The Robson Center for Science and Technology will go up just south of Stratton Taylor Library, in what is now the parking lot next to Loshbaugh Hall. At the future site, beneath one of the canopies RSU brings out for its annual Big Tent Day, more than 100 people gathered to commemorate the beginning of construction.
Raleigh said it was a landmark day.
"Standing here together on this ground, you're marking a moment that has been years in the making, one that will shape not only the future of this university, but also our region," Raleigh said. "This is transformational. This is a totally, very big deal. Think about how far in the future this building is going to serve students."
Steve Valencia, RSU's director of development, said in August the university hopes to complete the STEM Center by late 2027 or early 2028.
Raleigh took over as RSU's president last June. At the groundbreaking, Valencia said Raleigh often emphasizes that higher education is rapidly evolving, and RSU must embrace innovation.
RSU is building the STEM center to replace the 70-year-old Loshbaugh Hall, whose facilities lack natural gas hookups and other amenities. Valencia said the architect, Parkhill, is working with a laboratory design firm to build 44,000 square feet of multifunctional labs mixed with open spaces for robotics and drone work.
Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, earned her degree at RSU in 2015. Seifried said Loshbaugh was scary when she had a class there, so she naturally joined the effort to modernize her alma mater's STEM facilities.
"I think I also did take a picture of the building and say, 'Would you want to go to class in this?'" Seifried said.
In 2024, the state gave the RSU Foundation $10 million of the project's total $35 million cost, courtesy of House Bill 2928. Valencia said Seifried doggedly lobbied former Sen. Roger Thompson, then chair of the appropriations committee, to earmark seed money for RSU in the bill, a larger spending measure.
"I did lobby very, very strongly — correct, Sen. Thompson? — on this," Seifried said. "The state wants STEM degrees, but we need to have a building that makes people excited and want to go into it, so I just want to thank you for listening to me and advocating for the freshman senator."
The Robson Center will also contain a teaching kitchen for a future bachelor's program in nutritional science. The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust awarded the university $3 million to fund the kitchen and support the degree.
Julie Bisbee, TSET's executive director, said the prospect of a nutritional sciences program is exciting because it could contribute to helping Oklahomans eat healthier.
"A lot of people think like, 'Oh, I've got to drive to Tulsa or the big town to learn about how to eat specific to my diet, for diabetes or heart disease,'" Bisbee said. "... There is a shortage, and sometimes, one of the best prevention avenues is for people to understand healthy eating and practice it and learn it and see it."
The Cherokee Nation contributed $4 million; Raleigh said a sunshade in the shape of a seven-pointed star, emblematic of the seven traditional Cherokee clans, will span the plaza between the Robson Center and the library.
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said he read somewhere that Generation Alpha will produce more scientists and engineers than any generation in human history. He said as today's young people come of age, they will face both crises and opportunities to solve some of humanity's greatest problems.
"The only choice that Rogers State University has to make, the only choice the Cherokee Nation has to make, the only choice the state of Oklahoma has to make, is whether we'll be a part of the solution ... or we'll be bystanders," Hoskin said. "I'm proud to see today something that does not surprise me about this university. They don't intend to be bystanders. ... They intend to be leaders."
RSU is naming the STEM Center for Frank Robson, founder of the Claremore Public Schools Foundation and chairman emeritus of RCB Bank.
Former Sen. Sean Burrage, chancellor of the Oklahoma State System for Higher Education, said Robson is an old neighbor of his and a longtime supporter of RSU.
"His commitment to this situation, to higher education broadly, has a lasting impact," Burrage said. "It's fitting that his name will be associated with a facility that will serve generations of students."
RSU held the groundbreaking under a tent to shield against the blustery, intermittently sprinkling morning. Robson said it was a poor day but a nice project.
Robson said people should know the Robson Center would never have come to fruition without a great salesman: President Emeritus Larry Rice. After Rice stepped down as president, he chaired the campaign to fund the STEM building.
“I want to thank all of the other contributors who helped get us where we are today,” Robson said. “Thank you very much.”
© 2026 the Claremore Daily Progress (Claremore, Okla.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
