Oakland University

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Oakland University
Oakland University seal.svg
Motto Seguir virtute e canoscenza (Italian)
Motto in English Seek virtue and knowledge
Established 1957
Type Public
Endowment $56.3 million[1]
President Gary Russi
Students 19,379 (Fall 2011)[2]
Undergraduates 15,838
Postgraduates 3,541
Location Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States
Campus Suburban
Colors Black, Gold          
Mascot Golden Grizzlies
Website http://www.oakland.edu
Oakland University

Oakland University is a public university co-founded by Matilda Dodge Wilson and John A. Hannah whose 1,500-acre (6.1 km2) campus is located in central Oakland County, Michigan, United States in the cities of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills.[3] It is the only major research university in Oakland County, from which OU derives its name.[4] The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has classified OU as a Doctoral Research University.[5]

Oakland University was initially under the banner of Michigan State University. Michigan State University–Oakland, or MSU-O as it was called, opened in 1959 with 570 students and three buildings. In 1963, MSU-O became known as Oakland University. [6]

Contents

History [edit]

Meadow Brook Hall

Oakland University was created in 1957 when Matilda Dodge Wilson, widow of automobile magnate John Francis Dodge, and her second husband, Alfred Wilson, donated their 1,500-acre (6.1 km2) estate to Michigan State University, including Meadow Brook Hall, Sunset Terrace and all the estate's other buildings and collections, along with $2 million. Main campus buildings were completed near Squirrel Road in Pontiac Township (now the city of Auburn Hills). Originally known as Michigan State University–Oakland, the university enrolled its first students in 1959 and was renamed Oakland University in 1963. The university has been officially independent since 1970.[7] Wilson asked U.S. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield to let the university use a Rochester, Michigan mailing address, even though the main part of the campus was in Pontiac Township. After reminding Summerfield that she had contributed to his administration, Summerfield granted her request.[8] The city of Rochester is five miles (8 km) from the main campus buildings.

For the Fall 2011 semester, OU had an enrollment of 19,379 students.[9] The current president of the university is Dr. Gary Russi, who replaced Dr. Sandra Packard on an interim basis in 1995 and was appointed president by the Board of Trustees in 1996.

During the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, Oakland University hosted a debate between Republican presidential candidates on November 9, 2011. CNBC televised the debate nationally, and the Michigan Republican Party co-sponsored the debate with CNBC.[10][11] Eight candidates participated: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum.

On February 12th, 2013, the Oakland University Board of Trustees approved a $65 million investment in campus expansion and improvement projects. Scheduled for completion by the fall of 2014, projects included are: construction of a nearly $30 million student housing complex; dramatic enhancement of outdoor recreation and athletic fields; construction of a 1,240-space parking structure, and; construction of new headquarters for facility and grounds maintenance operations.[12]

Motto [edit]

Oakland University's motto is Seguir virtute e canoscenza ("Seek virtue and knowledge").[13] It is a quotation from Dante's Inferno, Canto XXVI, 1. 120. These are the final words of Ulysses' speech to his men urging them to sail on in pursuit of knowledge and experience of the world – even beyond the pillars of Hercules, traditionally the frontier and limit of legitimate exploration.

The three-line stanza:

Considerate la vostra semenza
Fatti non foste a viver come bruti
Ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza.

Consider your birth
You were not made to live like brutes
But to follow virtue and wisdom.

Academics [edit]

Oakland University offers 139 bachelor's degree programs and 127 graduate programs (professional certificates, masters degrees, and doctoral degrees). The main academic units of the university are the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business Administration, the School of Education and Human Services, the School of Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Health Sciences, and the School of Nursing. Additionally, OU supports an Honors College and various study abroad programs.

The Oakland University – Beaumont Nurse Anesthesia Graduate Program began in 1991 as a collaborative initiative to address the nurse anesthesia shortage and provide an exceptional educational environment for training Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists. Authority for the program is shared between Oakland University and Beaumont Health System.[14][15] In 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked the program tied for 17th in the nation.[16]

Oakland University's School of Business Administration (SBA) is one of only 170 business schools – out of 8,000 worldwide – to hold the elite AACSB-International accreditation in both business and accounting, and also offers Michigan’s only Executive MBA program with concentrations in Health Care and IS Leadership.[17] In 2009, the SBA celebrated its 40th anniversary.

In 2008, Oakland University officials announced that the Thomas M. Cooley Law School-Auburn Hills campus has become the exclusive educational law school of Oakland University, and that Oakland University is now the exclusive education partner university of Cooley Law School's Auburn Hills campus.[18]

In 2011, plans to establish a medical school on the OU campus in partnership with William Beaumont Hospital called the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OUWB) came to fruition. The medical school, which is the fourth in the state of Michigan to offer the M.D. degree, received over 3,200 applications for the inaugural class of 50 students.[19] The founding dean of the Medical School is Robert Folberg.

As part of its research mission, OU also supports a number of major research centers and institutes, including the Center for Biomedical Research, the Center for Robotics and Advanced Automation, the Fastening and Joining Research Institute, the Human Systems Initiative, and the renowned Eye Research Institute. Furthermore, OU's Smart Zone Business Incubator (OU INC) provides entrepreneurial resources and expertise to support and foster new technology-based and life science businesses.

Research institutes and centers [edit]

OU is home to major research institutes and centers addressing a broad range of interests and industries, including biomedical, public affairs, technology, engineering, education, international studies, and more.

Culture and the arts [edit]

The Kresge Library as seen from the Dodge Hall of Engineering

Oakland University is home to Meadow Brook Hall, which is a 110-room Tudor revival–style mansion completed in 1929 as OU founder Matilda Dodge Wilson's Oakland County estate, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Meadow Brook Hall is the fourth-largest historic house museum in the United States, and houses a vast collection of historically significant art and furniture, including paintings by Rembrandt, Anthony van Dyck, Rosa Bonheur, Gilbert Stuart, Joshua Reynolds, John Constable, and Thomas Gainsborough, as well as sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye, Frederic Remington, Cyrus Edwin Dallin, and Herbert Haseltine. Meadow Brook Hall is frequently utilized by the OU community as a site for select university functions, including the popular student event the Meadow Brook Ball.[20] Until 2010, Meadow Brook Hall and its grounds were the site of the annual Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance, one of the largest collector car shows in the world.[21]

OU's campus is home to the Meadow Brook Music Festival, an outdoor entertainment venue with an on-site pavilion, which accommodates close to 8,000 people. In addition to being the site of spring-time graduation ceremonies, Meadow Brook Music Festival also hosts comedians and musical acts. Meadow Brook Music Festival is managed by Palace Sports and Entertainment.[22]

Meadow Brook Theatre, which was founded at OU in 1967, is the largest non-profit professional theater in Michigan, and presents a wide variety of award-winning productions throughout the year. Additionally, the Oakland University Art Gallery, which was formerly known as the Meadow Brook Art Gallery, presents at least six different exhibitions each academic year, in addition to hosting a variety of lectures, performances and symposia.

Campus and community [edit]

In addition to its geographic location between the cities of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Oakland University maintains an official hometown relationship with the neighboring city of Rochester, Michigan.[4] University and city officials signed a partnership agreement in 2003 to officially recognize the relationship between Rochester and OU.[23] In 2005, Rochester was ranked 39th in the CNN/Money Magazine list of the Top 100 American cities in which to live.[24]

OU's campus, which encompasses 1,500 acres (6.1 km2), includes trails and biking paths and two nationally-ranked golf courses. In 2009, an 18-hole disc golf course opened. Grizzly Oaks was co-designed by student Jarrett Schlaff and licensed by the Professional Disc Golf Association.[25]

Although many of Oakland's students commute from surrounding areas, there are more than 2,000 who live on campus in a variety of residence halls, student townhouses, and university apartments.[26] The residence halls include Fitzgerald House, Hill House, Hamlin Hall, Van Wagoner House, and the East and West Towers of Vandenberg Hall. Residential learning communities on OU's campus include Scholars Tower and the Residential Honors College community. Eight additional buildings make up the Matthews Court student townhouses, and six major Tudor-style buildings house the University Student Apartments, which were completed in 2002.

The campus also offers recreational facilities for intramural sports and for OU's 16 NCAA Division I athletic teams, including the lighted Upper Athletic Fields, the indoor Sports Dome, fields for varsity baseball, softball, and soccer, facilities for basketball, handball, track and weight training. The campus Recreation Center houses OU's state-of-the-art natatorium, and the Athletics Center O'rena, a 4,000-seat field house, is the home court for OU basketball and volleyball.

OU's student union, the Oakland Center, was renovated and expanded in 2003. The Oakland Center houses the offices of student organizations, a large food court with multiple restaurants, the student bookstore, a cafe, a pool hall and gaming center, a Student Technology Center, the campus newspaper The Oakland Post, computer labs, conference rooms, as well as the offices of the university radio station, WXOU (88.3 FM). OU also has its own television station (OU TV) which is broadcast on-campus and to the local community. Campus life is enhanced by more than 200 registered student organizations, ranging from cultural and religious groups to Greek organizations. Fraternities represented at OU include Sigma Pi, Theta Chi, Tau Kappa Epsilon, Alpha Phi Alpha and Iota Phi Theta. Sororities include Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Sigma Tau, Gamma Phi Beta, Phi Sigma Sigma, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho. The so-called Cottage District of campus, which consists of homes originally built for workers employed at the old Meadow Brook Estate, now contains fraternity and sorority houses. Only one(Theta Chi) has an official chapter house off-campus.[citation needed] Additionally, the university owns an adjoining tract of land to the east of the main university campus, which was developed into a neighborhood in which many OU faculty members currently live.

In 2009, OU created a bicycle sharing system called OU Bike Share. The program was started with 30 bicycles available for use free of charge on the honor system.[27] The bicycles are labeled with a yellow "OU Bike Share" band.

Public relations [edit]

In September 2009, tenured faculty members represented by the OU chapter of the AAUP went on strike.[28] Issues of contention included the University claiming ownership of professors' copyrights and patents[29] and refusing to allow faculty input into matters of class size and curricula,[30] reduction of health benefits, and a three-year freeze of salaries (particularly since the university president, Gary Russi, had just received a $100,000 raise).[28] The University Board of Trustees maintained that the strike was illegal and filed a lawsuit against the Oakland AAUP.[30] After a week's strike, the faculty and administration came to a tentative agreement on a three-year contract, which was implemented.[31]

In January 2012, student Joseph Corlett was suspended for a year from Oakland University after the Student Conduct Hearing Committee allowed his "Daybook" assignment in his English 380 Advanced Critical Writing class to be used against him despite written warnings from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) that the assignment was constitutionally protected speech. Professor Pamela Mitzelfeld brought Unlawful Individual Activities charges against Corlett after reading his "Hot for Teacher" essay in his Daybook. In addition, Corlett is "persona non grata" (person not wanted) on campus, must undergo psychological counseling before readmittance, and will remain on probation as long as he is enrolled.[32]

On March 15, 2013, Joseph Corlett filed a 2.2 million dollar federal lawsuit against Oakland University alleging violations of his 1st and 14th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. [33]

Athletics [edit]

Main article: Oakland Golden Grizzlies

A notable song commonly played and sung at various events, such as commencement, convocation, and athletic games, is the Oakland University fight song, OU Fight.

Previously known as the "Pioneers", their teams are now known as the "Golden Grizzlies".

Oakland University has in the past been used as a training camp for the Detroit Lions.[34]

Oakland University's men's soccer team became the first Oakland team to move past the first round of their sport's respective NCAA tournament in 2007.[35]

Notable alumni [edit]

Arts and entertainment

Sports and media

Government and politics

Law

Business

Education

References [edit]

  1. ^ As of January 17, 2012. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2011 Endowment Market Value and Percentage Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2010 to FY 2011" (PDF). 2011 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowment Results. National Association of College and University Business Officers. Retrieved March 20, 2012. 
  2. ^ "Fall Headcount & FYES 1959–2011". oakland.edu. 
  3. ^ "Oakland University – Campus Map". 
  4. ^ a b "About the Community". 
  5. ^ "Carnegie Classifications | Institution Profile". Classifications.carnegiefoundation.org. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  6. ^ http://www.meadowbrookhall.org/explore/history/oaklandu-history
  7. ^ "OU Timeline – OU History". 
  8. ^ "OU Timeline – OU History". "1958: Matilda Wilson demands that the university's address match Meadow Brook Hall's Rochester address, even though the main campus lies in Pontiac Township (now Auburn Hills). She prevailed by reminding U.S. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield that she had been a generous contributor to his Republican administration." 
  9. ^ "Fall Headcount & FYES 1959–2009". Oakland University. 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2010. 
  10. ^ "Debate at Oakland". Oakland University. Retrieved December 25, 2012. 
  11. ^ Oosting, Jonathan (November 10, 2011). "Who stood out at GOP debate? Oakland University faculty, students weigh in (poll)". MLive.com. Retrieved December 25, 2012. 
  12. ^ http://www.oakland.edu/view_news.aspx?sid=34&nid=9712
  13. ^ "OU Motto, Seal and Logo – OU History – Oakland University". Oakland.edu. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  14. ^ "Certified Nurse Anesthesia Graduate Program". Beaumont.edu. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  15. ^ "Master of Science in Nursing – Nurse Anesthesia (CRNA) – Graduate Admissions – Oakland University, Rochester, MI". .oakland.edu. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  16. ^ "Best Nursing Anesthesia Programs | Top Nursing Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools". Grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  17. ^ "SBA Graduate Programs Home Page – SBA Graduate & Executive Education – Oakland University". Oakland.edu. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  18. ^ "News – News at OU – Oakland University". Oakland.edu. September 15, 2008. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  19. ^ "Oakland University William Beaumont School Of Medicine Welcomes First Class – Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine – Oakland University". Oakland.edu. August 8, 2011. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  20. ^ "Students vying for Meadow Brook Ball tickets flood the basement of the Oakland Center » The Oakland Post". Oaklandpostonline.com. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  21. ^ "General Info". Concoursusa.org. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  22. ^ "Palace Sports & Entertainment". Palacenet.com. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  23. ^ "OU and City of Rochester announce partnership". 
  24. ^ "Rochester, OU’s college town ranked in top 100 cities". 
  25. ^ "Grizzly Oaks disc golf opens » The Oakland Post". Oaklandpostonline.com. September 16, 2009. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  26. ^ "Ask OU – Housing – Oakland University". Oakland.edu. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  27. ^ "Bike Share Program offers free, healthy transportation in fall 2009". Oakland University. April 20, 2009. Retrieved September 19, 2009. 
  28. ^ a b David N. Goodman, "Strike by Professors Leads to Canceled Classes in Michigan." Associated Press via The New York Times: September 3, 2009
  29. ^ Audrey Williams June, "Strike Settled, Oakland U. Professors Return to the Classroom." The Chronicle of Higher Education: September 10, 2009
  30. ^ a b Santiago Esparza and Mike Martindale, "OU Lawsuit: Strike is Illegal", The Detroit News, September 8, 2009
  31. ^ Jeff Greer, "Oakland University in Michigan's Strike Ends." US News and World Report: September 10, 2009
  32. ^ "‘Hot for Teacher’ Case Hits the Press Again – The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education". FIRE. March 14, 2012. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  33. ^ http://thefire.org/article/15552.html
  34. ^ George, Thomas (August 7, 1989). "Toothless Lions Hope to 'Restore the Roar'". The New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2009. 
  35. ^ www.ougrizzlies.com
  36. ^ a b c d e f g h "From Freddy Krueger to Olympic athletes". The Oakland Press. March 18, 2005. Retrieved September 10, 2009. 
  37. ^ "From Pop-Ups to Pop Quizzes: Former Tiger Now a Classroom All-Star". royaloak.patch.com. Retrieved September 25, 2012. 
  38. ^ "A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost – Oakland University". Oakland.edu. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  39. ^ "N.R. Narayana Murthy – Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost – Oakland University". Oakland.edu. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  40. ^ "Supreme Industries Update - Press Releases". 

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Coordinates: 42°40′22″N 83°12′57″W / 42.672659°N 83.215776°W / 42.672659; -83.215776

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