The College of Oak Ridge Part III

I had initially posted about the College of Oak Ridge (CoOR) just over a year ago. I was doing some online surfing and ran across a lapel pin with the college seal on it. Prior to seeing it, I had never heard of the college. I did some investigating and found that the college basically existed only on paper, although funds were raised and president was hired to develop it. In researching the college's history, I learned that people who donated to the college received a tie bar and a personalized Founder’s Card. Apparently some received the lapel pin instead of the tie bar. Being the academic nerd that I am, I decided to keep my eyes out for one of the tie bars and anything else about the college that I could find. Within only a couple of weeks, I ran across the CoOR's original Prospectus for sale on eBay. I bought it and it was the topic of my second CoOR post. 

As fate would have it, I still have not laid eyes on a tie bar or a Founder’s Card, but just saw an original copy of The Educational Plan of the College of Oak Ridge​ for sale online and bought it. As I did with my post on the Prospectus, I only scanned a number of the pages I thought might be interesting to anyone reading the post. One of the things you might notice, even from these eight of 58 pages is that the work was well underway to get the college going. Although still very much a business plan with no curriculum standards, classes, or other such materials developed (or at least not contained in this plan) it is a report that is coming together. The Plan ​I bought has some yellowing and some creases, but is otherwise in great shape. 

One interesting difference between the Educational Plan and the CoOR lapel pin and ​Prospectus is the design of the seal on the cover. The seal (or perhaps simply a logo) on the Prospectus and the lapel pin match one another. The one on the cover of the Educational Plan has the same elements, but looks decidedly different. It may be that this is simply because it is a logo (a stylized representative design) and not a seal (an official mark of the institution). Or it may be that it was indeed a seal but by the time elapsed between pin and prospectus were developed the educational plan which is newer, the seal/logo had been modified. There is so little information available online about CoOR that I just don't know at this point. I actually like the original version better.

I also found it interesting how the initial scope and timeline has been modified as things have been progressing with the development of the college. The document notes (see the fifth photo above) that students should begin enrolling in 1970. Earlier reports had placed that in 1967. The change does not necessarily reflect a major setback; any thing as complex as developing a new college takes time and it would natural that dates would fluctuate. Of course, the change likely had to do with the difficulty of obtaining funding which in the end prompted the demise of the dream which was the CoOR.

I would imagine that most people would have seen the pin and thought nothing of it. But, as a history buff and an academic, I just could not let it go at that. It may be strange, but I find the whole thing intriguing, and I am on the continued lookout for the tie bar and anything else about the college I can find. Given that it was proposed and then never really came to fruition about a half a century ago, I imagine the clock is ticking on whatever remains out there. As it stands, I cannot help but wonder if I have one of the larger collections of items from CoOR that is not in the hands of someone directly associated with it. That's a weird thing to say since I only have the three pieces. But there is so little out there about the college I have to wonder.

If you happen to know anything about CoOR or have any items from the college, please leave a comment or email me. I would love to be able to give more updates about CoOR in the future.