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ORU Students: They're History

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The quality of ORU history majors, says Dr. Gary Pranger, has been steadily improving over the past several years. The proof of that can be seen in the quality of two of this year's senior papers.

Janee Jett's paper, "The Swing Era, 1935-45," took first prize in the undergraduate division at the Oklahoma Association of Professional Historians/Phi Alpha Theta annual conference, held Feb. 18 and 19 at Oklahoma Christian University.

Jason Porter's paper, "Out from the Shadows of the Little Big Horn: The Fetterman Massacre," didn't win a prize, but it received high praise from Dr. Pranger. "It's good enough to serve as the basis for a master's thesis, or possibly even a book," he said.

ORU, which had not been active in Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society, for several years, rejoined this year. This was, therefore, the first competition in some time for ORU history students.

"I told them, 'This year you'll be both the guinea pigs and the most honored,'" Pranger said. And "they did just great. I try to make them write (their senior papers) as if they were writing a research article for a journal."

About 30 students from a dozen Oklahoma schools took part in the conference.