University of Tulsa guts Honors College after successful opening year

UPDATE 2025/07/17: Fired Dean Jennifer Frey has published an op-ed in today's New York Times and is interviewed in today's episode of the Classic Learning Test's Anchored podcast. "Students voted with their feet, and no one cared."

In the podcast, Frey mentions that the University released a statement falsely saying that she had resigned. She is "deeply skeptical" that the student experience would remain the same, as the University claimed in a response to the Times: "I hope that's true, but I'm deeply skeptical because, one, we don't have seminars anymore, so the student experience will not remain the same.... but also all the staff and structure that I built is gone. It's gone. All that's left of the 'Honors College' is an as-of-yet-unnamed director and two faculty, both of whom are on one year contracts. We don't have a full-time service learning coordinator, and that truly was a full-time job. We no longer have a program officer, which was a very demanding full-time job, running events. Putting on events for 500 students is a full-time job.... If you expect one person to do the work of an entire college, OK, but really, I think the main thing is the loss of the seminars, because everything grew out of that. And also, all the money I brought in is gone."

The University of Tulsa is giving me whiplash. In 2019, they gut the liberal arts. In 2023, they trumpet the creation of a new Great Books-focused Honors College led by a philosopher who is a devout Christian. Now in 2025, the president who re-launched the Honors College and hired the dean has departed, the Dean of the Honors College has been demoted, and the program has been downsized.

(A discussion of TU whiplash could go back to 2012 to the bizarrely brief tenure of President Geoffrey Orsak; my article on the topic prompted a nice letter from his mother-in-law on Mr. Orsak's character and the hardships induced by TU's inconstancy.)

I was encouraged and amazed by TU's hiring of Jennifer Frey in 2023 to head the Honors College and to expand and deepen its offerings. It was unexpected after the "True Commitment" upheaval of 2019 (see below), and I had assumed that the 2021 hiring of Democrat former Congressman Brad Carson was a move to consolidate those changes and continue the transformation of TU into a glorified vo-tech. Instead we suddenly had a classical, Great Books, seminar-based education available in Tulsa, similar (if not as intense) to that offered by St. John's College in Annapolis and Santa Fe, the University of Dallas, New Saint Andrews College, and Christendom College. A couple of the students we'd known through our Classical Conversations homeschool community chose TU because of the Honors College.

Frey left behind a tenured, endowed faculty position at the University of South Carolina to launch the TU Honors College. She left put her intellectual projects on hold to become an administrator, a role she did not covet but took on to advance the return of the liberal arts to American higher education.

I was wowed by the Honors College conference in February 2025 on the late Roman / early medieval philosopher Boethius and was hopeful for the role TU Honors might play in the flourishing of Tulsa as a center of classical education.

I enjoyed myself tremendously at the Boethius 1500 conference and had some great conversations. A large group of blazer-wearing students from Holy Family Classical School were present for some of Friday's sessions. I had a couple of brief conversations with Dean Jennifer Frey. The presence of the Honors College at TU under her leadership should produce great synergy with the city's growing number of classical schools. I imagine TU graduates becoming teachers in our classical schools, and graduates of the schools heading to TU's Honors College to study classics alongside their chosen majors.

An X thread by Dean Frey on June 30, 2025 (compiled thread here, PDF here) reviewed the successes of the two-year-old college:

We:

• grew enrollment by over 500%
• raised retention rates to 85%
• created a standardized great books curriculum from Homer to Hannah Arendt with small, Socratic seminars
• revitalized study of Greek and Latin
• centered character and civic education throughout the college
• created civic engagement requirement, with the cooperation of over 100 community partners
• created Humane Letters major
• brought in multiple major grants and gifts
• brought theatre back to TU with Greek tragedies
• created two summer programs for high school students
• created honors residential college with faculty in residence & program officer
• created study abroad programs in Rome, Greece, & Vienna
• raised endowment for study abroad
• created culture of viewpoint diversity through civil exchange of ideas
• created multiple leadership roles for our students
• assembled an academic advisory board to help with leading voices for liberal education like @McCormickProf [Robert P. George] @CornelWest @zenahitz @rooseveltmontas @JohnInazu @DavidDecosimo @AngelParham
• named a "Hidden Gem" by @goACTA

And then she announced an end to that dream.

Now for some personal news: today is my last day as Dean. I was stunned to be informed by our new provost there will no longer be a Dean of Honors, period. Nor an Assistant Dean. Rather, I was told there will be a "director" of honors--but that person will not be me.

I was told my performance was exemplary but honors needed to "go in a different direction." So I have no idea what the future vision for it will be. I know the seminar format has been removed/class sizes increased. I know my wonderful Asst. Dean, Matt Post, has resigned.

Frey's X bio still lists her affiliation with TU as a philosopher. Her thread mentions a six-month research leave.

I can't imagine anyone wanting to come to Tulsa to work for or study at TU, given all the sudden and drastic changes of direction. University of Tulsa already blew up their reputation once just a few years ago by sacking their humanities programs. Why would students, parents, professors entrust themselves to the inconsistent nincompoops running the university behind the scenes?

Comments on Frey's dismissal as dean:

Prof. Robert P. George, Princeton:

Even if I live to be 120 years old, I will never understand why academic leaders make the bad decisions they sometimes make. This one takes the cake. After the University of Tulsa succeeded in recruiting the excellent Jennifer Frey to lead and build its new Honors College, and after Dr. Frey built it into an intellectual mecca--indeed, one of the most exciting initiatives in American higher education--the leadership of the University dismissed her as Dean. You've heard of someone "shooting himself in the foot." This move could be characterized as "shooting yourself in the head." Tulsa had a great thing going. It was attracting outstanding students and receiving national attention--and accolades. Then ... it threw it all away. Spectacular, breathtaking foolishness. Another black eye for American higher education.

Jeremy Tate, CEO of the Classic Learning Test:

For those of you outside of academia, this would be like the Chiefs letting go of Mahomes after taking the team to the AFC Championship every year. If that sounds unbelievably brain dead, you haven't met the bureaucrats who run some of these universities.

Tate again:

It is simple to understand what went down here. The rest of the humanities at UTulsa were going to suffer because the students were flocking to Jenn's program. She was a threat because she was offering the genuine article instead of the woke nonsense.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat:

Truly bizarre arc for the University of Tulsa: From trashing its humanities program (https://city-journal.org/article/storm-clouds-over-tulsa) to embracing a revivalist program under @jennfrey to abandoning the new effort, all in just six years

Kevin Watson, Ph.D., scholar-in-residence at Tulsa's Asbury Church and Director of Academic Growth & Formation at Kentucky's Asbury Theological Seminary, represents many comments from the parents of prospective students here:

I am really sorry to hear this. We were seriously considering the University of Tulsa because of @jennfrey's leadership, Honors, and the National Merit scholarship. This eliminates TU from our consideration. I'll continue to root for TU. But this is a bad look.

Steve McGuire, a fellow of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a college reform organization illustrated his tweet with a GIF of a floating dumpster on fire, and his comments that suggest that wokesters within TU are behind this:

University of Tulsa:

• Name the co-director of the "Institute of Trauma, Adversity, and Injustice" to provost.
• Keep and rename DEI as the "Office for Resilience and Belonging."
• Fire @jennfrey as dean of the hugely successful honors college that offers a solid liberal education.

Prof. Jennifer Hooten Wilson, Pepperdine:

Dr. Jennifer Frey is one of the top educators in the country. Her vision for the Honors at Tulsa was INSPIRING! Exactly what education should look like.... We need to find a way for these goods to bloom where they are planted! [Prayer emoji]

Deacon Harrison Garlick, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa:

Absolutely unbelievable.

Dr. Frey starts an incredibly successful great books Honors College rooted in what is true, good, and beautiful... and then she's terminated.

Reminds me of John Senior.

That's a reference to the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas, a wildly successful and influential Great Books program that was dismantled by the university administration after a nine-year run. Some of its graduates were instrumental in the establishment of Oklahoma's Clear Creek Abbey.

Prof. Christian Miller, Wake Forest:

Shame on @utulsa and especially their new Provost Airey for terminating Jennifer Frey's position after she uprooted her family and has worked tirelessly and very successfully to build the honors college for the past two years. I hope philosophy departments and other honors colleges are already reaching out to Professor Frey. @jennfrey

Brennan VanderVeen, TU alumnus and Program Counsel, Public Advocacy, for the Federation for Independent Rights in Education wrote that he ceased giving to TU after the True Commitment upheaval but changed his mind:

Seeing what Frey was doing with the new Honors College helped convince me the university really was committed to liberal education. It was a big reason why I became a donor this year. I was happy, eager in fact, to support the types of programs that benefitted me as a student. Now, with the university removing Frey, abolishing the dean position entirely, and apparently wanting to "go in a different direction" (including, it seems, by removing the seminar format and increasing class sizes), I can't help but wonder if I made a mistake.

Prof. Joshua Hochschild, Mount St. Mary's University:

This is a major rug-pull for a lot of students. Jen's leadership of the Honors College recruited a lot of young people, gave confidence to a lot of families. The Provost and President are likely to be hearing from angry parents

John LePine, TU alumnus:

The creation of the Honors College under Jenn Frey's leadership was the most exciting academic development at @utulsa in my time as a student/alum. I have friends who have sent or planned to send their kids to TU specifically for Honors. This is an enormous disappointment.

Prof. Yuan Yi Zhu, Leiden University, University of British Columbia:

Remarkably enough, this will be the second time in a decade the University of Tulsa management decides to nuke a successful and unique humanities program for no good reason.

Matthew Loftus:

I hope @utulsa is ready to be famous because every thinkpiece about the decline of university education for the next two decades is going to mention this boneheaded move.

Here are direct links to quote-tweets on Frey's thread and on the tweet announcing her demotion.

John Carney asks why:

I read this. What it didn't do was explain why the university had made this decision, which everyone in my feed (admittedly, full of right-of-center and great books types) regards as lamentable. I don't understand the university's position or what critics think really happened.

That this happened so soon after Brad Carson announced his departure does not seem coincidental. I have heard two conflicting explanations of Carson's resignation: (1) He is anxious to get back to Washington and public policy. (2) The board forced him out because he was better at spending money than raising it.

A private X account pointed to the resume of recently appointed Provost Jennifer L. Airey, who wielded the axe: "editor of Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature and co-director of The University of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Adversity, and Injustice." So we have a provost representing the "studies" departments and the corruption of the liberal arts stifling a successful effort to restore the liberal arts.

The Tulsa Institute of Trauma Adversity and iNjustice (TITAN) appears to be a classic example of a Grievance Studies program. The photo of Institute staff appears to be all-female, although it's hard to know for sure these days. A 2020 capture of TITAN's webpage announces the institute's mission: "TITAN promotes social justice and reduces trauma and adversity through interdisciplinary research, education and service." TITAN's Facebook page dates back to 2011. In 2012, TITAN got a classroom in Lorton Hall as office space.

In 2021, TITAN copresented a 12-hour continuing education program for public school teachers, "From Trauma to Resilience":

This teacher institute facilitated by Gilcrease Museum in partnership with the Tri-City Collective and the University of Tulsa's Institute of Trauma, Adversity and Injustice is a 12-hour professional development opportunity for Tulsa Public Schools educators that will provide tools to support pedagogical experiences surrounding historical trauma and trauma-informed classroom practices focusing on empathy, equity, resilience and healing. Participants will work closely with Gilcrease collections related to the forced removal of Southeastern tribes, freedmen and Afro-Indigenous histories in Oklahoma, and the Tulsa Race Massacre. Hear talks by inspiring speakers, learn in cohorts, develop practical tools to support teaching difficult histories including self-care and arts integration activities for educators and students, and leave with useful curricular resources.

In 2023, TU used a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to launch a minor in Historical Trauma and Transformation: "Students will learn about the (white/colonial) historical assumptions that ground so much of society today, and when those assumptions are based on exploitation and harm, they will challenge them and work to make corrections."

It makes sense that someone from the dominant "Western Civilization is evil and must be destroyed" wing of academia would want to destroy a successful program that celebrates Western Civilization.

A look back: The old honors program

An alumna pointed out that a highly regarded Honors Program existed before Jennifer Frey's arrival. In April 2019 in City Journal, Jacob Howland, then a professor of philosophy at TU, described the Honors Program that was in the process of being dismantled by then-Provost Janet Levit:

I arrived at TU in 1988, the same year Thomas Staley left to head the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. As TU's provost, Staley had aggressively recruited serious scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Programs in English, history, and politics were particularly robust; Harvard's Department of Government devoted a regular column in its newsletter to the activities of our political theorists. Professors critiqued their colleagues' work, audited one another's courses, and hosted informal lectures on subjects like pre-Raphaelite painting, medieval monasticism, and the economy of the Italian city-states. Faculty reading groups--some with 15 or more participants, including members of the wider Tulsa community--studied Heidegger's Being and Time, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, Montaigne's Essays, and Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. Undergraduates in our Honors Program studied literary, philosophical, religious, and historical classics from ancient Greece to the twentieth century and capped off their education with serious, substantial senior theses. My first decades at TU were a time of intellectual ferment and growth for faculty and students alike....

No program in the university is as central to the liberal arts as Honors, one of TU's greatest attractions for prospective students. (According to the dean of admissions, no program in the university has a higher yield of applicants.) Incoming Honors students, half of whom are enrolled in the engineering college, read the Iliad in the summer before they matriculate; in their first semester, they read the Odyssey along with Greek tragedy, comedy, history, and philosophy. They go on to study classic books from the medieval period to the present. Honors alumni do some remarkable things; most recently, Jennifer Croft (BA '01) won the 2018 Man Booker Prize for her translation of Polish author Olga Tokarczuk's novel Flights.

Enrollment in Honors has skyrocketed in recent years, thanks mostly to the extraordinary efforts of the program's director, Denise Dutton (herself an Honors graduate). Between 2012 and 2017, Dutton increased the size of the program fourfold, from 65 to 255 enrolled students--but the yearly budget for Honors decreased by 70 percent over the same period. This meant that the program could no longer host visiting speakers, support dinner or lunch conversations between students and faculty, or even pay for snacks at shared events; Dutton took to baking cookies and purchasing refreshments on her own dime. More than 400 students applied for admission to Honors this year. Levit nevertheless slashed its budget, effectively reducing the number of incoming Honors students in the fall of 2019 by 50 percent. Dutton was furthermore forbidden from seeking external funding on the grounds that the university was not prepared to guarantee the program's existence beyond the 2019-2020 academic year. And though she is herself an assistant provost, Dutton was told that she could no longer email Levit directly; petitions would have to go through her boss.

Around this time, Dutton began removing books and personal possessions from her cozy eyrie in the library. Other TU employees had been escorted from their offices upon being fired, and she didn't want to leave anything behind when the same thing happened to her.

A look back: The 2019 True Commitment downsizing of Liberal Arts at TU:

Six years ago in the spring of 2019 faculty, students, and community were up in arms over the gutting of the humanities at TU, in the "New Commitment" plan pushed by President Gerry Clancy and Provost Janet Levit and a board dominated by members affiliated with the Kaiser System. Here are several articles by then-TU philosophy professor Jacob Howland on the controversy:

• April 17, 2019, City Journal: Storm Clouds Over Tulsa: Inside the academic destruction of a proud private university
• May 8, 2019, James G. Martin Center: Administrative Hardball at the University of Tulsa
• June 18, 2019, The Nation: Corporate Wolves in Academic Sheepskins, or, a Billionaire's Raid on the University of Tulsa: This article goes into great detail regarding the financial and organizational connections between the George Kaiser Family Foundation and related organizations, the Chapman Trust, and the University of Tulsa.
• October 23, 2019, James G. Martin Center: The Intimidation Game: Bullying and Retaliation at the University of Tulsa
• March 25, 2020, James G. Martin Center: How Tulsa University Was Turned into Toxic University

In February 2020, Howland gave a speech at Hillsdale College linking the curricular changes at TU to the dominance of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the development of the electronic surveillance state, and admiration for Communist China's oppressive policy in Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang).

A summary of True Commitment from Howland's May 2019 article:

On April 11, the administration of the University of Tulsa shocked faculty, students, and alumni by announcing the elimination of 40 percent of the school's academic programs. Undergraduate and graduate programs in theater, musical theater, dance, vocal and instrumental music, English, history, philosophy, religion, chemistry, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Greek, Latin, anthropology, mathematics, and many others were axed. The administration has eliminated all academic departments and dumped professors, now stripped of disciplinary protections and powers, into big new divisions, including one called "Humanities and Social Justice."

tuplan.org was a website (now available only through the Internet Archive) put together by opponents of True Commitment in 2019 with considerable detail and perspective from many faculty members and students.

Here's the change.org petition protesting New Commitment, which goes into considerable detail about the changes. A September 10, 2019, a Collegian story describes the administration's shenanigans that preceded the Faculty Senate's vote that True Commitment violated the faculty constitution and its principle of shared governance.

And here's a brief article by Logan Guthrie published in TU's Collegian in April 2022, on the 3rd anniversary of True Commitment. (For some reason, the Collegian does not include years in the article dates displayed on their website. I had to look at metadata in the HTML source to find the year of publication for this article and the one linked above.)

TU and Tulsa:

When I returned to Tulsa after graduating from MIT, I paid for annual access to TU's library and enjoyed having a connection to this center of learning. As I got involved with the Midtown Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, I learned about the City of Tulsa's use of eminent domain to benefit the expansion plans of TU, a private university, in violation of the Oklahoma constitution. I wrote this in 2012, after Orsak's sudden departure:

Some will say that what happens at TU is none of our business. I will point out that TU has been the beneficiary of the City of Tulsa's power of eminent domain in expanding its campus over the last 20 years [since the early 1990s]. Just 7 years ago [2005[, there were businesses along the northside of 11th Street, where now a "grand entrance" is surrounded by new but tacky apartment buildings. Property owners were given the choice of selling to TU or being condemned by the city in the name of "urban renewal." Whole chunks of the Kendall-Whittier neighborhood have disappeared. If you went to Roughnecks games in the late '70s and early '80s you'll remember the neighborhood of attractive Tudor Revival houses where the Reynolds Center now stands.

Like the Tulsa Metro Chamber, TU seems to have this dual nature: Virtually a public utility when it wants something out of city government, but strictly private when it comes to scrutiny of its internal affairs. That might have been a justifiable position when TU was the only higher ed game in town, but that hasn't been true for nearly a half century. I'd be happy to ignore TU's internal affairs if they never again ask for more land to be added to the urban renewal plan and otherwise get the university's fingers out of local government. I'm sure I'm not the only Tulsan somewhat nervous that the City of Tulsa's priceless Gilcrease collection of art and artifacts is now in the hands of an institution with no public accountability.

Re-linking a few articles about the relationship between TU and the City of Tulsa:

• G. W. Schulz's 2005 UTW story on Starship Records being forced by TU-driven urban renewal to relocate
• Jamie Pierson's 2007 UTW column on TU as The Thing That Ate 11th Street, and how TU's expanding campus isolates students from the community.
• From BatesLine, 2009: Comments and some historical perspective on a TU student's op-ed: "TU has lost a sense of belonging to Tulsa"