Cameron’s 100-year history of serving southwest Oklahoma

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - Cameron has served the Lawton Community for more than 100 years.

The school’s beginnings trace back to 1908 when it started out as an agricultural high school. Cameron broke into higher education in 1927, and then became a full-fledged Junior College in 1941. Cameron added bachelor’s degrees in the 1970s, while graduate programs were developed in the 1980s.

Keith Mitchell, Cameron’s Director of Public Affairs, says that the state’s first legislature determined the rural families of western Oklahoma needed more schools which led to the creation of Cameron University.

“When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, one of the things our first legislature determined was that in rural areas, especially out in western Oklahoma, there were not enough schools for farm families,” said Mitchell. “It was tough for them to travel to school everyday. You had an elementary education, but high schools were few and far between.”

Now it seems Cameron is going back to its roots. This fall, Cameron will have more high school students taking college courses concurrently at the university than there are at any high school in southwest Oklahoma.

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