a full TImeline of Political activity on campus
1871
School opens.
1871
First student organization called Lyceum, a literary society, forms.
1873
Protarian, later Phoenix, forms
1894
First of the Phoenix/Lyceum debates. Debates and oratorical contests would remain the preeminent of student activities well into the 1930s.
1894
Normal Advance begins publication as a voice of the student body.
1911
Booker T. Washington visits campus.
1911
Alethean holds its first Christmas “Romp” for poor children of Oshkosh providing stories, games and stockings. This becomes an annual tradition for several years until the Elks club takes over the event.
1921
Student Council forms.
1924
Jesse Jack Hooper, famous Oshkosh suffragist, addresses students with a talk titled “The International Court as a Means of Maintaining World Peace.”
1925
Junior League of Women Voters is created on campus to prepare newly franchised 21-year-old women for voting.
1940
International Relations Club organizes.
1951–1952
Young Republicans and the Young Democrats are first organized. These groups will be reorganized again in 1956, 1958, respectively.
1960
John F. Kennedy visits campus during his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, gives talk at Swart Hall and coffee hour at Reeve Memorial Union, sponsored by the Young Democrats. Hopeful Hubert H. Humphrey also campaigns on campus that year. 1964
WSU-Oshkosh “Goldwater Girls” come out to support appearances by Barry Goldwater Jr., Richard Nixon, and then the candidate himself.
1964
More than 20 students demonstrate against presidential candidate George Wallace during his visit.
1966
Pickett 255, an early alternative press with a liberal voice, begins publication, followed by others over the years, including The Blade in
1969. 1967
The Black Student Union forms to organize black students on campus and advance their cause.
1968
Dick Gregory visits; 2,500 attend. On the same day George Wallace appears downtown; many students protest with shouts of “Sieg Heil.”
1968
On Nov. 21, 94 black students and several supporters are arrested after occupying University President Roger Guiles’ office with a list of demands to make the campus more hospitable to minority students. Hundreds of white students march in protest of the treatment of those arrested, while others call for their immediate expulsion.
1969
Oshkosh Student Senate calls for a student strike if the campus administration does not make progress on black student demands. The strike is adverted but teach-ins and protests continue.
1969
On Oct.14, more than 2,000 students and citizens join others nationwide in holding a candle-lit march against the Vietnam War on Vietnam Moratorium Day.
1970
Protesting the war in Indochina, the Kent State shootings and traffic hazards on campus, students take to Algoma Boulevard in May, ripping apart the pavement and barricading the street with cars. They are met by riot police and angry citizens.
1973
Chicanos Unidos, a Hispanic student group forms, as does the Native American Student Association. Both join the BSU in establishing a meeting space that later becomes the Multicultural Education Center.
1973
Title IX forces the University to cut women’s golf, tennis, softball and field hockey club sports. Female athletes hold a funeral, complete with casket, for women’s sports in protest. 1974
The Chinese Student Association is formed.
1976
The Gay Student Association is recognized by OSA.
1984
Students protest the housing of the South African tug-of-war team on campus during the international championships of that sport. The team is forced to stay in hotels rather than Gruenhagen. More anti-apartheid rallies would be held the next year.
1985
During his visit to Oshkosh, President Ronald Reagan is met by many hostile Oshkosh students, including several topless women with signs reading “Naked not Nuked!”
1989
Approximately 300 students protest the denial of tenure to popular sociology professor David Iaquinta.
1991
The Third-Annual UW Oshkosh Human Rights Festival, sponsored in part by the Women’s Center and the Student Environmental Action Coalition, grows in popularity when hundreds attend to hear Rap Artist Chuck D of Public Enemy speak.
2005
Life and Liberty, a conservative newspaper, is created by UW Oshkosh students.
2006
UW Oshkosh voters mark a 61-percent increase in midterm election turnout from 2004. Record-breaking voter registration activities can be credited for some of that success. In addition, Students for a Fair Wisconsin rallied students against a gay marriage ban, bringing in more voters to the polls.
2008
Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama appears at a rally at Kolf Sports Center. Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and Chelsea Clinton also campaign on campus for Sen. Hillary Clinton.