The Oakland Post talked to amateur historian Stephen Armica to help us with the Looking Back Issue. It took us a while to realize that he had no idea what he was talking about, but we still have an issue to fill, so here you go.

From the tumultuous sixties to the early 1970s, Oakland University hosted a number of weird and radical things. Most were collective expressions of independence from the Nixon-Era Gulags and overflowing Watergates. But there’s one that stands out above the rest.

The Oakstock Concert was first thought of when two students, eager to bring the hippy movement to Rochester Hills, started cleaning out a portion of the woods behind the golf course on campus every night after they got baked. After months of cleaning, building stages and smoking a TON of weed, they finally had a venue.

The concert, they decided, would be about the movement to end the Vietnam War. They chose local bands and giants among the Michigan musical elite. They even asked Bob Dylan to give a performance, which did not go well.

But as the day approached, the College Republicans, headed by Harold Wilmington III and his father, a Wall Street executive who never loved poor Harold, began making efforts to destroy the venue.

And thus sparked the war between the College Republicans and the Oakstock planning committee. No war on campus was stronger and more potent than the constant shredding of midterm papers by the republicans and the planting of marijuana by the planning committee, (which probably was a lot harsher than the midterm thing, but still).

These and similar acts continued to culminate until it crescendoed into the destruction of the entire venue.

Back in those times, the College Republicans had a specific location for meetings. The group had its own office, much like the other political action committees on campus. So, the day before the event was to be held, the planning committee broke into the College Republican headquarters and set up a stage there.

By the time the College Republicans found out, the concert was already well on its way. Although tickets were limited, they charged more than was intended and still sold out.

At that point, there was nothing the College Republicans could do. The group lost the most important battle, and its office would smell like weed for months.

This was a fascinating point in history because when the College Republicans accepted defeat, the group decided to join the Oakstock planning committee.

They sang, they danced and they joined in the laughter and song of their generation. And the campus was better for it.

In the time after the College Republicans and the Oakstock planning committee joined hand-in-hand, the campus saw a unified time of peace and brotherhood. Progressive acts by the administration benefited everyone on campus.

But of course, the recent presidential election threw that out the window. Now we can all go back to arguing with each other.