Those Who Made History…Ours Buildings rise from hillsides where sheep once grazed. Founder Matilda Dodge Wilson no longer hosts tea at her home and Chancellor Woody Varner stopped walking the corridors of North Foundation Hall long ago. One thing, though, remains the same for the class of 1963 – a sense of pride at being the first graduates of Oakland University. In October, the charter class returned to campus for a 40th reunion. Read More  |
Bringing New Chairs to the TableFrom Maggie Allesee’s chair in the School of Nursing and the John F. Dodge Professorship in Engineering to alumnus Barry Klein’s, CAS ’68, new endowed chair in culture and globalization for the College of Arts and Sciences, endowments work to strengthen OU programs by directly supporting professors, their research and the kind of work that is bringing national and international distinction to Oakland with increasing frequency. Read More |
Easing the Aging Process At Oakland University, being on the cutting edge means more than simply mastering a new technology or learning a new computer program. It’s about people, about looking ahead and being prepared to face the needs of tomorrow. A new graduate program in the School of Nursing does just that, training nurses to care for America’s aging Baby Boomer generation, a need that will continue to grow each year. Read More |
Taking Stock Balaji Rajagopalan is getting the message about the stock market – up to a half million messages on certain individual stocks alone. The associate professor of management information systems for OU’s School of Business Administration is collaborating with professors from the University of Texas, Austin, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, on a $500,000 National Science Foundation study of online investing. At the heart of the study are investment message boards on popular Internet sites. Read More |
The Poetry of Teaching Jane Eberwein has been changing lives for more than 30 years as a professor of English at Oakland University. One of the nation’s leading Emily Dickinson scholars, she has brought distinction to the university through her research and expertise. OU’s Board of Trustees recognized her achievements recently by naming her one of four new distinguished professors. The board touted her numerous teaching and research awards, her service on many university and department committees, including the University Senate, and her tireless encouragement of countless students. Read More |
Rx For a Good Relationship On campus at Oakland University, Terri Orbuch is known as associate professor of sociology. On WNIC 100.3 FM’s Breakfast Club program, however, she’s the “Love Doctor.” And listeners can’t seem to get enough of her medicine. Read More |
Take Her Advice When it comes to advice on marriage and family, it’s always best to consult an expert. Oakland University alumna Bobbie Baker fits that bill – she’s got the counseling credentials and more than 50 years of marriage to back it up. Baker has helped hundreds of couples work through their problems in her role as counseling director for Trinity Family Counseling Center. Read More |
Holding Court The first time Brian Gregory faced the media throng, he was prepared for a lot of tough questions. Amid the mob of TV cameras, reporters and photographers, Gregory was beaming. Nearly 17 years in the making, this day was the product of careful choices and thousands of hours of hard work. He was finally a college basketball head coach, chosen by the University of Dayton to lead its program. The 1990 OU graduate is now one of the hottest rookie head coaches on the major college scene. Read More |
Safety NetImagine going to work each day doing all you can to protect your fellow employees and keep the workplace safe, no matter what the situation. No pressure, right? Graduates of Oakland University’s Industrial Health and Safety (IHS) program know that a company’s most important asset isn’t dollars and cents. It’s people. Read More |
Winning the Game of Life For OU charter class graduate Elaine Henshon, life has been a game and a series of strategic moves. The education major who swore never to teach ended up making kids wrack their brains as a developer of electronic games for Milton Bradley. She influenced a decade’s worth of Smith College students, not by teaching, but by directing engineering programs and convincing members of the all-female student body to get work experience through summer internships. Read More |
Banking On a Solid Foundation Michael Vallee never planned to be a banker. But when the English major traded in Dante for credit reports, he never looked back. Seven years after retiring, the former president and CEO of Fidelity Bank is still an enthusiastic cheerleader for the financial institution he helped build. “It’s a wonderful bank with a powerful balance sheet,” Vallee says. Read More |
Seeing the World Through New Eyes Mary Puzerski Sloan doesn’t describe herself as a globetrotter, but through her travels she’s helping people see the world more clearly. A special education teacher for more than three decades, she opened the eyes of young children to the world of learning. Now the OU charter class graduate travels to developing countries with eye missionaries, offering examinations and eyeg.lass fittings to thousands in Peru and Grenada Read More |
The New Freshmen Today’s OU freshmen don’t care much for politics, they’re often liberal, drink less than their counterparts of a decade ago and usually live within an hour of campus. In the new millennium, freshmen spend less time studying and more time surfing the Internet. At some 2,100 students strong, OU’s freshmen class is almost four times larger than the entire student body of 1959, the year Oakland opened. Read More |