Most of what OPIAS is based on can be traced back to the early student political movements of the early 1960s.

Increased calls for youth political rights and equality under the law culminated in the Free Speech Movement protest at the University of California-Berkeley.

Thousands of students rallied to demand of the school that they be allowed to openly express political views and opinions of college campus', and there success laid the groundwork for many institution-based groups.

As time went on, organizations like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) developed as a way to unify students and encourage conversation.

While talk was high and debate was strong, student activism of the late 1960s became much more about ideology than participation. This led to fractures in certain areas of the student body, and infighting between groups of students.

OPIAS considers certain mindsets that developed during the late 1960s, like ideological partisanship in the representation of student ideas to have ultimately led to the decline of the student activism movement.