Alumni here that graduated a few years ago. I'm a brown guy (that matters in this context.)
During my time there, the university was super obsessed with being in the top XX list. From what I could see, that obsession wasn't channeled through research but through superficial things like new buildings and multi-million dollar stadium. Why? Because that's what all big and famous universities have! Look at that big lawn. It does nothing of function but boy does it look majestic.
The push for fairness and equality etc was REALLY needed. Racism was just a way of life. I witnessed tenured professors in the CS department make very causal racist remarks. There was a black guy who was upset that the professor always chose his project/team to be the "Black team". After he left, the prof casually said "well at least he didn't shoot the place up". Perhaps the most ironic was an Indian prof who seemed to hate all other Indians. If you were black people assumed you were there for sports and not because you really were smart and interested in education.
Some of the comments in the linked article will give you an idea of the bubble that Tulsa/Oklahoma lives in. People claiming it's the liberal agenda and "social justice" that was unnecessary and ruined it. Sure, if you're white and born in Oklahoma it's unnecessary.
Funny enough after graduating and moving to the west coast I'm not reminded of my skin color every day.