Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis delivered the commencement address on 6th July 2019 to Haramaya University in Ethiopia
Across the globe, standing before a room of foreign graduates, Oklahoma State University (OSU) President Burns Hargis could see the fruits of a program his college helped plant.
Hargis delivered the commencement address on Saturday (6th July 2019) to Haramaya University in Ethiopia, addressing the more than 4,000 graduates earning degrees in agriculture, animal science and plant science.
“OSU has a lot of history in Ethiopia,” Hargis said. “Very excited to be a part of continuing that.”
Hargis is the first Oklahoma State president to visit the Ethiopian school in more than 60 years, renewing a bond between the two institutions that started in the years after World War II.
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Established in 1952, Alemaya College of Agriculture (now called Haramaya University), was part of the vision of President Harry S. Truman as part of the Point Four Program, designed to build relationships with countries in Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Middle East, while assisting them in agriculture and technological innovations.
Truman believed it was America’s duty to build up allies in the wake of World War II.
“What we envisage is a program of development based on the concepts of democratic fair-dealing,” Truman said about the Point 4 program. “All countries, including our own, will greatly benefit from a constructive program for the better use of the world’s human and natural resources.”
Truman tasked Henry G. Bennett, OSU’s president, to help bring modern farming and ranching techniques to Ethiopia.
With the help of the agricultural experts at Oklahoma State, Bennett established schools in Ethiopia to teach the basics of crop management and rotation.
Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie then returned the favor with a visit to Stillwater and Oklahoma State in 1954, marking the first time a foreign head of state had visited Oklahoma.
Read the complete story at The Oklahoman