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Looking Back

In Looking Back, we dig through our archived issues to examine coverage by all of The Oakland Post’s previous iterations, which date back to 1959. Over the years, we’ve gone by various names: The Oakland Observer, The Observer, The Oakland Sail and The Oakland Post. But no matter our name, our goal has remained the same: documenting the news of the university. In meeting this goal, we have also documented its history.

 

Looking Back: Digging through The Oakland Post archives

Cheyanne Kramer, web editor, & Paige Brockway, editor-in-chief

This summer, The Oakland Post is cleaning up its newsroom, a process that involves physically archiving 57 years of news coverage. Over the years, the Post has gone by many names. We published our first issue in 1959 as The Oakland Observer and later called ourselves The Observer, The Oakland Sail and finally The Oakland Post in the fall of 1987. In documenting the news revolving around Oakland...

Looking Back: A history of The Oakland Post

Cheyanne Kramer, Web Editor

1959 was a huge year across the world. Fidel Castro became the Prime Minister in Cuba. “Bonanza” premiered on NBC as the first weekly television show to air completely in color. Mattel launched its iconic Barbie doll. The U.S. Grammy awards were held for the first time. And in 1959, Oakland University, then called MSU-O, welcomed its first class of students. Students could visit Matilda...

Looking Back: The history of Bear Lake, campus “water wonderland”
Looking Back: Oakland hosts GOP debate, Hillary Clinton
Looking Back: Birth of the bear
Looking Back: A history of LGBT acceptance on campus
Looking Back: The murder of Tina Biggar
Looking Back: The curious case of G. Rasul Chaudhry
Looking Back: The president found without a search
Looking Back: The plight of the pigeons
Looking Back: Campus reactions to the Vietnam War
Looking back: Students in D.C. during assassination attempt
Looking back: Spring break in Daytona Beach then and now
Looking Back: China, then and now
Looking Back: The deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and OU’s first African American graduate
Looking Back: Roosevelt Dawson and Dr. Death
Looking Back: Caught in the act in South Foundation Hall
Six years since last men’s basketball NCAA invite

Looking Back: University presidential searches meet Michigan Open Meetings Act

Cheyanne Kramer, Web Editor

In 1980, Oakland University's presidential search committee interviewed six candidates in secret closed sessions. Following the end of Donald O'Dowd's nine-year term as president, George Matthews had been appointed interim president. After receiving an anonymous tip about the meetings, Oakland Sail went to the hotel where the closed sessions were being held. Five members of the OU Board of T...

Looking Back: Dodge Hall in flames

Looking Back: Student with autism finds mentorship, success at Oakland

Cheyanne Kramer, Web Editor

Note: Some of the language used to reference autism spectrum disorder in 1984 can be considered rude and disrespectful today. The Oakland Post understands that this is a sensitive manner, and all quotes have been taken directly from the April 9, 1984, edition of The Oakland Sail. On April 9, 1984, The Oakland Sail ran a cover story on a 22-year-old student named Richard Bearse. He was graduating that spri...

Looking Back: Drag Show throughout the years
Looking Back: MSU-O faces funding troubles

Looking Back: Marijuana Protests

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

Following “disturbances” at Michigan State University at the end of the semester, the MSU-Oakland Board of Trustees passed a resolution unanimously, declaring that “freedom requires order and discipline”. These “disturbances” were a series of student marches and sit-ins following a marijuana bust. Throughout the protests, 26 additional arrests were made, according to a 1968 issue of Mic...

Looking Back: America, Terrorized

Looking back at the Detroit Riot

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

In the early morning hours of July 23, 1967, an after-hours club celebrating the return of two Vietnam war servicemen was shut down by a mostly white Detroit police force. The 85 people inside the bar were taken away in police cars. By the time they were all escorted out, a crowd had formed and began throwing bottles at the police. One bottle even went through the window of a patrol car. By 4 ...

Looking Back: Frozen Pipes and Ceiling Collapses

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

On Jan. 5, 1992, a second set of water pipes burst between Kresge Library and Hannah Hall. This pipe burst would result in a $9,000 bill for repairs. This fix was dubbed as the “quick fix,” because university officials learned the 22-year-old lines would cost over $700,000 to replace completely. Late on Jan. 11, heat was restored to Kresge and Dodge. There was no information in The Oakland...

Looking Back: The Immorality of OU

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

Back in 1969, The Oakland Post was known as The Oakland Observer. The Observer was well known for its opinionated content about both politics and Oakland University. What kind of opinionated content? Well, the Oct. 7, 1969 issue of the Observer began a letter from the staff with the phrase “Listen here mother******." The staff at the time was certainly not afraid to publish whatever they were...

Looking Back: Psychology and Pryale House

Looking Back: Students Seize Oakland

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

It's March in 1969, and 400 students have taken over Oakland University for eight hours, preventing the normal function of the campus. It began with a group of 30 students occupying North Foundation Hall during the administrative morning coffee break. Students closed off some entrances with boards, wire, desks and by standing together with locked arms. The Oakland Observer, the student newspaper...

Looking Back: Mouthing Off
Looking Back at Focus: Oakland
Looking Back: The Oakland Observer
Looking Back: Corey Jackson
Looking Back: Jane Briggs-Bunting

Hauntings through History: Looking Back on Halloween

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

According to “Today I Found Out,” the concept of the modern-day practice of trick-or-treating began sometime in the 1920s and has been an American tradition ever since. Oakland University  is no stranger to this holiday. Hidden in the pages of one the earliest The Oakland Observer issues in our archives, we found a cover story on Halloween that was ran in 1970. Though the cover was artfully...

Looking Back: The Sex Issue(s)

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

College newspapers are meant to challenge what is expected from a news organization. But, most people don’t expect to be confronted with a cover story featuring a female student taking her top off. Well, that’s exactly what happened in 2008. The Oakland Post ran such a cover photo with a two page spread talking about sex at Oakland University. The story began with the editor-in-chief and the...

Looking Back: On the Sabbath…

Looking Back: Computer registration

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

Today, we all have portable computers. Whether it be a laptop, tablet or phone, many of us have technology right at our fingertips. The hardest part of course registration is waking up on time to get in the classes that you want. And if your dream class is filled up, you can quickly browse for another class to take its place. But in 1986, the Oakland University campus was stunned by the idea of...

Looking Back: The Meadow Brook Ball

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

The rumor many of us have heard is that the very first Meadow Brook Ball was for the first class of graduates, where Matilda Dodge Wilson graciously gave all in attendance the cost of their class rings back. This, however, isn’t completely true. On May 12, 1961, The Oakland Observer ran a very brief article about the ball held at the Wilson’s mansion. “…Mr. and Mrs. Alfred G. Wilson opened...

Looking Back: Wallace’s book store

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

In 2001, the basement of the Oakland Center had a different inhabitant: a bookstore known as Wallace’s. This bookstore used to be a franchise known by former Kentucky governor Wallace Wilkinson. However, in Feb. of 2001, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and acknowledge debts of almost $340 million. Some of these debts were to some pretty interesting creditors. His unreal $340 million debt was partly owed to...

Looking Back: Rats in Vandenberg?

Cheyanne Kramer, Managing Editor

In recent years, there has been debate on the ethics and necessity for research to be done on animals in a university setting. In 2016, around 70 protesters gathered at the University of California, Los Angeles to fight for animal rights, with one protester saying that “animal testing is unethical, unnecessary and no humans benefit from it.” The argument the protesters at UCLA had was that 90...

Looking Back: Great Lakes Crossing

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