President David Boren was honored Thursday by the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents for a half-century of public service. The Regents passed a resolution of congratulations in honor of the former Oklahoma governor, U.S. senator and state House member.

Boren, originally from Seminole, is the first person in state history to have served as Governor of Oklahoma, U.S. Senator, President of the University of Oklahoma, and as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

At OU, he has initiated more than 35 new programs and has led the effort to raise over $2.5 billion in private gifts for the university. The efforts of President and Mrs. Boren have resulted in OU’s ranking among the 25 most beautiful campuses in America. OU’s three campuses have increased endowed faculty positions from 94 to 562, and private scholarships for students have quadrupled.

Among the new programs that have been created are the Honors College, the College of International Studies, the Institute for Quality Communities and the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage. The Stephenson Cancer Center and the Hamm Diabetes Center have been established at the OU Health Sciences Center, as well as new facilities for the College of Allied Health, major landscaping of the campus and the construction of a student union. During Boren’s tenure, a new home for OU-Tulsa has been established at the Schusterman Campus. OU also established the TU-OU School of Community Medicine in partnership with the University of Tulsa.