Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Welp, I got four out of six WILL do's done, and one or two MIGHT do something-else-productives. Got to chasing a rabbit because of my own previous haste.

In writing the history of this certain campus newspaper, I offhandedly remarked that today's news and opinion columns, reflecting students in general, were quieter than during the 1960s and 1970s. Doh! The professor who is writing-compiling the book asked, "Why are students quieter?"

Served me right. So, I spend a large part of the day taking a crash course and working the magic of newsgathering-reporting-historical research-and synthesis and came up with the following, which I added to the first version.

Total length now, revised, is 859 words. Below is just the new stuff. At bottom is a list of all sources used -- minus the newspaper itself -- with the new ones, which I found, read and used today, marked as NEW. Fun stuff!
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The new emphasis on news (in 1914) came amid a burst of college journalism education across the country. Joseph Pulitzer’s School of Journalism at Columbia University two years before led other colleges and universities to join the movement to formalize and organize journalism instruction. A National Newspaper Conference at the University of Kansas in 1914 could have influenced educators’ thinking in prairie college towns. The shift from scholarly aspirations to information was complete by mid-century, when the staff declared, quoting Lord Byron: “Without or with offense to friends or foes, we sketch your world exactly as it goes.’ ” The paper aimed to accomplish this while providing a laboratory for students of journalism and the printing arts.

During the Dust Bowl and Depression years, editors flirted with socialism. In a fiery editorial, one writer declared, “Capitalism fears the educated masses!” Editors supported the war effort during World War I, turned pacifist in the early 1930s, then returned to patriotic, although somewhat resigned, editorializing during World War II. Through the late 1940s and 1950s, editors turned even-handed, making sure … columns represented both sides of controversial topics. The paper, when it mentioned race relations, seemed generally in favor of acceptance – except for a single hateful, anti-black editorial in 1910 – and, in the 1950s, seemed friendly toward integration, but rarely sounded alarms for any extreme.

Through the 1950s, the paper’s relationship with local and state authorities usually hinged on seeking funding and support for the college. Later, the paper turned more adversarial. In the 1960s, the paper opposed a governor’s veto of a name change to A Certain University. Editors gave voice to the peace movement during the Vietnam War. ...

The voice of the newspaper, reflecting changes in students’ values, quieted in the 1990s. Burning issues of previous generations of full-time students – the civil rights movement, nuclear testing, war in Vietnam, restrictions on personal freedom – gave way to more mundane concerns. Part-time students viewed colleges as service providers and themselves as consumers of higher education and strove mainly to obtain a degree and a job. Student activism persisted, but the splintering of issues and institutionalization of previously marginal points of view made it less visible on campuses. Further, a certain mainstreaming of formerly outlying voices tended to soften the edges of controversy. ...

WORKS CITED


Books:

NEW. Astin, Alexander W., Helen S. Astin, Alan E. Bayer and Ann S. Bisconti. The Power of Protest: A National Study of Student and Faculty Disruptions with Implications for the Future. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1975.

Carter, L. Edward. The Story of Oklahoma Newspapers, 1844-1984. Muskogee: Western Heritage Books for the Oklahoma Heritage Association, 1984.

Foreman, Carolyn Thomas. Oklahoma Imprints, 1835-1907: A History of Printing in Oklahoma Before Statehood. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1936.

NEW. Karabell, Zachary. What’s College For? The Struggle to Define American Higher Education. New York: Basic Books, 1998.

NEW. Levine, Arthur, and Jeanette S. Cureton. When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today’s College Student. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1998.

NEW. Mott, Frank Luther. American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States through 260 Years: 1690 to 1950. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1950.


Government Document:

The Report of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest. Reprint ed. New York: Arno Press, 1970.

NOT BAD, I reckon, for a day's work, but I underestimated the time it would take. Didn't see that rabbit 'til it took off, and I had to give chase!

--ER