Help make tomorrow's newsroom today

This support fund is intended to help further systematic change at OU Daily, from the composition of its staff to the substance of its coverage to the community trust it must continue to earn with historically marginalized groups on campus.

It honors and builds on the legacies of people of color whose presence, voices and work have helped make our historically predominantly white institution better – but not yet equally – reflect the community we serve. It is one step in our recognition we have more to do as an institution and as individuals. It aspires to help make greater change more rapidly at a time the nation and the media industry demand it. 

Specifically, in this effort we note the first Black students to work on staff at OU Student Media. In 1964, Zelbert Moore (above left) was the first Black man to join the staff of The Oklahoma Daily. OU’s first Black journalism graduate, he ultimately went on to become a professor emeritus in Black studies at SUNY New Paltz. In 1965, Guinnevere Hodges (above right) became the first Black woman to join the staff of Sooner yearbook, the predecessor to Crimson Quarterly magazine. She went on to help design Project Threshold, a program meant to recruit, retain and graduate more people of color from the University of Oklahoma.

This project sets an initial $5,000 goal.

Your gifts will help seed a fund – initially envisioned at $500 per semester – that will be awarded to a person of color or a member of an otherwise marginalized community who aspires to a career in media. Priority will be given to applicants who are Black students, and for whom it can make a financial difference in their ability to work on our staff.