For years, the corner of Caddo and Davis had a sign, photographed by The Southwestern’s Amanda Taylor, saying, “Future Home of The Jerry & Margaret Hodge Center for Pharmacy & Rural Health” above two mockup images of what this building was meant to look like. As time progressed, the field behind that sign became a construction site. That construction site turned into the Hodge Center, and next fall, it will be a building used by students in pursuit of pharmaceutical and rural health education. But this story has been in motion for years now, so long ago that the first Southwestern article written regarding the Hodge Center will have been published five full years before it will be open to students. So, the question I and many others have been asking is, “What’s up with Hodge?” 

The earliest announcement I can find regarding The Hodge Center was in June of 2021 from KSWO News 7 out of Lawton, discussing the monumental $5 million donation from Jerry and Margaret Hodge for the center. Interestingly enough, this article includes this mockup from SWOSU of what the center was originally supposed to look like and where it was supposed to be, both of which are drastically different from reality.

This version of the Hodge Center would have been adjacent to the Chemistry, Pharmacy, Physics building and the Science Building alongside Bradley St. This would have had to have been a significantly smaller building than the one we have now, given the available space at this location compared to the space of the current location. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in June of 2022, making the new location of the Hodge Center official. 

While the initial budget was $10 million, with the additional $5 million donated by the Hodges alongside the $7 million from a sales tax initiative out of Weatherford, another $5 million was added in May of 2023 from Oklahoma House Bill 1188. Oklahoma State House Speaker Pro Tempore Anthony Moore, who helped to pass this bill, told me that, “Funding for the Hodge Center is not only a wise decision for Oklahoma, but it’s a vital investment into rural healthcare throughout the state. It was an easy decision to fund this investment because the application and project were widely considered as the gold standard for all ARPA applications due to the private funding piece combined with public buy-in through the Yes! Weatherford campaign, and then the final piece of the puzzle being the request from the legislature.” This, combined with other various funds, brought the current budget of the building to $27 million dollars, which could certainly explain the increase of the size and the construction goals of the building. 

Construction officially began during the summer of 2024, with the exterior construction finished soon after and the interior construction due to be finished within the next several months. The goal is to have the Hodge Center ready for use by the 2026 fall semester. 

This building is going to have a large impact on SWOSU’s Pharmacy and other Health Science programs, so I reached out to a few members of these programs to learn more. I was unable to get a quote back from any of them, unfortunately, but I did manage to land an interview with an important person behind the scenes, SWOSU Vice President for Administration and Finance, Lori Boyd.  

I started by asking about when Hodge opens. From the outside, Hodge seems finished, so when do students get to start using it? Mrs. Boyd explained that it is very much nearing completion; in fact, there is already furniture being moved into Hodge as of this article’s release. The grand opening for the building will be on March 12th, which will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony and opportunities for people to come and tour the building before it becomes operational. It will be officially opened for student usage for the fall semester of 2026. 

Despite how it has felt to some of us, construction really hasn’t been such a long and arduous process. For starters, they could not finalize the construction plans until the budget was settled, reasonably so. If they had not waited, the budget would have gotten much larger on a building designed to be smaller. Once the budget was finalized and the contractor bid was won, they moved quickly forward into the building process. Overall, despite how it has felt for us students at times, it all moved quite swiftly and efficiently.  

Mrs. Boyd also told me about how this allows the wonderful opportunity Hodge is giving to more than just SWOSU Pharmacy, but the greater impact this allows Allied Health as a whole. Now, Allied Health gets to all move into the top floor of the CPP building, rather than being strung out in different buildings on campus. This will allow SWOSU’s Allied Health program to be far more efficient by being stationed together and give other buildings more space for classes within them.  

When I asked about how the building was doing, both budget and schedule-wise, Mrs. Boyd was happy to inform that Hodge has both managed to have been built under budget and ahead of schedule. Initially, the building was not supposed to be completed until the end of March, but it should be almost entirely done from middle to late January. If anything, the March grand opening is more to allow some open space in case classic Oklahoma weather gets in the way. 

Another smaller but still noteworthy effect of the transition is the replacement of our funniest-named building on campus, CPP (aka Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Physics). As a result of the departments both entering and exiting the building, it is being renamed the Randy L. Beutler building in honor of our former school president, who was the first president to be working on the Hodge Center. 

My final question was whether or not there were any more buildings coming to campus anytime soon. The answer was a very prompt no. But that doesn’t mean that there is no work to be done or being done at SWOSU post-Hodge completion. There is always an opportunity to improve our campus, be it general maintenance or renovations being brought all around SWOSU. That goal will receive only more focus once Hodge is done. 

All in all, my interview with Mrs. Boyd was very eye-opening on how well this process has been moving, and how exciting the new opportunities the Hodge Center will be providing are. There exists a group of students who have watched this process over the years wondering if they would see its completion. Some have since graduated, but the beautiful thing is that ultimately, we are getting to witness a brighter future for SWOSU. While there is one more graduating class before the official student usage begins, there will be many more classes who get to enjoy the many wonderful opportunities afforded to them in the future. While I began my research skeptical and concerned asking “What’s up with Hodge?” All I can see now is the hopeful future provided to hundreds, if not thousands, of our future students very soon.