Looking Back: Digging through The Oakland Post archives
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 University, we have also documented its history.
Throughout the process of organizing the piles of papers (and junk) that has been growing since any current employees can remember, we’ve dug up some pretty interesting coverage from the past. Here are some summer stories from back in the day.
June 17, 1992
After months of debate, it was decided that the bookstore in the basement of the Oakland Center would be controlled by Barnes & Noble. The Board of Trustees approved the measure during a meeting on June 10, 1992, and said that the arrangement would last for a minimum of five years. Before this partnership, Oakland University owned the bookstore. The reason for the change? It would lead to better customer satisfaction and to a $1.8 million-dollar lease. In addition, all seven full-time employees would be able to keep their jobs with equal or better pay from Barnes & Noble, as the salary scales fit into OU’s pay scales. Today, Barnes & Noble remains in the basement of the Oakland Center and sells student apparel, textbooks, and electronics. Students can even now buy laptops without leaving campus.
June 15, 2005
OU added a track program in the fall of 2005, making the fall 2016 season the track team’s 11th season in play. OU went right into the program as a Division I team in the Mid-Continent Conference. The plan at the time was to increase the roster of runners up to 80-100 players.
In the 2016 season, there were 31 men and 54 women on the track team’s roster. This school year saw the men’s team coming home with a Horizon League Championship. Furthermore, four Golden Grizzlies runners just qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
The track and field season starts in December. More information about the schedule and more sports-related news can be found at goldengrizzlies.com.
May 11, 2011
Oakland Post Managing Editor Nichole Seguin ran an opinion piece on the lack of Moodle engagement on the part of OU professors. She said, in part, “grades shouldn’t be a secret; they should be visible at all times.” She went on further, asking the reader, “How are professors, who have earned Ph.D.s, getting hired without even basic Internet proficiency?”
Last summer, current Managing Editor Grace Turner wrote a story on how Moodle was still being misused. There is no formal requirement saying that professors need to take a training course on Moodle, though they are provided for free. In addition, if a professor takes an optional class about quality online teaching and then teaches a class within a year, they can receive $1,000.
Today at OU, there are workshops that professors can attend in order to better utilize Moodle in the classroom. Starting on August 9, 2016, a three-day workshop will be held in 430 Kresge and online. The program is designed for “intermediate Moodle users” and will have a variety of hands-on examples. More information about the program can be found at the calendar page on www.oakland.edu.