How Barack Obama Became the Accidental Occidental President

Wall St. Journal ^ | October 09th 2009

[Steelfish]

OCTOBER 9, 2009

How Barack Obama Became the Accidental Occidental President

College Claims Him Even Though He Left Early; Commemorative Diaper Covers in the Bookstore

By TAMARA AUDI

Marc Campos/Occidental College 'BarOxy' merchandise, commemorating the president, is available for purchase in the Occidental College bookstore. Mr. Obama attended the Los Angeles area college for two years.

LOS ANGELES -- When Thomas Stringer, a junior at Occidental College, moved into room A104 of the Haines Hall dormitory, he had no idea that President Barack Obama had slept there -- 30 years ago.

"I thought there'd be a plaque or something," said Mr. Stringer, a 20-year-old biochemistry student from Seattle. Instead, Mr. Stringer learned about the room's former occupant from fellow students.

Mr. Stringer and his roommates fashioned a historical marker of their own. A hand-drawn sign that says "Barack H. Obama VIP Lounge" now hangs from Christmas lights over an armchair.

Mr. Obama spent two years at Occidental, a small liberal-arts college tucked into a hilly Los Angeles neighborhood, before leaving to complete his undergraduate studies at Columbia University. His autobiography says he left for New York, in part, to be "in the heart of a true city, with black neighborhoods in close proximity."

That has presented Occidental, or Oxy, as it's often called, with a problem: How to deal with its most famous student who matriculated but didn't graduate.

[television is just wrong]

zero has no ideal how privileged he is.

[VRWCTexan]

Release the college records - was he on a “foreign student scholarship - was he still going by his name Barry Soetoro?

[WesternPacific]

zero has no idea how privileged he is.

Most Affirmative Action recipients don't.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

More like the Accidental President...

[television is just wrong]

true.

[RichInOC]

Barack-themed diaper covers.

For some reason, the expression “full of s**t and always on your ass” comes to mind.

[altair]

His autobiography says he left for New York, in part, to be "in the heart of a true city, with black neighborhoods in close proximity."

Heh. More of the fabled Obama honesty. I went to school next door to Oxy (Caltech) at the same time and there were plenty of black neighborhoods in close proximity. Altadena wasn't particularly a nice place though, but it would have suited His Awesomeness.