester you will hear in emails from me, or remarks from me, or updates to the
campus on how we’re moving forward on those goals,” Hunt said. “And there will be a real emphasis across all of our programs, and all of the initiatives that we’re taking on to say, how does this tie back into our strategic plan?”
Hunt added that many institutions draft strategic plans just to have it done and they end up getting shelved, or they’re too conservative with their goals.
He aims to be an aspiration for the Aggies, “we want to kind of push the envelope a little bit and dream about things that we can be at Cameron, maybe things we’ve never been.”
The listening sessions have proved so valuable to Hunt, and even with experience conducting similar versions with graduating students as a Business School Dean, he didn’t imagine how insightful and motivating it would be for him as the new president to directly get this correspondence.
“We want to get better and your feedback helps us get better a lot faster,” Hunt said. “Even after we roll the strategic plan out in the spring, we’ll do the student listening sessions every semester from now on, for as long as I’m doing this.”