The Oakland Post

OU needs to reach out to Wayne County

By SETH WALKER
Posted: Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 at 12:57 pm | Last Updated: Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 at 1:02 pm Comments Print This Email This Tweet This Delicious

Oakland University is a great school with a lot to offer.

Students living in Oakland and Macomb counties are aware of this, but the same may not be true for those from Wayne County.

If you were to ask various students at Oakland where they are from, chances are that the majority will name a place in either Oakland or Macomb.

Though there are students that come from other parts of Michigan and even outside of the state, according to Oakland’s office of institutional studies, 77.8 percent the university’s students, graduate and undergraduate, come from Macomb and Oakland counties.

Nearly one out of three OU students come from Macomb County thanks in part to the outreach program it has launched there.

Students from Utica and Shelby Township are not far from the main campus, but those aren’t the only communities represented in Macomb.

Many of these students can take advantage of the opportunity to take courses at the Macomb campus in Clinton Township, or in the newly opened campus in Mount Clemens.

Despite the strong presence of students from Oakland and Macomb counties, OU only has 7.3 percent of students from Wayne County, which is the most populous county in Metro Detroit.

Currently, Oakland does not have a formal partnership with Wayne County Community College.
Most students in Wayne that decide to go to a local university choose Wayne State, Detroit Mercy or University of Michigan-Dearborn instead of making the journey to OU.  Only a few students in this county are choosing to enroll at Oakland, and that’s alarming.

Though this can be understandable to an extent as Wayne students have multiple options for local schools to attend within their county, students should not ignore what OU has to offer.

Instead, Oakland should do more to attract students from Wayne so Metro Detroit can be fully represented on campus.
Wayne State, a local university often compared with Oakland, has a reputation for attracting students from all three counties in Metro Detroit with its location in Detroit’s cultural center, and it’s many programs.

According to Wayne State’s website, 46 percent of the university’s students come from Wayne County, 22.7 percent come from Oakland and 15.7 percent of students come from Macomb.

In  fact, there have been students who have transferred to Wayne State from Oakland in many instances.

In order for Oakland to be taken more seriously as a school, it should consider increasing its efforts to attract students from Wayne while its trying to configure its brand.

Currently, Oakland does not have a problem attracting student athletes from Wayne since it is one of the two main Division I schools in Metro Detroit along with Detroit Mercy.

However, Oakland will require another strategy to lure other students from this county.

Oakland benefits from a great location in suburban Detroit.

This is not to downgrade Wayne State, it is a great school with its own advantages, but students in Wayne should be aware of the alternatives that Oakland offers.

They should also know about the programs offered at Oakland such as journalism, communications, nursing and elementary education.

If students in Wayne are aware of the advantages that Oakland provides, then they will not view the idea of
going one county up as being too inconvenient to get a college education.