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No Worries, OU: Rochester Isn't Ready to Let You Go

City officials respond to a callout for the university's address to be changed from Rochester to Auburn Hills.

  • Where is Oakland University, in your opinion?

    (Voting has been closed for this question)
    • Rochester
        77 (53%)
    • Auburn Hills
        12 (8%)
    • Rochester Hills
        55 (38%)
    Total votes: 144
  • Your vote will only count once. This is not a scientific poll. View Results Vote!
 

When a national audience heard "Live from Rochester, Michigan" at the start of the GOP Presidential Debate last November, leaders of the city the university calls "home" were beyond proud.

"From our perspective, it's obviously a really good thing to get the recognition from OU because it's growing, internationally, as an institution," said Rochester City Manager Jaymes Vettraino.

But according to published reports, a neighboring city wants to get in on that pride.

Auburn Hills leaders told a writer for The Oakland Press earlier this month that it's time the university acknowledged its geographic position to this international audience it is attracting.

“We want OU to start recognizing that they are in Auburn Hills, which is a world-class, high-tech area in the community," Auburn Hills City Councilman Henry Knight told the newspaper writer.

While the campus sits partly in Rochester Hills and partly in Auburn Hills, its address is officially Rochester — a town that's technically 5 miles away.

According to a historical timeline of university events, when Matilda Wilson donated the land and the money for the university in the 1950s, she "demanded" that the address be Rochester — and asked the U.S. Postmaster to make sure it could be so.

Auburn Hills councilwoman Anne Doyle, an OU professor, called the Rochester address "ludicrous."

In his Monday column in The Detroit News, Neal Rubin put the issue in perspective.

"Ask anyone — including OU students — where you'll find the school, and there's an overwhelming likelihood the answer will be Rochester," Rubin wrote.

"If you stood at the border of Rochester, however, and decided to walk to class, you'd be in for a surprise. And you'd be late."

In both published reports, Auburn Hills officials hinted that they are urging university officials to consider changing the address.

Vettraino said the city of Rochester is not taking an official position advocating one way or another. "From our perspective, it's an issue specific to OU itself — it's their address," Vettraino said. "Certainly we reference OU as a great local institution, just like Chrysler in Auburn Hills and Rochester College in Rochester Hills."

"Locally, I think people understand where it's located in relationship to the city of Rochester and they understand it's a way to honor a person."

Related Topics: oakland university
Do you think OU's address should be changed? Tell us in the comments.

E Reidy

7:33 am on Wednesday, March 28, 2012

An enormous gift given with a contingency. Honor it.

Reply

Grandma

9:49 pm on Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Matilda Wilson's request should be honored. She also felt that the grounds of Oakland University should be open for people to walk through, take pictures (including wedding pictures) and enjoy without a charge to the public. Evidentally she was a wonderful woman of forethought.

Reply

David Gifford

10:34 pm on Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Oakland University is distanced from Rochester in proximity and involvement as well. Although the Bear Bus does go as far as downtown Rochester, if you take a look online, only one of the local bars or restaurants advertises a college night or college special. When I went to WMU, even though downtown Kalamazoo is a bit distant from the campus, some restaurants offered a Sunday student discount. The music school even built a jazz lounge/bar/performance space downtown that served great martinis and featured student musicians. If Rochester wants to claim OU as its own, and it should, it needs to open its arms a little wider to the students.

Reply

Tonya Wilson

8:51 am on Saturday, April 7, 2012

AUBURN HILLS should focus on having its own school district K-12 before going after any University.

Reply

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