Founded by Alicia Francis, Jamie Manning, Robert Haggerty, George Castle and Robb Thibault on October 24, 2001.  Hunt College Union is the certified poetry slam venue on campus with Poetry Slam Inc. and member of the Association of College Unions International. 

Number of shows since October 2001:  54

Average Attendance Since October 2001: 84 persons per slam. 
One of the most diverse programs on campus!!!

Venue:  Waterfront Room-  Hunt College Union
Free hot chocolate, tea, coffee and baked goods provided by Dining Services

Length of Show:  90 minutes

Show Components
 Participants sign up at stage.
Feature poet performs 30-40 minutes.
Slam follows and is limited to first OSC 10 students or employees who sign up at stage.  During the qualifying slams, 5 judges are randomly selected from the audience with diversity in mind. At the Grand Slam, guest judges are selected from faculty and staff.

Current Organizing Body:  Slam Council.   Currently this corps group is made up of students from student organizations (Poetry Slam Association, English Club, Art & Scope i.e.) and coordinated by Robb Thibault, Director of Hunt Union.  Council members host the shows, select judges, conduct score & time keeping responsibilities, distribute publicity, suggest features and meet monthly as needed.  

Highlights:
We hosted the first four Poetry Cross Training Camps .
The Big O’ Poetry Slam has featured more than a dozen national poetry slam champions.
We have sent teams to the College Union Poetry Slam Nationals seven years in a row and have made three finals stage appearances including taking the silver medal at the 2005 College Nationals.
We've won four ACUI regional poetry slam championships.

History

2001-02
The first Hunt Union poetry slam occurred on October 24, 2001.  The feature was Christina Springer a five time grand slam city champion from Pittsburgh, PA.   These key folks played a major part in the organization of the first poetry slam: Alicia Francis, Jamie Manning, Robert Haggerty, George Castle and Robb Thibault, co-founders of the BIG O’ Poetry Slam!  In our first year 2001-02 we held six slam events which included national champion feature poets Lynne Procope (Feb ’02),  Roger Bonair-Agard (Jan ’02) and Taylor Mali (Apr ’02). The grand slam held on March 6, 2002  and featured nine OSC poets battling for the right to represent the College at the 2^nd College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational at Case Western Reserve University the following month.   The grand slam poets were: Frank Deserto , George Castle,      Margaux Axelrod,  Jamie Manning,  Lisa Malcolm,  Kanaiah Schultz,  Reynaldo Melendez,  Calif Clark, and Carmelo Pineda. 

After a heroic battle, the first OSC poetry slam team was named

2002 SUNY College at Oneonta Team
George Castle-grand slam champion
Jamie Manning
Kanaiah Schultz
Lisa Malcolm
Margaux Axelrod, alternate

Robb Thibault had on-site tournament responsibilities at Case Western Reserve University and Dr. Joshua Rosenthal of History volunteered to serve as coach to the team.  Dr. Rosenthal and Dr. Richie Lee of English, joined the Slam Council early in the spring semester.    SUNY College at Oneonta went on to finish 7^th at the 2002 National College Poetry Slam at Case Western Reserve University.   Jamie Manning called the experience, “the best weekend of my college life”. 

2002-03
In our second year 2002-03 we offered seven slam programs including a special “Slam against Hate & Violence” at the CME on March 12, 2003.   It was a phenomenal year as we increased attendance by 47% and featured Marc Smith, poetry slam founder; Patricia Smith, four-time individual national poetry slam champion, award winning journalist and Carl Sandburg winner; Michael Brown, Boston Slammaster and the Jerry Garcia of performance poetry; and one of our very favorites, Scott Woods, Columbus, Ohio Slammaster and Rust Belt Poetry Slam coordinator.  The second annual Grand Slam on February 12, 2003 brought the following nine poets together to tango in the slam dance of poetry: Kwanita “Kiwi” Beecham, Lisa Malcolm, Kahiem Brockington, Reynaldo “Bamboo MC” Melendez, Kelly Smith, T.J. Natole,  George Castle, Milton Morel, Margauex Axelrod. 

From the dust of this verbal brawl the 2003 OSC Team was announced:

2003 SUNY College at Oneonta Team
George Castle, co-grand slam champion
Lisa Malcom
Reynaldo “Bamboo MC” Melendez, co-grand slam champion
Kwanita “Kiwi” Beecham
Margauex Axelrod, alternate

Ten days later the team, coached by Dr. Richie Lee traveled to Syracuse University and competed at the ACUI Region 2 Poetry Slam.  They earned an impressive victory and took home top regional honors including prize money to fund the second trip to the 2003 College Union Poetry Slam nationals at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville on April 3-5.   New Slam Council members took great leaps in leadership as T.J Natole winner of the September 2002 slam, got the ball rolling to help produce a spoken word CD of the OSC Grand Slam Poets to help raise money for the road to Arkansas. With the support of OAS, Alumni Affairs, and Academic Advisement & New Student Orientation, the team with Dr. Joshua Rosenthal as coach made the finals stage and took home 4^th place.   OSC finished ahead of colleges like the University of Michigan and Georgia Southern University making a strong impression on their peers from across the country.

2003-04
In our third season we continued to bring in high powered feature poets like
Regie Gibson, Buddy Ray McNiece and Guy LeCharles Gonzalez.  We also featured our first BOPS Alum, Jamie Manning in October.   The Grand Slam on February 11, 2004 pitched a two round battle with the following poets: Kevin Fehr, Karlyn Banks, Lisa Malcolm, Jared Whalen, Reynaldo "Bamboo MC" Melendez, T.J. Natole, Danny Hubbard, Nicholas Reyes and Tovah DiPrinzio.   The results formed our third team:

2004 SUNY College at Oneonta Team:
Reynaldo "Bamboo MC" Melendez, grand slam champion
Lisa Malcolm
T.J. Natole
Nicholas Reyes
Danny Hubbard, alternate

In February 2004, the SUNY Oneonta poetry slam team won their second straight regional championship which was hosted by SUNY Oneonta.  In April they traveled to the fourth annual College Union Poetry Slam nationals at the University of California, Berkeley on April 8-10, 2004.  The team battled brilliantly and made it to the semi finals only to miss the finals stage by seven tenths of a point.  They finished the tournament in 5th place and bested teams like Dartmouth College, Stanford University, Rice University, University of Arkansas, Georgia Southern University, SUNY New Paltz and the University of New Mexico.  The team was coached by Dr. Richie Lee from the Department of English.

2004-05
The fourth season of the Big O' Poetry Slam open the doors to a partnership with the poets of the Bullhorn Collective. The fall features included Celena Glenn, Alexis O'Hara and Shappy.  In the spring we brought the two-time international world poetry slam champion, Buddy Wakefield to campus and he featured at the Grand Slam on February 15, 2005.  The Grand Slam line up included: Tovah DiPrinzio, Jared Whalen, Reynaldo Melendez (Bamboo MC), Anthony Martinez (Fascious), Dan Stalter, Danny Hubbard (Jimmitheloch), Kevin Fehr, Nicholas Reyes, Kaitlyn Wheeler and Katie Pawlowski.  After the two round slam the 2005 team was announced.

2005 SUNY College at Oneonta Team
Danny Hubbard (Jimmitheloch), grand slam champion
Anthony Martinez (Fascious)
Kevin Fehr
Reynaldo Melendez (Bamboo MC)
Dan Stalter, alternate

On March 5, 2005 the team traveled to Cornell University to compete at the third annual regional poetry slam and to defend its regional title.  On this day our arch rival, SUNY New Paltz captured an upset victory in the finals besting SUNY Oneonta for regional bragging rights.  SUNY Oneonta finished second.  The next month the team traveled to West Chester University for the Fifth annual College Union Poetry Slam nationals on April 7-9, 2005.  For the second time in four years the SUNY Oneonta poetry slam team made it to the finals stage at the national College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational which featured twenty of the top college teams across the country.  After winning their first preliminary bout against Stanford University, Binghamton University and Syracuse University they went on to defeat the College of Charleston, California State University-Long Beach and Eastern Michigan University in their second bout earning a bid to the semi finals for the third straight year.  In the semi-finals they took on two time defending national champion, University of California-Berkeley and one of the hottest teams in this years tournament, the University of New Mexico winning the bout by two points. I n the finals SUNY Oneonta took home the silver medal and missed the gold medal by only six tenths of a point as the University of California-Santa Cruz took the top honors with a 116.6, SUNY Oneonta followed with a 116.1 and the bronze went to the University of Pennsylvania 113.6.   The team was coached by Nicholas Reyes.  The team received additional recognition by earning the Coaches Awards for “best team piece” and “best flow”.