THROUGH THE EYES OF

Jennifer Barrell & Christopher Fusco

Foreword by Professor James Plath

lOO Years of

Journalism

at Illinois

Wesleyan

University

ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIV. LIBRARIES BLOOMINGTON, IL 61702

Through the Eyes^ of The Argus

100 Years of

1994

A^c.

Journalism at Illinois

Wesley an c-^>

University

Jennifer Barrell • Christopher Fusco

Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois 61702-2900

Information in this book comes largely from the original pages of The Argus, the student newspaper of Illinois Wesleyan University, and any sins of omission/commission or factual errors are attributable to the imperfect world of college journalism. Wherever possible, the authors have sought to corroborate information with university and community records.

Acknowledgments

Just as it is impossible to record all the people, places and events that The Argus included in its first century of reporting Illinois Wesleyan University news, it is equally impossible to thank all those who have assisted us.

James Plath sacrificed time with family, friends and his own literary journal, Clockwatch Review, to monitor the entire writing, re-writing, proofing and indexing process. Plath helped shape the focus of this book and shaped our development as writers, interviewers and researchers. Robert Aaron was of invaluable assistance with re-write and proofing "down the stretch," and Carl Teichman enabled us to concentrate on writing rather than financing. Gary Schwartz laid-out the entire book and designed the front cover, while putting up with our elusive copy deadlines. Christopher Baron ('95) was the student source of constructive criticism during the first "proof job," and Marc Featherly repro- duced more than 50 percent of the photographs in this book from old, yellow, dilapidated volumes of the newspaper.

We also wish to thank "Hand-out" Harvey Beutner, for sharing so much information with us; Bernie and Kurt Gummerman, for taking time-out from a rough summer to give us a hand; "Coach" Jack Horenberger ('36) and Stew Salowitz ('76) for their help with the sports chapter; Sue Stroyan and the Sheean Library staff for research assistance and letting us live in the archives; Greg Koos and the McLean County Historical Society, for "free Tuesdays" and some valuable facts; Arun Khosla, Elaine Graybill and Troy Clark ('95) for research assistance; Dave Brown ('95), Betsy Phillips (*96), Maisa Taha ('97) and Kerry Podzamsky ('96) for indexing and proofing assistance; Don Raycraft for infor- mation on Fred Young; Ross Minion ('94) for photography and computer assis- tance; Judy Archer for assisting in production; The Pantagraph, for letting us rummage through their files; the Illinois Wesleyan University Development office for helping us contact alumni.

Last, but not least, we wish to thank IWU President Minor Myers, jr., not only for embracing this unconventional approach to a university history, but also for upholding Illinois Wesleyan's free and independent press tradition.

TABLE OF

Contents

Foreword		1
Chapter 1	Before the Eyes of The Argus	3
Chapter 2	Evolution of The Argus	14
Chapter 3	Front Page News	33
Chapter 4	The Argus Goes to War	70
Chapter 5	Editorially Speaking	90
Chapter 6	A Free and Independent Press?	121
Chapter 7	Now Featuring . . .	143
Chapter 8	Argus Advertising — A Sign of the Times	163
Chapter 9	Sports	178
Chapter 10	Mentors	207
Chapter 11	A Week with the Boar — Life in the Office	223
Appendix A	Campus Maps	234
Appendix B	Argus Editors 1894-1994	239
Index		241

Foreword

"The eyes of Argus are upon me, and no slip will pass unnoticed." George Washington

In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes was an all-seeing giant with one hun- dred eyes covering his body. Who better to have for a watchman than one who could sleep with several eyes open? And, what better name to have for a news- paper?

Twenty-one U.S. newspapers currently fly that "flag," as do three college papers (including the Wesleyan Argus at Wesleyan University and The News Argus at Winston-Salem State University). But Illinois Wesleyan can boast of having the longest uninterrupted college newspaper by that name. It's also pos- sible that the Illinois Wesleyan newspaper was named for the short-lived Bloomington Argus, a city paper that began in June 1858 and ceased publication the following September.

Unlike that early paper or the mythological watchman whose life was cut short when Hermes lulled all of his eyes to sleep, Illinois Wesleyan's Argus has been watching over this small midwestern campus for 100 consecutive years — a feat that must seem truly titanic to the staffs who thought it nothing less than a miracle to put one issue to bed.

The idea for the book came, appropriately, during the Illinois College Press Association's annual convention. As the journalism instructor and newspaper adviser, every year I drive to Chicago with members of the staff for two days of seminars and an awards luncheon. Each crew looks forward to the convention because it gives them a chance to talk with fellow journalists about the bitter- sweet business of college newspapers — where amateurs are expected to perform like professionals. In packed hotel rooms they stay up way past my bedtime to swap stories of campus abuse heaped upon them: coverage complaints, tight- lipped administrators, nit-picky advisers, cranky printers, impossible deadlines, equipment failure, bad photos, long hours, low (or no) pay, staff feuds, funding problems, failing grades and worse-off love-lives. But somewhere deep inside, they love it.

After the first round of seminars, we gathered at Harry Caray's Restaurant — a Friday night tradition — to toast each other for perseverance and a year's worth of work well done, when the topic turned to the upcoming centennial. Ideas started flying, and thoughts of a special issue soon grew to mythic proportions. Why not write a book chronicling 100 years of journalism at Illinois Wesleyan?

Students worked up a proposal and presented it to President Minor Myers,

Foreword 2

jr., a former political science professor who became immediately excited about the prospect of an alternative history of the university, told from the students' perspective. Whether it has been done before by any other school is hard to say, but it seems a revolutionary concept. For as anyone who reads through this book will surmise, a history like this could never have been written ten years ago. But since I came to Illinois Wesleyan in 1988, the administration has always perceived the newspaper as a vital campus organ, one which, for all its faults and occasional inaccuracies, still serves as a common denominator, a focal point for students, faculty, administrators and campus visitors. In short, they've always felt that The Argus serves the campus best as a newspaper, not a newslet- ter.

Through the Eyes of The Argus: 100 Years of Journalism at Illinois Wesleyan University thus becomes the latest volume in an informal series of uni- versity histories, joining William H. Wilder 's An Historical Sketch of the Illinois Wesleyan University (1895), Elmo Scott Watson's The Illinois Wesleyan Story: 1850-1950 (1950), George Vinyard's Illinois Wesleyan University: Growth, Turning Points and New Directions Since the Second World War (1975), Lloyd M. Bertholf 's A Personal Memoir of the Bertholf Years at Illinois Wesleyan University, 1958-68 (1984) and Robert S. Eckley's Pictures At An Exhibition: Illinois Wesleyan University, 1968-1986 (1992). Three of those were written or edited by university presidents, one by an alumnus for the 125th anniversary of Illinois Wesleyan and one by a journalism professor primarily hired to write the history.

This volume constitutes the first history written by students still enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan. It's the story of a campus told not only through the eyes of The Argus, but through the eyes of students in the 1990s. It's possible (even likely) that a book written for The Argus sesquicentennial would tell an entirely different history of the campus, just as it would reveal much about what students in the 2040s found interesting in century-high stacks of university newspapers.

The amount of material in so many newspapers is overwhelming — so much so, that Chris Fusco and Jennifer Barrell once joked about subtitling the book, "Trapped in the Archives." It's been my pleasure (and pain) to work with them on this project, and not only write the foreword, but give them a not-so-gentle push forward whenever they needed it. But there are more university histories still waiting for future researchers to unearth in the archives, and an uninterrupt- ed newspaper publication streak to maintain. So on behalf of the authors and this year's Argus staff, I dedicate this book to all student journalists at Illinois Wesleyan University, past and future. You're all a little crazy.

James Plath Professor of English January 7, 1994

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 3

CHAPTER 1

Before the Eyes of The Argus

The Argus was by no means the first student publication to serve the Illinois Wesleyan University campus. Early precursors included newspapers and jour- nals published by individuals, literary societies and Greek organizations — many of them in competition. They included the Alumni Journal (1870-77), The Ventilator underground newspaper (June 1872), The Students' Journal (1877- 1885), The College Herald (1881-1882), The Wesleyan Bee (1882-87), The Elite Journal (1887-92), The Oracle (1887-1888), The Avenger underground newspa- per (1888), The Athenian (1890) and The Wesleyan Echo (1890-94). The 1905 Wesleyana yearbook also listed two additional papers, The Journal (1885-86) and The News and the Bee (1886), though no copies exist in university archives. Most of the publications began with a literary section — poems, short stories and essays — followed by opinion. Then came the "locals" section, which included news notes about individual students and departments. An "exchange" section often appeared in which editors reported highlights (or lowlights) of other col- lege newspapers — even to the point of critiquing them, as when The Students ' Journal noted that "The Collegian, from Cornell, shows ability in selection and arrangement of matter, but the finish is not quite so good" (January 1878).

Illinois Wesleyan's newspapers began with the Alumni Journal, published monthly by Professors Harvey C. DeMotte and B.S. Potter from June 1870 to July 1877. The 5 1/2x8 1/2-inch Journal averaged 23 two-column pages and largely featured essays on science and philosophy. Included in the Alumni Journal were articles on former IWU geology professor John Wesley Powell's exploration of the Colorado River, the "Fructification of Plants," "Christless Systems of Religion" and an essay on "Reading and Writers" which claimed that "Reading without purpose is sauntering, not exercise" (May 1872). With such mentally challenging stories, the Alumni Journal must have been a real workout for subscribers.

Likewise, the staid Wesleyan community must have been shocked when the first underground newspaper, The Ventilator, appeared for a single issue in June 1872, vowing to publish "whenever the mental and moral atmosphere of Bloomington becomes noisome, and demands purification." The single broad- sheet not only threatened "to collect news and unearth abuses," but also offered to pay students for information. The newspaper had the audacity to pan a psy-

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 4

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chology textbook by university President Oliver S. Munsell, calling it "a regular crusher." Editors also sarcastically advised students who "are not related to someone of the faculty or some minister of high standing in the Methodist Church" to "announce your determination to become a keeper of the flock. This has always been a high recommendation for faculty favor." Editors went even further in attacking what they called Wesleyan favoritism, singling out Professor DeMotte (co-publisher of the Alumni Journal) as one who, "like all other weak, mean men . . . can readily be flattered; and being an unscrupulous intriguer, a lit- tle soft soap well applied always brings a handsome return."

In November 1877, publishers of the Alumni Journal turned the paper over to students, explaining that rising costs and a naturally evolving focus on current students forced the change. While The Students' Journal of the Illinois Wesleyan University numbered its first issue Volume VIII to acknowledge its history, stu- dent control brought a change in attitude. The Students' Journal promised to maintain "the high standard of the Alumni Journal in literary merit," but its edi- tors also announced their intent to "make it more of a college paper, and give it more of a college air, by devoting more space to such news and items as will interest those desiring such a paper."

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 5

Each issue included an editorial dealing with campus behavior, one of them urging that "all students who have the welfare of the university at heart, will assist the faculty in its endeavors to have better order in the halls and chapel." Editors suggested that professors could help alleviate the problem if each would "dismiss his class promptly at the ringing of the bell" (February 1879). Short articles reported more serious campus concerns — like heat:

During the holidays, the old stoves were taken from Prof. DeMotte's and Prof. Crow's rooms, and the ladies' dressing room, and large furnaces substituted. These furnaces were connected to the chapel, and that room is heated by them also. It is an improvement on the old way. (February 1879)

The Journal's expanded campus coverage included trivia ("The senior class numbers seventeen," May 1878); faculty and student news ("A large party of students, composed principally of seniors and juniors, recently surprised Professor Brown and family," November 1877); alumni news ("Cupid's darts are still showered down upon the ranks of the knights of celibacy. Two more of our alumni have become benedicts," April 1878); unsubstantiated reports from eastern universities ("Yale professors are said to be the wealthiest of their class"; "Dr. Cook says that Harvard University has never pro- duced a man with a warm heart for the people"; "Union College claims to have educated more members of congress than any other college in the country. If they are there now, it does not say much for Union," June 1879); jokes ("Why is the Junior class like the Roman Republic? It is becoming effeminate," May 1879); and gossip ("Miss Wilson has lost

The Students' Journal (1877-85)

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 6

her Hart, but what young lady has not been thus afflicted," May, 1880). For such information, students paid $1 for "one year, in advance," or bought single copies for 15 cents.

Editors of The Students' Journal apparently thought well of the paper — the longest running of all The Argus precursors — for they reported that "Several of the boys seem desirous of journalistic honors, as the city papers each have a Wesleyan reporter. Go in boys, you may some day become proficient enough to aspire to a place on the JOURNAL staff (March 1879).

For the most part, however, essays far outweighed information. One issue featured the address of the "President of the Law Class on Class Day," an alum- ni "oration," essays on good character, "The Philosophy of Life" and the "Importance of Classical Learning in the Professions" (July 1878). An inside front-cover advertisement for the university listed the entire faculty — all twelve of them — as well as the six-member staff from the "Law Department," founded on April 6, 1874.

On September 20, 1881, the eight-page, semi-monthly College Herald appeared, "To promote the best interests of its readers, and perpetuate fraternity among all who are and have been students of Wesleyan University." And pro- mote the Herald did. Every front page was a virtual IWU advertisement, with a drawing of Old Main (Hedding Hall), a list of colleges (liberal arts, law, music and commerce) and rosters of the faculty and the Board of Trustees. The newspaper was not afraid to use school spirit to take an occasional potshot at its competitor, The Students' Journal, whose editorials, the Herald claimed, "for length and monotony would far surpass the five hour sermons of early Method- ism" (February 3, 1882).

By printing letters to the editor, the Herald proved to be more student- focused than The Students' Journal, but no more excit- ing. Letters mostly dealt

ILLIISTOIS

BLOOMI1TGTON, ILL.

COLLEGE

Liberal Arts,

COLLEGE

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MUSIG,

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Commerce.

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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS. CORA STEELE. Piano Forte.

H. H. ADAMS. D D., President and Professor Ethics and I FRANCES H MOSS' "' ** D™n* »"" *+*«

Metaphysics. . COLLEGE OF LAW.

C.E R. M BENJAMIN, Dean of Law Faculty. Real Property.

Judge O. T. REEVES. LL.D., Contracts.

:>N LAWRENCE WF.LDON, Torts, Equity and Evidence.

\. G. KARR, LL.B-. Common Law and Equity Pleadings.

E. M. PRINCE. A. M., Pleading and Criminal Law.

. D i\i 3 T Te: Ph. D.. Vice-President ami Professor Matliemal

SUE M. D. FRY. Ph. D., Professor Belles Lettres.

C. M. MOSS, M. A., Professor Greek.

IRev. A.J. NAST, M. A., Professor Latin and German.

, Ph. D., Professor Botany and Geology AN, Instructor in Elocution.

COLLEGE OF MUSIC.

. MYERS, LL.B.. Practice.

..B., Elementary Law COLLEGE OF COMMERCE. J. GEO. CROSS. A. M., Dean.

Hats, Caps, Fursf Gents' Furnishing Goods.

SHIRTS, IN STOCK AND MADE TO ORDER.

SOUTH - WEST CORNER OF THUS SQXJABB.

College Herald (188 1-82)

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 7

with trivial matters — everything from school spirit to chapel seating — though one writer complained,

Are we ever to have any more lectures at the Wesleyan? A few years ago the Wesleyan professors gave us Sunday afternoon lectures on vari- ous topics, and the societies had their regular lecture course, which brought such men as Beecher, Tilton, Tamage, Cook, and others of national repute. Today we have nothing of the kind. (February 3, 1882) The Herald also heralded the birth of campus news-commentary (some of it contradictory), including items that went beyond routine announcements: "University to be heated by furnace next year. Amen!" (February 3, 1882) or "Oratorical meetings of late have been spicy — very spicy. An amendment to the constitution extending the time of orations to 15 1/2 minutes failed of adoption, but a rule to that effect carried" (May 31, 1882). Like most other pre-Argus pub- lications, the Herald cost $1 "per annum" and operated solely on subscriptions and advertising revenue.

Despite the fact that women had been admitted to the university in 1 870, The Wesleyan Bee was started by 10 men — five Phi Gamma Deltas and five Phi Delta Thetas — in October 1882, though the first issue quickly pointed out that "it is not under the control of those fraternities or any society at all." Yet, its appearance set the stage for a decade of bitter rivalry between Greek-sponsored newspapers and those sponsored by independent students and literary societies. Despite the addition of a section devoted to Greek announcements, the Bee was nothing to buzz about. Only two articles went beyond the usual dry academic matter and campus gossip: one which attacked the university for "sluggish inactivity" in providing the fewest oratorical contests and public exhibitions of all known col- leges (January 1884), and another which touted the IWU curriculum as being "now in excess of any college in the state, Evanston not excepted. Viva la Wesleyan!" (February 12, 1886). If there was a buzz, it was the faculty's reac- tion to a Greek-society newspaper.

When the Bee stopped publishing in 1887, an irritated IWU faculty passed a resolution that no paper be published unless all factions of the university — Greeks, independents and the literary societies — be represented. In defiance, The Elite Journal emerged during fall 1887, later explaining that "to come to a satisfactory adjustment of all factions seemed impossible, and efforts to organize a Harmonious staff were ineffectual" (January 24, 1890). Although the Elites, a non-secretive organization of independent students, were threatened with sus- pension for publishing their first Journal, no action was taken.

Clearly, "the Wesleyan" did not oppose The Elite Journal, since the universi- ty bought advertising space to promote its music department, literary depart- ments and societies and law department, taught by "the best talent of the Bloomington bar." Sounding more parental than presidential in the ad, Reverend William H. Wilder promised "watchful oversight of the welfare of all students" and "term reports sent to all parents."

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 8

The Elite Journal fea- tured ornate covers with drawings of Hedding Hall and a winged muse sitting atop a stack of books. Although the Journal included the usual smat- tering of poems, essays and orations on various aspects of morality, it also read like the campus health report, printing 20 or 30 "news" briefs which informed students that "Mr. McGinty is down with the 'grip'" (January 24, 1890), "Miss Young is compelled to give up her voice culture for an indefinite period on account of the serious trouble she is having with her throat" (March 1, 1890) or that "C.S. Lyles returned home Monday to see his 'mamma' and also to look after a severe cold" (January 17, 1890). In addition, "Y.M. and Y.W.C.A." columns tried to keep students on the straight and narrow, as this January 24, 1890 announcement illustrates: "Girls, remember our meeting is Friday, at 4 p.m. If you want to live a better life, come, and we will tell you how we found Jesus, and how you may find him" (January 24, 1890).

Elsewhere, articles on campus literary societies reported the results of debates, including one of the most interesting of the term. The question, "Resolved, That the best interests of our Nation demand the exportation of the Negro." Affirmed by Messrs. Watson and Bradford; denied by Messrs. Hopkins and Scrogin. Decision of judges, for negative" (February 7, 1890).

Seeing that The Elite Journal was able to publish in spite of the faculty edict, the Greek Letter Fraternities quickly followed with their own newspaper, The Oracle, published from 1887-88. Some of their editorials had a classical sound to them, such as one which warned seniors, "Sons of men, beware! Tremble, ye seekers after popular amusement! Ye occupants of high social position, quake and totter on your thrones, for your time is short. On the Ides of June there will

The Elite Journal (1887-92)

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 9

be launched a mighty force which shall make thee fugitives and vagabonds in the earth" (November 19, 1888).

The Oracle, similar in format to the other newspapers of the day, was among the smallest — only 14 pages. In addition to notes on Greek life and the law school, the newspaper also included a "sporting" section, which told readers that "The bicycle club is experiencing some difficulty with their machines" and suggested that "What we need is a gymnasium. Will some ardent admirer of the University contribute the necessary funds? A little louder, please" (November 5, 1888).

On February 15, 1888, another paper appeared: The Avenger, "A Semi- Monthly Paper Published by the Barbarians of the Illinois Wesleyan University in the interest of Right, Honesty, and Justice." Although the newspaper was apparently published that fall as well, only the first issue remains in university archives — perhaps because copies were so offensive to the campus that they were destroyed. The underground newspaper's editors had no qualms about attacking both Greeks and Elites:

The Elites have their Journal, The Greeks their Oracle. These are party papers, published for sectional aggrandizement. The "Barbs" have an interest in neither, hence the necessity for a third paper. And right here let us give fair warning that we are not respectful of persons, and whether faculty or student, Greek or Elite, unless you keep within the proper bounds, you are destined to fall under the ban of our avenging quill. (February 15, 1888) Members of the Avenger wasted no time using their quill to put down both publications as well as the university. The editors complained that there was only one "Barb" — unaffiliated with Greek or literary societies — among the fac- ulty, and questioned, "Is it proper for professors, who consider the better inter- ests of our school, to show their allegiance to fraternities?" Their remedy: "Put a head on the faculty, take one off the Greeks, annihilate the Elites, and we will have smooth sailing."

A bitter paper, The Avenger attacked the "ethics of secrecy" practiced by some literary organizations and all fraternities. The "Barbarians" threw racist barbs as well, complaining that the bookstore greeted students with "the smile of a Jew" and printing this anti-black and anti-Greek poem: Ten little Greekies, meeting down town, Cute little fellows, wearing fine gown. One little Greekie took too much wine, Put him in the cooler, then there were nine. Nine little Greekies got into nigger heaven, Two got caught, then there were seven. . . . (February 15, 1888) Though the newspaper carried no "masthead" listing the names of its editors, notes written on a surviving copy by junior Andrew Horner Harnley tell an inter- esting story:

This paper was scattered . . . through the halls this morning by a news boy from the city. Its publishers remain a mystery, but it is needless to

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 10

Vol I, No 1.

Febrile 15, 1888,

®k IJuumjjcr

A SEMI-MONTHLY PAPER,

Published by the Barbarians o/\tlie Illinois Wesley of

RIGHT, HONESTY. (AND JUSTICE.

No anonymous contributions accepted. J Name will not be

printed if the writer forbids, but it must accompany

the MSS. to show the author's good faith.

Subscription Price, 50e. a Year.

SINGLE COPY, FIVE CENTS.

Address all Communications to

The Avenger Pub. Co.

Care Wesleyan Univs

say it is the great topic of conversation here. The whole business is a mysterious affair and about half the students have been accused of publishing it. Some have even blamed me for it. Read it and tell me if you think the Greeks are mad? If the Greeks weren't, the faculty was. Though the edi- torship of The Avenger remains a mystery, the minutes from the faculty meeting on March 2, 1888 report that a "Motion was made that the President write to the fathers of Messrs. [Fred C] Earl and [Clyde] Pitts, and ask them to take the boys out of school immediately." Earl and Pitts were both enrolled in the two-year preparatory school at Wesleyan, a program offered in addition to the regular four-year program. Although neither student returned the next fall, others apparently revived The Avenger, for in November 1888, The Oracle disdainfully asked,

Will the Barb paper and its following in the interest of pure air and

respectability in general appearance, kindly rinse their mouths, take a

good half hour shower bath, and don an entire change of raiment at least

once a term, and place a confiding public under personal obligation?

Come again.

The Oracle ceased publication when it foresaw another fraternity willing to

take up the printer's ink. The Athenian, "A Fortnightly Magazine issued in the

Literary interests of the Illinois Wesleyan University and its Greek-Letter

Fraternities," began on January 17, 1890, with a two-page essay entitled "The

Idea Of Fraternity." Editors of the bi-weekly published a critique of their paper

in which The Notre Dame Scholastic recognized it as "the recent rival of The

Elite Journal" adding that "Typographically, the Athenian is inferior to the Elite

Journal but it surpasses the latter in its quality and diversity of literary matter"

(March 15, 1890). The paper even featured occasional "hard" news, including

the story of how

A young man from one of the Wesleyan Law classes met with a very

The Avenger (1888), one of two underground newspapers during the pre-Argus period.

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 11

narrow escape last Friday afternoon. In attempting to jump from a mov- ing train between the union and O., I. and W. depots his overcoat caught on the step, under which he was swung and dragged some distance along the rail, greatly damaging his clothing, but luckily receiving little physi- cal hurt. (February 15, 1890, quoted from The Daily Pantagraph ) Yet, most of The Athenian's contents were devoted to arguments against the Elite society, branding it "an anti-fraternity organization . . . that employs itself in cre- ating a division in class and college politics and interests, much to the detriment of these rather than to the fraternities themselves" (April 18, 1890). Another issue attacked the ironic name of the rival society, arguing that because the Elites only required that its members be students, "consequently, the society's ranks are filled with all classes of students" (March 15, 1890).

Like The Oracle, this Greek newspaper printed occasional items about sports — something the independent journals did not consider. The May 10, 1890 issue applauded "Athletic interests picking up" at IWU and observed that "It was a surprise to note that there was suitable places for the two new tennis courts on the 'miniature landscape garden' around the building." Curiously, The Athenian reported "the defeat, Saturday, of our ball nine," but neglected to include the score of the baseball game. And in promoting school athletics, The Athenian criticized The Elite Journal once more, setting off another round of attacks and counter-attacks.

When The Wesleyan Echo entered the fray in 1890, its editors — Richard Little, who went on to work as a war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, and Archie Bowen, who became publisher of the Illinois State Journal — promised to rise above the special interests that had divided the campus. Vowing to publish "a college paper" that would keep the best interests of the university in mind, they focused more on campus information than opinion and expanded coverage of departments. The November 27, 1891 issue, for example, featured briefs on the Department of Crayon (one of sixteen in the Wilson College of Arts, a course of study which took six years):

The principal of the Department of Crayon tells us that letters are fre- quently received from old students . . . expressing their thankfulness that they were persuaded to learn the Wilson Progressive Eclectic Crayon Drawing. One received this week from a highly educated lady (an "ex- schoolmarm") now teaching this work says, "I shall ever bless the day I commenced learning your crayon drawing, for it gives me more pleasure than I can tell you to see the beautiful work that even an amateur can do." Although The Echo opted for this sort of cheerleading rather than mudsling- ing, administrators and faculty had apparently lost their patience with student publications. In the end, typography, not controversy, did them all in. According to minutes from the March 26, 1 894 meeting, the faculty resolved

That the publishers of the Echo be notified that the typography of the paper must be more carefully attended to and the errors of grammar and spelling so plainly observable must be eliminated in the next issue or

Chapter 1 Before The Eyes of The Argus 12

thereafter the Faculty will be under the necessity of ordering its distribu- tion discontinued. . . . That a committee be raised to devise some way of making a paper that will be a creditable presentation of the University, and that a report be made at the next meeting. The committee recommended that "under no circumstances should a paper be conducted under the name of the university when managed by parties not stu- dents." Their plan called for the formation of a paper which would include

a board of seven editors, four from the present Junior class, and three from the present Sophomore class ... all to be chosen by the Faculty. These seven editors to have entire charge of the management of the paper, to choose their own officers out of the number, with the exception of the editor-in-chief, to divide annually any profits that may accrue from the attempt, and to share any deficit that may be made. (April 6, 1 894) In addition to holding the editors of the new newspaper financially responsible, faculty voted to make the editor-in-chief "responsible to the Faculty for the read- ing and advertising matter that appears in the paper." Thus, The Argus was born.

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 13

THE WESLEYAN ARGUS.

THE COLLEGE PAPER.

Vol. I.

BLOOMINGTON, ILL., SEPTEMBER 17, 1894.

No. 1.

AN EASTERN TALE.

A pious sheik, the ancient- story tells. Lived near a sacred mountain In the East,

And all bis hours not given to fast and prayer Were spent In giving cheer to man and beast,

One night while passing through the tents he heard

An Arab's voice in earnest, fervent prayer? And paused, rejoiced to find the midnight hoar •Was spent invoking Allah's toviag care.

His Jong prayer done, the Arab saw the sheik, And called attention to the sleeping throng; "I rise to pray tbree times before the morn,

They sleep like clods of earth the whole night long.**

So sad and sorrowful the sheik's response, Abashed, he sought his vacant bed again:

"Better to sleep on prayerlees conch till dawn Than waken bat to blsrae thy fellowmen."

• — Victor Qrnge Kimhert.

THE EVOLUTION OF 0WEBNJCENT,

SECOND PRIZE ORATION, I. W. V, ,0031X199,, 1394— J. RI0€8 ORE.

The world of nature is subject to continual change. The stony strata, which today the earth unfolds, are but the record of past revo- lutions. The seared leaves of autumn are fol- lowed by the bright verdure of spring. Plants spring from the earth, blossom, and wither away, but from their decay rise higher and more beautiful forms. From the struggling bit of protoplasm of a bygone age Divine Agency has evolved the varied, complex forms of animal life. Even dumb matter, winging its way under the guiding hand of the Creator, moves in steady rounds. Our ponderous earth is whirling through shoreless space. The rivers glide unceasingly along their earth- worn channels. Everywhere there is motion, and in every change nature unfolds her plan of development. Onward toward some distant goal each atom moves, and every form of life tends to a higher state.

The science of government presents the same succession and contrast. Lower forms are succeeded by higher; the new supplants the old, and the old unites with the new.

Everywhere there is growth, developraetit,and

improvement. The cycles of revolving years have revealed the ever advancing tide of hu- manity's evolution. "We cannot go backward. Our steps tend ever toward a higher plane. Each age Imparts its lesson; each period has its mead of gold. In the progress of social ev- olution,paganism has given place toChrisfian- ity, tyranny to monarchy, and feudalism to representative government. Even in the mid- night of the middle ages, when God's stars forgot to shine, foundations were being laid • for better social systems. States and govern- ments are born but to die. But, as mankind moves onward in the march of civilization, gov- ernment has advanced as well. From the des- potisms of Persia and Egypt came the repub- lics of Greece and Rome, -bringing faint gleams of future civilization, and the course of empire, sweeping over their sacred fields, gathered the subtle strains of freedom until the refrain of liberty reverberated on the shores of a new world.

Freedom of action, civil and individual, has

The first Argus front page.

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 14

CHAPTER 2

Evolution of The Argus

From Literary Journal to Newspaper

The Wesleyan Argus appeared on Monday, September 17, 1894 with a front page that featured poetry and oration instead of hard news. For the next six years, the newspaper — printed on 16, 7 1/2x1 2-inch stapled pages with a maga- zine-style cover — filled its front pages with poems, speeches, short stories and essays on everything from travel to astronomy. The front page of that first issue, which editors subtitled "The College Paper," led with Victor George Kimbert's poem, "An Eastern Tale," and J. Riggs Orr's oration, "The Evolution of Government," which won second place at Wesleyan's annual intercollegiate ora- torical contest.

Consistent with other front page orations and essays of the decade, Orr's was so full of purple prose and complex sentences that it sounded more like verbose" novelist (Sir) Walter Scott than newsman Walter Cronkite:

And moving onward to the harmonious symphony of true citizenship and a higher manhood, in one universal voice, a united people bids the world behold a true republic, an 'indissoluble union of indestructible states,' a nation where the hearts of the sturdy Northerner and impetuous Southerner beat in a unison of hope; where the golden gate on the West is matched by golden ties of brotherhood on the East; a land where free- dom is complete, from bleak New England's rugged coast to the sunny slopes of the Western sea; from the Northern lakes to the starlit gulf. Despite Orr's rhetoric, oration was not just a man's sport. One 1894 photo- graph caption, or "cutline," announced that Wesleyan students could learn a few things from "Miss Anna Lee Darnbrough, Public Reader and Teacher of Elocution and Delsartian Method [a system of calisthenics combined with singing, declamation and dancing to develop bodily grace]: "We subjoin a few Testimonials which may be of interesting value to those desiring her services." Like other publications of the era, The Argus had a tendency to capitalize improper nouns.

In addition to full length features on everything from the shrine of Guadalupe to Mars, literary articles dry as dust dominated early issues, supple- mented by a hodgepodge of news items on campus events, organizations and

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 15

speakers. Stories that amounted to little more than announcements of events for the music and law schools, YMCA and YWCA appeared on pages three or four, while editors grouped campus notes under the headlines "Law Locals" and "Local and Personal" on successive pages. But few of the entries seem notewor- thy by 1990s standards. Consider this Law Locals item from March 6, 1896:

There is talk of the junior class "chipping in" and purchasing a spittoon

for one of the professors, who cannot resist the temptation to use tobacco

during the recitation hour. And from the looks of the floor, we would

suggest the professor might have occasion to buy one or more for some

of the class.

While such concerns seem comical by 1990s standards, they can be compared to

the debate over second-hand smoke that caused students in 1993 to write The

Argus in protest over the university ban on smoking.

Not many of those early news items were as issue-centered, however. Most reported simple comings and goings, such as the earth-shaking pronouncement that "On last Thursday evening, the members of the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity entertained their gentlemen friends in their hall" (February 21, 1896).

Sports news like "We're not such cranks as to attempt to play football with eight inches of show on the ground" (December 17, 1895) came under an "Athletics" banner, while an "Exchange" section featured news from other papers, including Illinois State's Vidette, Northwestern's Northwestern, Nebraska's Nebraskan, Yale's Yale Record, the other "Wesleyan Argus in the field" at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and even the nearby Decatur High School Observer. Editorials and letters on school spirit, facilities, procrastina- tion, courtesy and classwork appeared every few issues.

Under the direction of German and Greek Professor Wilbert T. Ferguson, Illinois Wesleyan's own university press printed The Argus from 1894 to 1903. "No addition to the Wesleyan in recent years has been more profitable than the establishment of a university press," wrote the November 1, 1895 Argus. "The first issues of The Argus, while an improvement over any hereto printed, will be improved upon until the appearance of the paper will challenge the admiration of the most fastidious."

Occasionally bordered with Wesleyan's navy blue and steel gray colors, which were changed to green and white in 1896, front cover designs varied. The most popular featured a drawing of Hedding Hall — which, because it was Bloomington-Normal's tallest building, also appeared on area post cards. Advertisements, most of them business card-sized, occupied an average of four pages at the front and back of every issue and featured extensive artwork and an occasional photo.

As stipulated in the spring, 1894 faculty mandate, Argus staff consisted of five junior and senior editors — an editor-in-chief, a literary editor, two local edi- tors who covered campus news and an exchange editor to gather news from other colleges. A business manager and subscription agent completed the staff. Until 1912, college credit was given for sufficient work on The Argus, according

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 16

to the February 15, 1912 faculty meeting minutes. The regular staff took a one week hiatus every spring when, "according to time honored tradition," the fresh- man class printed the "Freshman Number," "to show the rest of the students their ability to do things" (April 8, 1921).

Days of publication randomly fluctuated between Monday and Friday until 1933, when it was decided that The Argus should be printed on Tuesday night and distributed on Wednesday morning after chapel services. The newspaper switched to a Friday distribution date in 1957 and has not changed since.

Subscription rates started out at one dollar per year ("payable in advance"), 40 cents per semester and 10 cents for a single issue. Students had to subscribe to The Argus until the 1920s, when they paid for the paper through their student activity fees. Reports from early issues indicate that nearly all of Wesleyan's 400 students subscribed, though not all paid their bills on time. Editors would often print notes reminding readers not only to pay their subscriptions, but also to read the newspaper for their own enjoyment and not pass it on to a non-subscriber.

In 1900, The Argus shifted from a journal-style, bi-weekly format to a cover- less eight-page weekly. Editors added an events calendar and university/staff directories on the newly-designed front page, which measured 9x12 1/2 inches. Individual issue prices fell to five cents, but subscriptions remained a dollar. By 1902, the newspaper reported that "Many students keep files of The Argus throughout their course, and find them very interesting to review years after."

Students from the class of 1903 had some interesting material to review from the April 23 issue of that year, which reported that a Wesleyan student had kid- napped a neighborhood girl. According to The Argus, the girl was blocking the outside light the student was using to perform an experiment in a biology labora- tory: "The gentleman who was detailed to do the work stepped out and gently seizing the first girl by the arm remarked in a harmless voice that she would make a splendid little specimen for dissection." The student kept hold of the girl just long enough for her friend to report the incident. "Her panic stricken moth- er turned in an alarm to the police" and organized "a battalion of indignant citi- zens of all ages and sizes, both male and female," wrote The Argus. Despite this lynch mob, the paper never reported if police arrested the student, which leads one to wonder about the credibility of the article in the first place.

Despite the newspaper's success, the 1904 editorial board decided to make The Argus less of a memento and more "strictly a newspaper" by eliminating poetry, essays and short stories:

It is our intention to edit a college newspaper and do away with the habit

of running some dry essay as a leader each week. We hope that in this

way we will bring the students alumni and friends more closely together

and that at the end of the year we can all say that we really have a live

college paper. (September 23, 1904)

The staff printed news articles on visiting speakers, activities and alumni, while

football game stories made their first appearance on the front page — a trend that

would continue until 1943.

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 17

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TneSfeaJo* i:iam> at Ww'fWsiii,	■,,-...-, ajwi nseRaa^wxIv w^jhir.S a	••-. igtil Mi- Etta K«< ; Pro-
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tfee i«4ef«*isd>»t a«it»<S« of tite	wf?!,.h Sse j.r«6.ee4«S !on-m<o..-	As «.'), ri .:e >t ■<»• t«Hf« the	w.nt ?brou«>i tackle bw 'oe
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Titer* mm a minor that the	with !tt* «a!!y, off tfame the rest	the -Heety as*o v..t«i U> ill-	a fiftwn vard gain throatfa half
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. tb« r»H«g* Itat-f finally been	greeted with 4ertjve ebeer.	omi facolty aiietser tor the	gains also »d*a piousrh^
o&eyal.	t>iie. r«a at-c<Mtflt of he. upb.»!dtB«	■""'"''" n,< ^"""-"'S' <>« a	through the litte tor th* distawce
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founding of the university will	iroti wa* %jar«i tht <)i*graie of	sarv a* t rof. r erjrtttn Jmtls tt	tiu> Hb« ftvr the first tmtctidowti.
be the taa.asT.rn of a jfreat	having hi* h.ek* ssborn and let	i m i ...ssi hh.- to attend the i»«i«	Score, Wesley an 5, XtMrmaf, <*.
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versify. } 'reparation* are now	s«iO((tajr, *\|»eakmg a»4 re.itint;.		Normal kiekeeJ to Wesieran.
beiasf s*a4« for the r treat.	Kseharti O't'onne-^ was ?a*t «•<•«	Y. W. ('. A.	who ik'fe»d«l th«« e»t gw»t
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f«r the twenty vaf! *wtm at the	,f«e./d that wotiW make a fort v	haS! was dowsed o« WM3M»*»
Bartfe-tt im" tx»>>l !a*t w«-ek at	!»<«■«■ {tower .iM'.o fees if.ha«ls»tl of	hail \i»i«S.»v ..Mern.H.n, Mr*. fK-Mf«lte led tii< m.-.-mis. het	ioitt-five ya.rf tin. Hf
C!»k-»g« w t« and o«e lifu,	itvli; and tt»- remarkable manner	I hi h>n am! lirttt<t*w »f Sorwai
-<«»«»)« wbscb H ./oiy mwUUM	tn !it. h he mad.- }»(ii-..ei! e,er. r	s«h)ei;t hrt«r, "The New	did mw tine tackling »»d Wim-
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Tfee *tt^i!rfH''i ■>! K"1' «
b»rsf bad tb« ?tS» .» ..,r. of »!(..*■	KJ'K* $Af. TO THE \!<<;r"H.	il.M«mr. ItmlllMtffWftTlmffr	Weslevan b«* a d«vf.4t«d btracwv
Th eiSUjre (.) l.teiR»i>» ra in	and with !ft« bali ia t w«* yard* of
Itif tHf (ISflBilCf * <»! illf V>'i.f!t««'-. batM»»f» of i he Baiwmt^ The	a *t«te of ottenw o. sS.no «t	.Us. <J! ««*'i iitHSat, s«.	ttieir g-oU 0'^ I r^ {d»ajp»i
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	' > .,; , ,	who sarrted the feH te» W«"f«*3r»
* vm«iiM% »\ l»«Sf»!*afg a»i

7"/ie first broadsheet— 1904 Argus front page.

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 18

The Argus' interest in maintaining an East-Midwest connection (established in pit- Argus publications) often enabled it to feature more sensational news than could be found in Bloomington, as reported in this October 7, 1904 exchange column: "Arthur D. Wyman, an instructor in the chemical laboratory of Harvard University, died from injuries sustained by being run down by an automobile. The owner of the automobile was arrested, charged with manslaughter and was released on bail." Articles on Harvard and other Ivy League schools appeared in almost every issue, as if to suggest to students that their own education here in the Midwest was somehow connected.

The new Argus not only read like a newspaper, but it also looked like one. The editorial board expanded pages to 11x17 1/2 inches with four columns of copy on each page. The change allowed editors to rank important news at the tops of pages and less important news at the bottom. The staff apparently felt news from other colleges was important enough to "lead" with and typically ran such news in the first column. Local campus stories on increased chapel atten- dance, the results of the previous week's debate or fraternity and sorority activi- ties followed in columns two and three. Sports news such as the "Lit versus Law" school student football game appeared in column four. "One of the most spirited games of football played this fall on Wilder Field was the Law-Lit con- test," wrote the November 25, 1905 Argus. "Both sides played to win and the score 12 to 0 in the lawyers favor, does not show the real fight."

Editors relegated minor campus notes and news briefs to the inside pages: "there really is to be a band, in fact, there already is one" (January 12, 1906), "Elizabeth Rowe was a Wesleyan visitor on Tuesday" (January 12, 1906) and, of course, "Have YOU paid your subscription?" (December 10, 1906). If an inch of space needed to be filled, editors resorted to pre-Argus tricks and inserted a joke: 'A man told me the other day that I looked like you.' 'Where is he? I would like to punch him.' T killed him.' (January 25, 1907)

The Argus' format changes forced the staff to leave the university press for the newspaper's business manager, Bert E. Hempstead ('06), who printed the broadsheet at 109 E. Washington St., according to the masthead. When Hempstead graduated from Wesleyan, The Bloomington Printing and Stationary Company took over the printing for 1906-07 academic year. In 1907-08, the newspaper's nameplate changed from The Wesleyan Argus to Illinois Wesleyan Argus, and the format switched to eight 9x12 1/2-inch pages. In 1908-09, the newspaper switched back to the original bi-weekly magazine style format, with a cover and stapled pages.

Despite the changes, the paper still gave students their dollar's worth by extending its length from 16 to 24 pages — the most in Argus history. News sto- ries and essays still shared the front page with football game stories and included such hard news as this October 29, 1912 story:

Beyond a doubt the library is now in its best shape it has ever been, within the memory of the present corps of students. Some students

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 19

didn't know that we had a library ... It is not very large and is sadly

lacking in the essentials of a reference library, but due to the efficient

services of Miss Sinclair, what there is, is now on tap.

World War I resulted in a shift in contents, with the Argus devoting at least

four pages to war coverage in every issue. Stories updating the status of

Wesleyan students serving overseas ran alongside essays on "Compulsory

Military Education" and "Food and the World War."

1921: No More Covers — The Newspaper Era Begins

In 1921, The Argus decided to become strictly a newspaper once and for all, adopting a 10x13 1/2 broadsheet format with four columns of copy per page. Editors phased oratory and short stories out of the newspaper for good, except for running a literary supplement each year which featured student poetry, short stories and essays. In 1961, Wesleyan's first continuous literary magazine, the Black Book, made such supplements obsolete.

While the news was "newsier" during this era, if the editors' ranking of sto- ries is any indicator of student interest, then the Wesleyan community was more concerned about campus "rah-rah" than serious subjects. In 1921, for example, the staff ran a huge headline for the basketball game story, "Wesleyan Wins Over Bradley 27-15," but only included a few paragraphs to inform the campus that the "Phi Gam House [was] Destroyed By Fire" or report that "Elizabeth Haley Dies Of Pneumonia."

Presser Hall (1930), site of many concerts and convocations, including fhe lafest alumni recital by Dawn Upshaw, a Grammy-winning soprano for the New York Metropolitan Opera, on September 24, 7 989.

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 20

Volume XXV III
Wesley/an sod Normal	Struggle
-THE MASQUERS" MEET AND ORGANIZE
CoKHsKSenmjj; "Ejsn«xe" » One of the Play «o he Given This Year	f

	&

December 2, 1921

Through Thaoksgi?iog Day Battle Without Scoring

0*

I

LOCAL SQUADS

STAGE MUD FIGH1

f

i

WE5LEYAN HAS

EXCELLENT DEBATE

PROSPECT* THIS SFAsON

THE WILSON MEETINGS

ri'D! N'l FK!1;N!iSI!II> fund

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C«m**ttnr*J «« p*<S< ?

gi which

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7he 7927 Argus abandoned magazine format and featured a classy photo nameplate.

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 21

It is possible that Clarence A. Burner's Normalite newspaper press printed the 1921 Argus, which had a flashy photo "flag" featuring a picture of the cam- pus in the background and "The Wesleyan Argus" printed in the foreground. But no records exist in the Illinois Wesleyan University archives which would con- firm this, and the Normalite 's business records were destroyed in a 1983 fire. Richard J. Finfgeld ('27), a former Argus sports editor, recalls going to Burner's print shop during his freshman year, so it is certain that Burner printed The Argus from at least 1923 to 1932.

As the 1920s roared on, so did Wesleyan's newspaper, which reported the university's own era of prosperity. The university laid cornerstones for Memorial Gym in 1921, Buck Library in 1922 and Presser Hall in 1929. In addition to these large-scale building projects, the paper also covered smaller- scale endeavors, such as when "the largest Wesleyana on record" had gone to press (April 22, 1927) or when "One Hundred Fifty New Volumes Appear On Library Shelves" (September 30, 1926). Given the October 3, 1928 article "Mighty Midnight Spectacle Part of Wesleyan Tradition," the city of Bloomington was transformed into something out of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920s novel, The Great Gatsby:

All traffic on Main Street will stop — whether or not car owners desire to do so. The street cars will run after-a-fashion ... the milling mob will propel its way through the business section to the very doors of the court house [where] the school songs will awaken loyal surgings within every student's heart. The procession will then wend its way back to the uni- versity for this new feature of this old tradition. A mighty bonfire will be built upon the campus, one that will lift high its fiery beacon as in defiance to all who would say Wesleyan is not the best. With the more newspaperish look, the staff officially shortened the newspa- per's name from Illinois Wesleyan Argus to The Argus in 1923 and shifted back to a weekly publication. Two-to five-paragraph editorials on topics such as the resurgence of women, student regulations and Wesleyan's examination system appeared on page four, with varsity and intramural sports on pages six and seven of each eight-page issue. Wesleyan football and basketball games were viewed with particular excitement, IWU suited up against well-known schools such as as DePaul, Illinois, Notre Dame and Michigan State.

Full-length feature articles on people, places or events also appeared in the late 1920's. Some features focused on the more interesting personality traits of Wesleyan faculty members. For example, the December 12, 1928 issue told of the wrestling abilities of speech professor Alfred A. Hopkins, who held the unof- ficial championship of the state of New Hampshire. Other features had a national and international flavor, including "Rhodes Scholars Are Popular Respected, Successful At Oxford," "Survey Of College Man's Styles In Five Universities Shows Common Tendencies In Selection Of Spring Outfits" and "Europe Is Summer Attraction To Students During Vacation." The February 16, 1928 arti-

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 22

cle, "Natives Of India Want Christ, But Not Sects," is another example of a clas- sic feature :

They [the Indians] love an automobile. Some of them will drop their

bundle and run in to the jungles, where they peek out from under the

trees when they see it coming. . . . More often, they come up to it, turn

on the lights and giggle. . . . They feel the need of some higher power,

and to satisfy this need, they worship even a piece of string or a stone.

Such features allowed the newspaper to expand to a world beyond Wesley an. In

fact, during the 1920s the newspaper extended beyond the school year as well,

publishing the Baby Argus one summer. Sizably smaller, the 1926 Baby Argus

kept students informed of such "issues" as the latest temperatures during

Bloomington's hot summer months.

With the 1930s came an Argus that retreated from the outside world and focused on campus events. Stories on campus speakers (who were usually visit- ing professors from other universities), debate, football and basketball teams, and Greek organizations dominated page one. In fact, Greek life was so impor- tant that the May 4, 1932 front page headlined with "Sigma Kappas and Phi Gams Cop Honors In Annual Stunt Show: Large And Enthusiastic Crowd Applauds Greek Letter Event." Given the description of the winning Phi Gam stunt, entitled "Resurrection," Wesley an students worked just as hard to prepare for social contests as they did on their classwork:

The hall was completely darkened and slowly the head of the "corpse,"

phosphorous illuminated, rose over the edge of the coffin. At the same time

a cold wind blew over the audience as the smell of dead flowers floated out.

Slowly the figure, Harry Fagerburg, began a dance, which gradually became

wilder and in which the 'corpse' was joined by other figures. ... A skull

floated over the audience amid the shrieks of the audience.

Staffs also came up with feature stories on subjects ranging from ancient

pianos to third-party politics. One entitled "What Do The Wesley an Janitors

Think of Us" told how five janitors described Wesley an students as "a fine

group." "I think we have a very wise group of students at Wesleyan this year,"

said one janitor. "The students appear to be quite serious in their desire in the

fact that thus far, they have not destroyed or damaged any property" (February

24, 1932). Another feature, "Former Student Leaders Relate Western Thrills,"

(December 17, 1936), reported Harold Livingston's ('36) and John LaMonica's

('36) 600-mile hitch-hiking trip to the Pacific coast.

Under the editorship of Charles Virgil Martin ('32), The Argus underwent complete sectional re-organization. "When people read the newspaper, I wanted it to be in pragmatic condition — meaning stories were reasonably organized," said Martin, the oldest former editor alive at the time of the centennial. "There was some resistance on the part of the staff who wanted to do things the old way, but I couldn't stand seeing stories blend into each other."

After the front page, the staff grouped arts, music and an occasional book review into a section entitled "The Wesleyan Muse" on page two. Page three

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 23

THE ARGUS

A MONROE TO SING FRIDAY

ARGUS WINS PLACES SIX TIMES IN L C. P. A, CONTEST t''™**™*"* Wi*h

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The largest front page in Argus h/story (1933-34).

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 24

contained dance and wedding information, while "Society" and "Social" sections on Greek organizations featured such news as "Paul Hensel entertained a group of friends last Saturday evening at the Sig House. A discussion on literature was the subject of the gathering" (December 15, 1931). Two or three editorials, a personals section entitled "Rah Stuff and letters to the editor occupied page four, with more campus-oriented announcements and feature stories on page five. "Sports" dominated pages six and seven, while the back page featured jumps from page one and a gossip column entitled "Hanz Heckles," which included a "weakly poem:"

She doesn't wear paint; she doesn't wear rouge;

She doesn't smoke, she doesn't booze;

She doesn't kiss, she doesn't pet;

She's 58 and single yet. (January 6, 1932) Obviously, political correctness was not yet a journalistic concern.

Perhaps the most welcome change in the stylistic history of The Argus came in 1933, when Gummerman Printing Office (known then as Journal Job Printing) started printing the newspaper under the watchful eyes of John Gummerman and his son, Bernard ('31). From 1933 to 1972, Gummerman's linotype machine typeset 39 volumes of The Argus while a manual flatbed press did the inking. After the flatbed press became obsolete in 1965, Gummerman's used a huge Goss Cox-O-Type Web press to print the newspaper. But the advent of the offset press just seven years later came so suddenly that Bernie didn't even bother to remove the final May 5, 1972 Argus from the middle of the Web. It remained there until the press was sold at auction in September of 1993, when Gummerman's finally closed its doors.

Not only does Gummerman's hold the record for printing The Argus for the longest period of time (60 years), but it also printed the largest Argus page in history — a 14x34-inch giant for the four-page issues of 1934. Vertical lines sep- arated six columns of copy, and at least one headline per issue ran across an entire page.

Although life at Wesleyan was, at first, apparently unaffected by the Depression, hard times did catch up with the campus in the latter half of the 1930s. The Argus ran no more than four or five photographs an issue during the 1920s, and that number dwindled to one or zero by 1937. Charlotte Fitzhenry Robling ('38), editor during 1937-38, summed up the photo situation when she said, "I think we would have had more pictures if we could have afforded a cam- era." Most of the photographs The Argus printed came courtesy of The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington's local newspaper.

Despite hard times, The Argus reported that Wesleyan students engaged in the same carefree college activities as always. A college education during this era was a luxury, and optimism for a better future won out over doom and gloom. Pep rallies and Homecoming stories became front-page fixtures as the decade evolved. The newspaper also devoted a large amount of space to plays and musicals. For example, the March 21, 1936 front page article, "Critics Laud

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 25

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| 'Dish' Is Former ; Commercial Artist,

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DEDICATION OF THE SEKVICE FLAG On bvhaii Off the students, the faculty, the alumni, the ' Joint Board of Trustees and Official Visi'ors, and She friends ; of Illinois Westeyan University, I Hereby dedicate this Service | Flag ia honor oi the men and women of Illinois Wesieyan University who are serving its the armed forces of their i country and in revereni memory of those who have made I the supreme sacrifice and have already joined the roster of | the Iru-mortai. With this dedication we, with ever deepening I devotion, pledge anew oar allegiance Io those ideals of free- | dom, JasiSe©, and brotherhood which our nation has ever up- ! held, and oaraesiiy do we- pray for the coming of the day of j peace on earth and goodwill among men,

W. E. Shaw

Students Receive Degrees, Flag Dedicated In Chapel

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/Tie 50fh anniversary year (1943-44).

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 26

Play, Outward Bound," not only gave a summary of the play, but also included comments from John Corbin, a critic for The New York Times. Throughout the rest of the decade, it was common to see bold headlines such as "VODVIL [sic] TONIGHT AT PRESSER HALL" and "HAMLET WILL BE GIVEN APRIL 4."

Students' carefree attitudes continued in the early 1940s. In September 1941, less than two weeks after three U.S. ships were attacked and President Roosevelt issued "shoot-on-sight" orders to the U.S. Navy in American defense waters, The Argus devoted a full-page story listing the pledges of every Greek organization on campus, along with a picture of each organization's pledge pin.

But quickly, World War II forced The Argus to replace such feature stories with war speaker stories and information on alumni and students serving over- seas. The newspaper also acted as a communication link between the front and the campus, printing letters from soldiers and providing students with their over- seas addresses. Social news (mostly pictures of Wesleyan "coeds" in wedding dresses) continued, as did a reduced Hanz-Heklish social gossip column entitled "Bee-Witcher." Despite the high number of men joining the service, Navy avia- tion cadets bivouacked at Wesleyan kept the middle pages full of sports news, while an increased number of editorials on page two encouraged students to buy war bonds and join Red Cross war activities.

Lighthearted student opinion polls occasionally ran during the early 1940s to ease the tensions of war. Some of the questions included, "Do you get a bang out of college?" "What's wrong with men?" and "What would you do if you had an extra nickel?" However, lighthearted material sometimes turned into ignorance, especially when The Argus printed a few racist jokes, such as:

A colored country preacher, who was strong on visiting the female mem- bers of his flock, was traveling along the road to the house of one of his flock when he met the small son of the lady members.

"Where's your maw?"

"She's home."

"Where's your paw?"

"He's home."

"Tell 'em 'howdy' fuh me." (April 24, 1944) None of Wesleyan's all-white student body responded with a letter to the editor in following issues.

Although this joke indicates that some form of racism explicitly existed on campus during the 1940s, an October 8, 1947 page two article, "Students Protest Discrimination Policy Of Normal Restaurant," told how students from both Wesleyan and Illinois State Normal picketed the Pilgrim restaurant in Normal for not admitting black students. "Contrary to what they called 'unfair accusations,' members of the picket force denied that the Pilgrim is being used for a 'goat' while other eating places in this area discriminate," The Argus wrote. The picket served its purpose, as black students were admitted to the restaurant soon after, according to 1947-48 editor Bob Holmes ('48).

As postwar prosperity set in across the nation, a number of famous people

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 27

appeared in The Argus, including Senator J.W. Fulbright, who spoke at Presser Hall in 1946, poet Langston Hughes, who spoke at a Bloomington-Normal com- munity forum in 1945 and Metropolitan Opera star Helen Traubel, who per- formed at the Scottish Rite Temple in 1946.

An Era of Stability

One positive advancement the newspaper made during the postwar years was with photography, as editors ran anywhere from six to 12 pictures per issue during the era. Photos reached new heights in 1948, according to 1948-49 editor Alice Stanbery ('49). "It's not like we had any more pictures than issues before us, but we just had some wonderful photographers," she said. One of those included Norman Kerr ('52), who now works as the creative director of photog- raphy for Eastman Kodak Company.

Between 1947 and 1960, The Argus averaged ten pages an issue, with the smallest containing four pages and the largest 20. The newspaper continued to cover campus events, including the opening of the Memorial Student Center's Center Grill in 1947 (it was later renamed the Dug Out), the 1949 campus carni- val, the 1951 chest x-ray drive (to fight those nasty winter colds) and the con- struction of a "new men's dormitory" (Dolan Hall) in 1955.

Stories seldom exceeded five inches, and the shorter treatment allowed edi- tors to print more stories on each page. The front page of the October 7, 1953 Argus displayed eight stories: "Fall Enrollment Reaches 700; Figures Above Last Year," "Titan Council Releases Call For New Members," "Football Band Gives Halftime Shows," "Wesleyan Receives Research Grant," "IWU Parents Day Sunday, October 11," "Student Union Selects Cheerleaders for '53-'54," "October 13 Date for Class Primary Elections" and "Anderson to Present Organ Recital." In addition, the front page also had five "Notices," or news briefs, announcing campus information, as well as photographs of the band and cheer- leaders— all on a single 11 1/2x1 6-inch page, which had been implemented by Gummerman Printing in 1937.

Editorials, which appeared on page two, ranged from national subjects like The Argus-advocated 1955 nationwide "church attendance crusade" to more campus-related issues like student government decisions, the negative effects of cheating and an occasional plea for new Argus staff members. The old, reliable sections — features, music, art, social news and personals — remained largely unchanged from their pre-war days and ran on different pages each week.

Sports news, which dominated as many as three pages during the 1930s, occupied only one page an issue during the 1950s, except, of course, when Wesleyan battled its cross-town rival, Illinois State Normal. With the exception of a few stories denouncing the Korean War, the newspaper had a personality similar to Wally and Beaver Cleaver — wholesome, clean cut and conforming with the conservative nature of the campus. The staff even put in extra hours during the summer to produce issues that, according to former editor Art Schmittler ('54), were mailed to incoming and returning students "to inform

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 28

them of registration times, scheduling changes and other types of administrative information."

From 1957-62, feature stories on faculty members and administrators fre- quently appeared on the inside pages of the newspaper. But two weeks before John F. Kennedy was elected to office, hints of what would eventually turn into student unrest began to appear in The Argus. In a special homecoming issue, read by scores of returning alumni, editors gave prominent back-page placement to a story which asked students, "Are You Receiving A Good Education?" One senior English major responded, "sometimes I've learned more during a half hour's conversation [at the Grill] than during a Chapel service or during an hour in class." But even that student added, "Remember — I said sometimes."

The 1960s: Wesleyan in its True Light

Like other college newspapers, The Argus became caught up in the social turmoil of the late 1960s and early 1970s. A September 19, 1969 editorial pro- claimed that

In the first issue of The Argus, Sept. 17, 1894, the staff promised to pub- lish "a paper which will be loyal to the university and to the students," one which would "present our excellent school in the very best light." Today, Sept. 19, 1969, The Argus editorial staff seeks to present the uni- versity in its true light, whether it is functioning well or badly.

And when Allan O. Pfnister, a consultant hired to assist the university in the study and correction of weaknesses, reported that "the basic administrative orga- nization structure has not changed appreciably," the newspaper headlined the story "Consultant reports lack of change" on November 21, 1969. "The divi- sional organization of the college of liberal arts still lacks definition of function," Pfnister wrote in a report to the administration obtained by The Argus. "In a uni- versity with such strong professional programs one would expect to find an equally strong liberal arts emphasis."

In the spirit of new investigative journalism, all Argus stories extended to an average length of 10 inches. Now the average front page carried articles like "Bertholf announces July 1968 retirement," "Tuition rises $175 in new budget" and "Board allots leaves, tenure; advances ranks of seven." On the surface, these stories may seem mundane, but Argus staffs did not report tuition increases or decisions made by the Board of Trustees prior to the 1960s. In addition to uni- versity news, the newspaper went out of its way to report turbulent issues such as the Vietnam War, civil rights movement and campus protest. Argus staff writers tried to bring this national news more relevant by, somehow, tying it to a situa- tion at Wesleyan. (News coverage during the 19 will be examined in greater detail in subsequent chapters.)

In addition to more hard news, the newspaper covered famous people who spoke at Wesleyan, including Senator Everett Dirksen, who spoke at IWU's 109th commencement, astronaut Frank Borman (who laid the cornerstone for Mark Evans Observatory in March, 1969), poet Allen Ginsberg, Vice President

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 29

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Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 30

Argus

Hubert H. Humphrey, civil rights activist Fred Hampton, social reformist and author Michael Harrington, and poet Gwendolyn Brooks. The paper publicized campus concerts featuring popular sixties groups such as the Shirelles, Peter and Gordon, Spanky and Our Gang and The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Columns written under the pseudonyms "The Gadfly," and "Charles Martel" allowed students to anonymously voice opinions about the administration, student government, women's hours policy, the Greek system and alcohol policy. By 1969, an outside subscription to The Argus cost $5 — only a $4 increase since 1894. In 1973, The Argus survived another major change, with editor Thomas St. John ('75) reporting that a "lack of trees" and a Canadian railroad strike resulted in The Argus switching from traditional newsprint to more expensive, high-quali- ty paper. Even The Pantagraph "felt the pinch of the strike this summer when they almost ran out of paper," according to St. John's editorial. His prediction that The Argus would probably never come out on newsprint again held true through the Gummerman era.

During the late 1970s, The Argus covered the university's surprisingly smooth implementation of co-ed living units. After the university "experiment- ed" with co-ed housing at Gulick Hall in 1974-75, the March 19, 1976 Argus

announced that Dodds Hall, for- merly a men's dormitory, would become Wesleyan's other co-ed living unit in the 1976-77 school year. "No one got upset with the Gulick Hall experiment," The Argus wrote, adding that Dodds' eight-person suite living units were even more "conducive to the housing of both men and women" than Gulick's regular two-person rooms. Dodds and Gulick remain IWU's only co-ed dorms as of the 1993-94 school year.

The 1980s and 1990s: Trying to Break the Bubble

Editors organized the eight to 16-page issues of the 1980s Argus in the same way as C. Virgil Martin's 1931-32 staff. In addition to running campus-cen- tered stories on Student Senate meetings, faculty meetings, con- certs, theatre performances,

=yiLiii

False tire alarms threaten safety of reside!

H

Forums discuss problem of date rape on campus

J: Anderson plans to hold discussion at senate meeting -pSaS* ! :

In the 1980s, The Argus was "Devoted to the concept of free press. "

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 31

The Argus

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Bush's policies scrutinized during debate

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Racism seminar stresses acceptance appreciation among ethic groupings

Women's issues separate party platforms

Chaffed f*e»

campus speakers and construc- tion, the paper perpetuated the "Wesleyan bubble" theory — "that sense of isolation from the rest of the civilized world. . . . [I]n Bloomington-Normal there's nowhere to go, nothing to do, and everyone goes to sleep at 8 p.m."(September 13, 1991). Given that the greatest percent- age of Wesleyan's student body hailed from the Chicago area in the 1980s, it's no shock that stu- dents have felt trapped in Wesleyan's stable and consider- ably less urban environment.

The center spread — a series of related articles with pho- tographs or graphics in the mid- dle of the newspaper — gave edi- tors the opportunity to break the Wesleyan bubble with expanded national and international news stories since the early 1980s. The February 15, 1985 Argus featured a center spread on

South African apartheid with articles on three speakers who lectured at Wesleyan and Illinois State University during the week. "The Black population may have little chance against the South African authorities," wrote staff writer Kelly Gaskins ('88). "The police force which numbers some 47,000 and the Army containing 85,000 have succeeded in maintaining control over some 23 million blacks."

Likewise, staff writer Andrette Brown's ('89) March 3, 1989 speaker story on civil rights author James Meredith told of his 1962 struggle to enroll at the University of Mississippi. His personal struggle escalated into a "mini-civil war between 400 federal marshals and some 17,000 national guardsmen called to the scene by president John F. Kennedy." In other parts of his address, Meredith advised that "blacks must take control of their families, schools and communi- ties" if they are ever to achieve racial equality. Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, related a similar story of overcoming racial barriers when she spoke at the 1988 President's Convocation.

News editor John Snyder ('91) reported Illinois Governor Jim Edgar's speech at the 1991 IWU Founders' Day Convocation. The newly elected Edgar

The Argus of the 1990s

Chapter 2 Evolution of The Argus 32

focused "chiefly on the importance of education in Illinois and his intent to be 'the education governor'" (February 22, 1991). Edgar also said that increased educational opportunities could be reached '"without a lot of extra money,' per- ceiving the advancement of education as a 'common goal for a common good.'"

During this era, the "Opinion" pages mirrored the front pages, offering added perspective. Inside pages contained the "Arts and Entertainment" section, which included book and movie reviews, while "Sports" took over the back two to three pages of every issue. Feature articles during this period reflect the national pre-occupation with self-improvement and extended equal rights in all areas. Some topics covered diet tips, stress management, Habitat for Humanity pro- jects, bulimia, and Black Student Union activities.

The evolution of The Argus from a literary journal to a newspaper, and then to a newspaper that covered both campus and national issues, has reflected a change in campus personality from rah-rah to real world. Even Argus subscrip- tion rate increases have reflected the economic signs of the times with costs tripling in the past 25 years. (Costs rose to $8 in 1981, $14 in 1984 and stand at $21 for the 1993-94 school year.) Despite five wars, one depression and a national paper shortage, the newspaper has not ceased publication for 100 years. Love it or hate it, The Argus has been, and will always be, watching and report- ing Wesley an news.

Chapter 3 Front Page News 33

CHAPTER 3

Front Page News

The front page serves as a newspaper's billboard, using its content and style to catch readers' attention and pull them into the inside pages. But from the very beginning, finding front-page news hasn't been easy for Argus editors. An 1898 editorial complained that "The editors of the different departments have at times found it very difficult to secure material to fill the columns of the paper, let alone procuring such material that would not only interest its readers but also add cred- it to the paper itself (December 1).

The fact that The Argus has not been the most earth-shaking college newspa- per reflects the stable nature of the Wesleyan campus. As late as the 1950s, "Wesleyan was a lot smaller and was more of a family operation" — including The Argus, according to 1952-53 editor Jim Ridenour ('54). Alice Stanbery, 1948-49 editor, added, "We didn't have any controversies with anybody, but then again we weren't really radical individuals."

No News Is Good News

Other editors and the front pages themselves confirm that until the mid- 1960s, no Argus staff was terribly radical or reform-oriented. Until then, much of The Argus front-page matter was informational, including administrative pro- nouncements on how students should behave, when they were to attend classes, and when tuition was to be paid. Student writers even praised the value of listen- ing to administrators, as this May 15, 1899 article on chapel conduct illustrates: "It is not only discourteous to the faculty, but it is also an indication of bad breeding for any one so to conduct himself during the chapel hour as to make himself obnoxious and a nuisance to those about him."

For all their concern, editors from the 1 890s followed in the tradition of pre- Argus publications, devoting their front pages exclusively to literary criticism, translations, poems and scientific essays. If it was hard to find material, it was only because the material was scholarly and undoubtedly took time to research and write — as with Professor W.A. Heidel's essay on "The Poems of William Watson," which appeared in the January 14, 1895 issue, or the French translation of "The Pope's Mule" that greeted readers on the front page of the March 25, 1895 Argus. Even more striking were two issues published that year which devoted the entire front page to a single poem.

In attempts to fill the front page with newsworthy events, editors have, at

Chapter 3 Front Page News 34

times, opted for the lighter side of coverage. Fluff articles on the news pages appeared from the beginning of The Argus, when editors chose to print stories that were more interesting than influential.

Early front pages emphasized Greek life and social news, featuring such headlines as "Silence is last straw in pledge life" and "Barbecue successful as new innovation for homecoming." But the social scene was not limited to the Greek system. The biggest competition was based not on Greek/independent relations, but on class loyalty. In 1904, editors chose to amuse their readers by reporting freshmen initiation rituals in "Shear the Freshmen." When "a large crowd of upper classmen assembled to act as a reception committee for the Freshmen," the lower classmen were hardly receptive. Upperclassmen not only shaved the freshmen's heads, but also forced them to sing, dance and utterly humiliate themselves. One eyewitness told The Argus:

I was caught and carried along in the jam and finally landed dazed and blinking at the top of the chapel stairs. I saw a mass of moving figures in the dim light and saw Brian holding the center of the stage while a husky bruiser gloated over his prey and menacingly wielded a large pair of sheep shears with which he proceeded to remove his raven locks in a manner that showed former training along a tonsorial line. 'Aw don't fellows' pleaded the victim, but his words were greeted with a hoarse and grating laughter and only added fuel to the already brightly glowing class spirit. (November 4, 1904) Another article in the same issue described the desperate flight of a hazed fresh- man who was seen "at a clip seldom seen in this region where a ten second man is a rarity." The young man apparently had been "assailed" by an upperclassman on the way to a freshman mixer and kept running until he was spotted in the nearby town of Dan vers.

Freshmen seemed to carry the heaviest burden when it came to social tradi- tions. The November 9, 1910 front page announced the results of yet another freshmen defeat in "The Sophomore Colors Still Wave." The contest began when the sophomore class placed its class colors at the top of the university's flagpole. Freshmen would then try to climb the pole and destroy the sophomore flag while sophomores tried to pull their rivals off the pole. The senior class acted as referee. The Argus was at the scene: "Time and again the Freshmen had a man on the pole only to see him pulled down again by the struggling Sophs. It was no dress suit affair not yet a child's game. Few came out of the struggle with clothing intact and many had to borrow overcoats to wear home."

If nothing else, The Argus was consistent with its front-page fluff articles through the next decade, often printing marriage announcements and day-to-day reminders on page one. The November 24, 1915 edition proclaimed, "Thanksgiving: Turkey Day Will Soon Be Here" (as reported, "Some folks have already enjoyed that delightful olfactory sensation that is the direct result of aro- matic attacks . . .") Next to it ran an untitled article that described yet another social event:

Chapter 3 Front Page News 35

Ever since the beginning of the school year the dorm girls have talked hopelessly of owning a Victrola, and when they have given up the idea in despair and endeavored to find substitutes, always have they failed in a 'supply of male voices . . .'" But one night last week, the missing link turned up for four worthy gentlemen serenaded the inhabitants of Kemp Hall for about half an hour with various and sundry popularans. Later, such lighter articles were replaced with news of World War I. However, after the war the focus of front-page stories returned to campus events and col- lege trends. Headlines from the December 16, 1926 front page captured the carefree nature of college life in the Roaring Twenties, with this news flash: "No Cause To Mourn For Bobbed Heads." It was front page news on November 18, 1926 that "Silk football pants are the new departure in grid-iron regalia. Head coach Jimmy Phelan at Purdue University invented these new sheik breeches after developing the idea during the 1925 season."

An October, 1924 article advertised a mixer which involved boxing and wrestling but warned that "here is one time when the women are absolutely tabooed," while a 1929 article, "Freshmen Are Too Cocky For Good Of Common People," maintained the polarized class structure of previous years. More campus traditions hit the front page in the 1920s but, according to The Argus, none were as popular as the "pajama trot." As a celebrated homecoming tradition, students marched in their pajamas to the Bloomington courthouse where they chanted the Wesleyan fight song. This must not have seemed too unusual, however, since the only reason it appeared in the October 16, 1929 issue was because that year's crowd conducted their march in the pouring rain.

7he campus that never was" (1921) , a popular graphic for Homecoming issues.

Chapter 3 Front Page News 36

While more newsworthy articles began to appear in the 1930s, headlines such as "Come one and all (dateless) to Xmas dance" and "Argus staff meeting to be held today" still managed to find their way onto page one. The front page was also used as a space filler in 1933. In the February 16 edition, a student poll which began on page two was jumped to (continued on) the front page. The poll asked students how the campus could improve.

Wesley an students weren't the only ones who provided trivial news for the front page. The "dog days" of Argus reporting became literally that. As relief from the Depression/war news, the life of a fraternity mascot captured the heart of the campus. Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) German shepherd Alpha Deuteron (Alphy) appeared in The Argus a total of four times — twice on page one. Alphy first gained fame in spring 1937 when President Harold W. McPherson ('06) pre- sented her a Doctor of Caninology degree on the steps of Hedding Hall. Alphy attended classes by following FIJI members to class and sitting through lectures. Only one other such doctorate in Illinois existed at the time. After 13 years of living in the FIJI house, Alphy dislocated her hip and had to be put to sleep. Her obituary, which appeared in the September 22, 1943 Argus, took up almost one- quarter of the front page. The obituary fondly remembered when "at the mention of 'Sigma Chi' Alphy would tear down to the basement and hunt for rats."

The May 4, 1949 front page is a quintessential example of one of The Argus' many "slow news days." The most captivating items on the page were a poem describing "senior ditch day" and a picture of newly-elected Argus editor Bob Gorman ('50) and business manager Vernon Prenzler ('50) with their feet on a

Page 8 THE ARGUS - Illinois Wesleyan University, Friday, March 8, 1974

«TtfKH

Some men of Sigma Chi Fraternity, which houses some of IWU's finest athletes, indulge in the latest campus outdoor sporting craxe. Here, they were providing entertainment for the women of Munsell Wednesday night In classic Greek tradition. (See story on page one.)

The naked truth: streakers at IWU.

Chapter 3 Front Page News 37

desk. The lead story, "Androcles To Meet Lion This Week — Duell, Brooks Lead Cast For Three Nights," reported the dates, times and names of cast members of the weekend production. More insignificant news came in the story "Announce Activities For Mother's Day," which featured a picture of Magill Hall counselor Mrs. Ralph Williams and a student to whom she played mother throughout the year.

In 1974, outbreaks of streaking overran the campus. In the March 8, 1974 story "Streakers make a hit," The Argus devoted a large portion of page one (including photos) to a group of Sigma Chi fraternity members who ran naked across the quad. However, the Sigs were not the campus' only group to take it all off. During one of the fraternity's nude chorus line acts that faced Munsell Hall, women danced naked in blackened dorm windows while five nude inde- pendents ran past the dorm and eventually disappeared behind the Sheean Library. One spectator told The Argus, "It's better than goldfish."

Other front-page events may not have been as eye-catching as the streakers, but they provided an alternative to hard news. "Two girls are locked in room" (October 1, 1976) described two Munsell residents who, after a "disappointing" biology quiz, slammed their door so hard that it caused a vacuum and jammed the door. After 45 minutes the women were freed when Munsell residents pushed open the door.

The issue closest to April 1 has never been a slow news day for The Argus. Editors printed special April Fools' issues from the 1920s to the late 1980s, when editors feared such issues would be randomly chosen by the Illinois College Press Association for annual evaluations. April Fools' issues tradition- ally featured random articles that mocked students, faculty and events. The 1925 issue announced a campus takeover by fleas:

The other day three men were seen doing some very amazing things; some of the things were such that we can't speak of them, but one in par- ticular should be mentioned so that our frosh won't start doing the same thing . . . [There students] had returned to the days of their monkey ancestors and were searching their craniums for fleas . . . ! According to all that was observed, the three were enjoying the process very much, shouting with glee and jumping around quite often. Other headlines in later years announced a meeting between IWU President Merrill J. Holmes and President Harry S. Truman, the merger of Wesleyan and ISU and "Pfeiffer couples pair up; IWU tries co-ed living." April Fools' issues usually changed the newspaper's title as well. The Angus appeared in the mid- 1980s and reported a violent cow riot. The Arcacia (1984) mocked the cafeteria, the Greek system and selected administrators.

"Hard" News: Harder to Come By

Of course, the history of The Argus has not been solely one of slow news days. From 1914 through 1946, the newspaper reported Wesley an's reaction to the World Wars and Great Depression. It also reported significant campus events, including the Hedding Hall fire and a plan to move the campus from

Chapter 3 Front Page News 38

AMIE CHAPEL TO BE SECOND CASINO

APRIL FOOL

The Argus

ShfcS. KNOWS. TELLS ALL

WESLEYAN MEN TO TOUR EUROPE ON BICYCLES

Fifteen Lives Are Lost in Observatory Fire

Robbers Steal Hard- Won Coin

From President of University

*:.*; T. T mANNy j$ ATTEMPTED

V: BY AHLENII

NEW musk; school building

FACULTY WILL SPONSOR

ALL-SCHOOL DANCE IN GYM

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SrtW is Discovered in Raid; Rainy Days Predicted

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STUNT SHOW PLANS SHOW IMPROVEMENT

Wins Prize as Best-Dressed

Man on Wesleyan Cam put

BASEBALL SEASON OPENS WITH FIFTEEN CONFERHCE W!1B

For the 1928 April Fool's issue, editors used a blank space to suggest when the new music building would be built.

Chapter 3 Front Page News 39

Bloomington. During the 1960s and 1970s, editors focused on Student Senate politics and debates over such things as women's curfew hours and the alcohol policy. A grade-changing scandal even rocked the campus during the early 1980s. National events covered by The Argus included the civil rights move- ment, campus protest, national political races and homosexual rights.

Campus construction and acquisition of new property have traditionally been big with Argus readers. That explains the show of emotion when the April 27, 1906 issue reported that philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donated $30,000 to complete a $100,000 campaign to build and equip a new science hall. The cam- pus responded with "the greatest demonstration of enthusiasm ever seen in Bloomington. . . . The parade was five or six blocks long and the enthusiasm shown made people realize the interest that has been awakened for Wesleyan."

Another campus improvement story, which appeared on October 19, 1911 told how university women were elated at the acquisition of a new women's dor- mitory— Kemp Hall:

It has long been a cherished idea ... to have a place where the girls would feel like they were at home and not simply shut up in a prison to be watched over continuously. . . . The interior is finished in about thirty different kinds of wood and everything else is in perfect keeping with elaborate decorations. ... It is heated by city heat and lighted by elec- tricity. Other conveniences are the electric elevator; . . . electric ventila- tors in every room; speaking tubes, intercommunicating telephones, and dumbwaiters. Despite the conveniences of Kemp, which the university proclaimed on post- cards to be "the finest women's dormitory in all the country," an April 1919 front-page article told how a group of devoted alumni combated an administra- tive plan to move "dear old Wesleyan" to Springfield, Illinois. In "Wesleyan Remains At Bloomington," The Argus reported that a group of alarmed alumni met on April 21, 1919 in order to discuss the plan and form the Wesleyan Forward Movement Association, which they hoped would keep the campus per- manently in Bloomington. According to The Argus, alumni cited the financial generosity of Bloomington-Normal and the general dislike of any other location as reasons for keeping Wesleyan in Bloomington:

Whereas, So much hatred and ill-will would be caused by the attempted removal that the old Wesleyan would be practically destroyed, and there is no class that is so interested nor would be so vitally affected as its alumni by its removal; such action would mean to the alumni the loss of their alma mater, and would arouse undying resentment in their hearts. The alumni statement was passed on to the Board of Trustees the following day. After a debate which lasted over 10 hours, the board chose to keep the uni- versity in Bloomington by a vote of 19 to 7.

However, according to university records, the administration neglected to inform The Argus of the financial deal that kept Wesleyan in Bloomington. Missing from The Argus report was an account of how the Board of Trustees met

Chapter 3 Front Page News 40

with the Bloomington Association of Commerce after the Forward Movement debate. The association agreed to raise $600,000 for Wesleyan, provided the trustees would leave the university where it was. Eventually, the association raised $690,000 for Wesleyan's benefit, allocating the money for operating fees, the purchase of adjoining property and a new gymnasium. The final condition was met when the cornerstone of Memorial Gym was laid on November 5, 1921. Alumni may have been able to keep Wesleyan in Bloomington, but they could not save its law school, as page two of the October 1, 1925 Argus reported: "For the first time in fifty years, there is no freshman class in the law school of the Illinois Wesleyan University this year. . . ." The article described law school secretary W.B. Leach's plea for the school's 800 alumni to donate $100,000 so that "one of the most famous and most important colleges of the Wesleyan" could continue. However, the May 13, 1927 front-page told the campus that year's graduating seniors would be the last to receive Bachelor of Laws diplomas from Illinois Wesleyan. "Law School Ceases To Exist With New Higher Standards" added that the Association of American Law Schools discredited IWU's law school because it did not have enough full-time faculty or enough volumes in its library.

During the 1920s, information that would have been considered page-one news in other decades was often run on the inside pages. When two students' cars collided at Graham and Evans streets, resulting in two cracked windshields, bent axles and broken wheels, The Argus reported it on page two. And while "pyramid style" reporting was developed during the Civil War, Argus reporters saved the most important details for last: "A. Bunch, Bill Fitz, Charles Burgess and Graydon Boyd were in the car and several of them were cut about the face and hands with flying glass. Miss Angier was unhurt" (November 5, 1924). One week later, the paper placed a robbery story on page four, reporting that Miss Ann Miller awoke shortly after midnight last Thursday to find there was a man in her room. Reaching out her hand suddenly, she caught him by the hair and then fully awake, she turned loose a feminine whoop that roused the rest of the Lodge. After the yell, the marauder made his getaway through a window. (November 12, 1924) The newspaper added that the intruder escaped with two dolars, and, "that based on the woolly feel of the burglar's hair, it must have been a negro," according to Miss Miller. The claim was never substantiated in The Argus.

When the stock market crashed in October 1929, hard financial times were reflected not in stories of Black Monday and the Great Depression, but in an arti- cle which asked every IWU student and local business to "donate" a minimum of $25 in addition to their $200 per year tuition fee. Coverage in The Argus relied on guilt to get students to pay:

Wesleyan's need is sufficiently serious to cause every friend of the school to come to its support at this time, with heroism and genuine sac- rifice . . . The responsibility of meeting the great need of the Wesleyan must be felt by the student body also whom the institution most directly

Chapter 3 Front Page News 41

serves, and whom the realization of the goal of the million dollar drive will most directly benefit. It was all part of Wesleyan's county- wide fundraising campaign with a $1 mil- lion goal. Deficits had been increasing since 1924, after the university's annual operating funds dried up, and financial woes increased when the permanent endowment dropped too low to pay day-to-day costs. Not only did The Argus appeal to the student body when the story was first announced, but editor Madeleine Anderson Cutright ('31) wrote a front-page personal appeal to the students in the next issue under the headline "Wesleyan will! — Subscribe 100 Percent!" By December 1931, the fund totaled just over $548,000.

The endowment rose another $150,042 when Wesleyan merged with Hedding Seminary and Central Illinois Female College in 1930. Hedding College had been established in 1857 — seven years after Wesleyan's founding — in Abington, Illinois. The December 18, 1930 Argus reported that the college could not recover from its own financial crisis and ran out of money to pay repair charges and professor salaries. Wesleyan sold Hedding 's campus to an all- male military school and acquired Hedding 's endowment and 400 alumni.

Despite fundraising efforts and the Hedding acquisition, the Depression eventually caught up with Wesleyan. While students in 1930 were asked to donate an extra $25, times got so bad by 1932 that some students were allowed to pay a portion of their tuition with eggs and sheep. The top story for that year, "Wesleyan Accepts Farm Produce for Tuition," explained that the university's Produce for Tuition system allowed farmers to exchange produce and livestock at more than fair market value for tuition, room and board. Newspapers across the country went hog-wild over Wesleyan's "desire to help the youth of the Corn Belt." The Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and WGN Radio in Chicago all publicized the unique tuition plan reported in The Argus.

The only Produce for Tuition program in the country also led to Wesleyan's first appearance on the silver screen. The arrival of Hollywood's Paramount News Corporation on registration day in 1932 turned the quad into a trading post, complete with bales of hay and an occasional cow. The Argus reported that a local theater reserved its seats for Wesleyan's 531 students and described the nation's first filmed glimpse of Wesleyan:

All kinds of farm products were on hand. There were cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, a truck of oats, a truck full of cream cans. Someone had even managed to find two or three rabbits and Mr. Crabtree [Wesleyan's busi- ness manager] was willing to accept them. The final scene showed a student chasing a stray pig across the street, catching it and then applying it to his tuition. The film played to an estimated 25 million people in 5,000 theaters nationwide.

But Produce for Tuition wasn't just a publicity stunt. Ralph E. McCoy ('37), editor of the 1936-37 Argus, recalled that Wesleyan did all it could to help stu- dents, and tried to foster the kind of carefree college atmosphere that once exist-

Chapter 3 Front Page News 42

■hn Dickinson of Abingdon is coming to Weslevan cveni„f filsn He i< shown in the track hi ready rash is scarce, He was the first to take advantage! iois Weslevan university's offer to accept produce in Hcu ! Martin Hammitt, at the right At the

i been assisted bj Ti is Mr Trout, trick dri

The only Produce for Tuition progrom in the nation (1932). Note the humorous typo- graphical error at the end of the caption.

ed. "Almost everyone had some sort of campus job to pay for tuition," he said. Charlotte Fitzhenry Robling, editor from 1937-38, added, "By the time my class got to Wesley an, we were used to hard times. The Depression didn't affect me that much because half of my tuition [which was then approximately $200 per year] was already paid for, since I was editor."

One benefit to come from the Depression was reported in the November 28, 1934 Argus, which announced, "Wesleyan Is Now Represented On The Air, To present five hours each week." Although WJBC-Radio had been on the air since 1924, The Argus reported that the radio station's move to Illinois Wesleyan was a "purely commercial proposition." WJBC began broadcasting from the third floor of Old North Hall, according to the front-page article, though Wesleyan did not receive any air time until November 14. On the daily "Wesleyan Hour," stu- dents chosen by WJBC from the School of Music and the College of Liberal Arts were "to bring worth while things from the Wesleyan campus to all alumni and friends of the university and to all who may be interested in what we are doing here." (Wesleyan's own radio station, WESN, began broadcasting on February 28, 1972, according to The Argus.)

Another media-related highlight came when Martha Gellhorn, a "brilliant young American novelist and journalist" who would later become Ernest Hemingway's third wife, visited campus the week of January 12, 1938. Gellhorn, who started her reporting career after quitting college at age 18, "described vividly her experiences in the Spanish war zone to one of the largest

Chapter 3 Front Page News 43

audiences of the lecture season when she spoke at Presser Hall last Thursday evening."

Argus front-page contents changed as World War II consumed America. Suddenly the newspaper was full of interesting subject matter and solid facts. Even campus coverage was colored by the war. Besides the ever-present patriot- ic theme (an American flag appeared on the front page every issue), editors reported stories on "Reserve Men! See That Papers Are In Order," "Army, Navy, And Marines Recruit 48 In Recent Drive" and "Vacation Is Changed Due To War."

With the newspaper already deep in war coverage, another catastrophe struck Wesleyan. Hedding Hall, the second oldest building on the campus, burned the night of January 9, 1943. Suddenly, a newspaper that had once found itself searching for hard news was being bombarded with it on all sides — Strangely enough, the Hedding Hall story has been reprinted so many times in Argus issues that it has become a part of campus folklore.

Extra! The Rise and Fall of Hedding Hall

Built in 1870, Hedding Hall served as the major campus landmark, housing offices, alumni files, museum-quality specimens, laboratories, a new health department, 10 classrooms, Amie Chapel and irreplaceable trophies. The univer- sity originally named the building Old Main because of its general usefulness, but changed the name when Illinois Wesleyan acquired Hedding College.

Seventy-two years of history went up in flames because of faulty electrical wiring on that Saturday night in January, and The Argus was on the scene from the time flames shot up through the roof until little was left but smoldering ashes. The newspaper provided students, administrators, alumni and townspeo- ple with a final record of the old building, under the editorship of Beth Mackey Stiffler ('43) and with the photographic talent of Don Hibbard ('45). The event prompted such massive publicity that The Argus interrupted its usual publication schedule to print a Hedding Hall "Extra" on Sunday, January 10, 1943 — the sec- ond of two Argus extras in history. (The first commemorated the 1910 football team's state championship.)

"[Printer and mentor] Bernie Gummerman approached us with the idea of producing an extra issue about the fire, and the whole staff spent all day and night on Sunday working," Stiffler said. Fifty-one contributors funded the extra issue by means of a special ad deal arranged by business manager Don Freese ('43). Thanks to the extra, "not one student missed class on Monday," Stiffler said, because The Argus worked with the administration to locate and report tem- porary locations for classes.

According to the front-page article "Hedding Gone: Historic Hall in Ruins," some 4,500 spectators gathered to watch the fire that started on the second floor and spread rapidly. The spectacular flames allowed Hibbard to collect a vast array of photos which still tell the frightening reality of the fire 60 years later.

The January 10, 1943 Pantagraph reported that the blaze was already out of

Chapter 3 Front Page News 44

control when the fire department arrived at 7 p.m. The fire consumed over 200,000 gallons of water from Bloomington fire department water mains that struggled to maintain pressure. Adding to the nightmare was a strong wind which "blew sparks and flaming embers a full block east of the building."

The scramble to collect items from the inferno almost cost Wesleyan more than money, momentos and memories. "There's a fascinating story I wish we could have printed and photographed, but we were working so hard," Mackey Stiffler said. "I was standing in front of the north side entrance after the fire had really got going, when, all of a sudden, Professor Ferguson came out carrying his books. The second after he came out, the beam above the door came crashing to the ground. I'm glad he made it out of there alive. He loved his books so much, he had to rescue them."

Friday's issue following the Hedding fire allowed students to rise above their initial shock and express their emotion in the "Hedding Fire Souvenir Edition." The fire proved to be a journalistic windfall, since it spurred news and features to which an entire campus could relate. Seldom has an issue of The Argus been greeted with such anticipation. The souvenir issue reported not only the facts of the fire, but the loss experienced by faculty and students:

With the crumbling of the pillars of Amie Chapel went a lifetime of memories, tradition and customs built by men who were pioneers in a great venture. Each creaking step of Hedding could have told a story; every nook and cranny could have revealed human secrets. Through Hedding Hall each day stalked the ghosts of war, hardships, romance,

Chapter 3 Front Page News 45

The Argus

EXTRA!

AKiUSfn

HISTORIC

GONE

HALL IN RUINS

Students Help Save Reeords

Hisiwrw- nedding Bail w*» con- ] amed hv Same* S»tort»y night?

Illinois Wes^evjtn S'ne

Eler'nc wirin;?. is repnrlr-d in V the cause of the fire* which ] »on ra%ed out or contra!. The;

'he second fto

'■! '•■'

Stidrnti, faculty, and by- standers, directed by &r. Merrill- t. Holme*, carried records an& office material* from the barn- Ini! boildifl*. ©ay shift police- men, asxiUary oofiee-men, and «Mwn from the Midwest >fo- titre Trades Institute he?$»ed to fceeo the 4y5©6 spectator* bacfe !f«m the olaxe.

Mach credit goes to Henry Petaiifea. eaptain-eleel of the 1*13 foothalS team, who attcm»te<i to Wot oat the flame* »« the second floor with a fire extimtHiesher. The blase wa* already iral of control when he tried U* estmgttfsh the flames from the Marin* stage of the little Theatre «n the second floor

fn Apprecitttion

'■.'!'-raJ ■''.■rail iship.

.-ii'inc- to any «si» to

Heat For flhaiwl Ami IJiwrarv

• -if I?;;;.- . . -

?ht of gratitude to failf, Henry f»etr~ *d«r, and John

the debris a*w»y incidentally sat- ieal of Korae Be I checked all the U ID 150 feet of p turned on ttte ally checked it, systems or f*M» -ary «se?rp »$«$*»- stretch of pipe i Heddinf Hall,

18 70-1943

iGiri* Salvage Home Er Equipment

j F»» the cham*! hiSm iHediiing UaS. Miss 8aar ; the removal of Howe Ec ;eQ»ipraeot— trwm the only i>. ;»ot totally destroyed in the Hire Ssuildtaf, . _ I A rt,{ri8!eMlior- a gaa <* ice President heater, tear o<M8» policies were and drawer* eorst&SnStf pie u.ilrtciw office lemon w}uee*ers, slews, etc, mt duplicates moved to JJnley todfe, i insurance of- the Home Sr department lOUOM be located

The second "Extra" in Argus history.

Chapter 3 Front Page News 46

study, achievement, and depression . . . from the lives of those who have gone before. Yes, the building of Hedding is gone! The inside pages of the souvenir issue included a photo essay by Hibbard (pho- tos which also appeared in The Pantagraph), poems dedicated to Hedding and an article which not only carried a feeling of nostalgia, but reminded readers of the world's problems beyond Wesleyan. Staff writer Margot Smith Lucas ('44) likened the sentiments of a college campus struggling to overcome a destructive setback to the perseverance of those fighting World War II. "We can better real- ize the spirit of England when they put out their signs, 'Business as Usual,' after a night of bombing," Lucas wrote. "In the same manner we do back up President Shaw 100 percent when he issued the statement, 'Classes as Usual' on Monday morning."

That following March, the university razed the building, leaving only the

foundation and the lower level to serve as Duration Hall (renamed to express the "power" of that portion of Hedding to survive the fire). In 1965, despite an Argus editorial pleading the university to save Duration Hall, the university destroyed it in order to create a "roomier" quad.

Reagan Visit and Homecomings Highlight the 1950s

The postwar era saw an Argus that focused on campus news once again. Articles acted as a social cal- endar, with few interviews or quotes. For example, when The Argus announced that jazz great Count Basie would perform at Wesleyan to kick off "Greek Week" in 1958, it ran an introductory arti- cle describing his popular talent and lifestyle. But when he actually entertained the Wesleyan crowd, no picture or story ran in the paper. The same held true for composer Aaron Copland and singer Johnny Mathis. This trend of announcing but not covering events contin- ued through the mid-1960s. The newspaper also placed emphasis on IWU's growing population, offering such stories as "Centennial Class Of 267 Largest In History" (May 24, 1950) and "IWU Fastest Enrollment Growth In State" (November 17, 1954).

Had editors known that Ronald Reagan would serve two terms as President of the United States in the 1980s, the 1955 article, "Ronald Reagan Tells TKE of

What remained of Hedding Hall was renamed Duration.

Chapter 3 Front Page News 47

Communist Infiltration," might have appeared on the front page. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20, and the information on Reagan's Homecoming visit to the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house was relegated to page eight. Although Reagan — a TKE in his days at Eureka College — had not yet entered the political world, he expressed "McCarthyist" views when asked if communists were invading Hollywood. The following article, reprinted from the October 26, 1955 Argus, reflects both the journalistic and social climate in which it was written.

Ronald Reagan Tells TKE Of Communistic Infiltration

The members of Tau Kappa Epsilon were honored and privileged Thursday night by a brief visit with Ronald Reagan. There was no doubt left in the minds of those who were there that Mr. Reagan is a gentleman in every sense of the word.

Upon entering the house, the movie star commented "I remember Wesleyan, they are the ones that beat us all the time in football."

Played Against IWU

Recalling some of his football experiences against Wesleyan, Mr. Reagan said, "When I played against Wesleyan they had two big bruisers in the line by the name of O'Brien and Murphy. On this particular play, they picked me up and carried me about 30 yards downfield in the air. While in the air I kept watching the play and finally tapped them on the back and said, 'You can let me down now, boys, the play is over!'"

The conversation turned to a more serious mood when someone asked about the infiltration of communists in Hollywood.

Communism in Hollywood

Mr. Reagan explained that some communists were very well trained in the art of acting and sent to Hollywood to get acting jobs but most of all to start communist cells. "The commies worked their way into the unions and caused a big strike. There were nearly 2,000 people that would not go on strike so the movie industry kept right [on] producing movies. Soon after that the other peo- ple got tired of hearing the communist lies and went back to work."

"It can be said," he continued, "that none of the big name stars were or are communists, and I would venture to say that there is less than one per cent of the people affiliated with the movie industry that are communists."

Directing TV Show

"Are there any more questions?" he asked. "Doesn't anyone want to know about [the marriage of] Joe [DiMaggio] and Marilyn [Monroe]?"

"Are you doing any directing?" someone asked. "It seems," he said in answer, "the directors and producers want the actors to stay actors. It is hard to break into that field. However," the handsome actor continued, "I am directing a television production for the General Electric theater. This will be my first attempt at directing."

Chapter 3 Front Page News 48

Once again he asked, "Are you sure you don't want to know what happened to Joe and Marilyn?"

Mr. Reagan stayed a few minutes more, chatting informally and autograph- ing pictures for the boys. Before leaving Ronald Reagan joined in with the rest of the members and sang the fraternity toast song.

"I might not have been on key but I kept up with you," he remarked.

Then in closing he stated, "I best be going — I know how hard it is getting up for an eight o'clock class."

The heavy emphasis on campus activity explains The Argus' fascination with Homecoming during the postwar era and into 1960s. Detailed Homecoming arti- cles often ran on the front page up to a month before the big event. Editors freed entire pages for huge pictures of queen candidates, and most editors supplied a retrospective on the events even two or three weeks later. Every issue heralded the returning alumni. The October 15, 1947 introduction to the Homecoming supplement was a typical one for the era:

"We've polished up the handle on the big front door," we've spruced up out houses and vocal chords to show you, the returning alumni, the most enjoyable weekend possible. You'll find quite a few new twists in this year's celebration which should support our belief that this is the biggest and best Homecoming in the history of our university. Without one thought in mind, however, our efforts would have been in vain. That thought was of you, our returning alumni. The Argus reported that 1957 Homecoming events — including the "Greek- Indee sing," house decorating contest and "competition events for the [empty] keg" — were "curtailed" because of "widespread illness." A week before the cel- ebration, The Argus reported that "Saturday's football game with Wheaton has been called off because of illness at both schools. Wesleyan's squad has been reduced to the point where substitution would be difficult." Most of the team quickly recovered, only to lose to Millikin the next week.

The 1958 Homecoming celebration found all of Wesleyan healthy again, but a minor controversy in the float-building competition made headlines which marred the festivities:

Sigma Chi fraternity's Homecoming float was disqualified because of height specifications by a 14-4 vote of the Student Senate Monday after- noon. Well over 100 spectators turned out to set the largest attendance record for any Senate meeting this year . . . The question under discus- sion was: Did the Sigma Chi float pass under the sign and wire over the west gate of the campus without the wire being lifted up by poles manned by Sigma Chi pledges? (October 31, 1958) Homecoming may have dominated the front pages, but by 1990s standards, one of the biggest stories to make The Argus was a report on a campus energy crisis that occurred in February and March of 1950. The university was forced to close three buildings and cut the heat to 65 degrees in all other buildings due

Chapter 3 Front Page News 49

to a coal mining strike. The "big freeze," as it came to be known in The Argus, ended when Wesleyan received a rationed supply of coal for four weeks until the strike ended.

The remainder of 1950s coverage focused on the intimate activities of the Wesleyan campus. The front page was a forum for the announcements of new fraternity presidents, sorority housemothers, play production schedules and per- sonal statements from Argus members. Staff writer Nancy Kuechenberg's ('60) March 13, 1957 explanation of how and why she broke her leg twice in one year received front-page attention in "Argus Writer Plagued With Clumsyness Blues:" Perhaps deep inside I had a feeling of insecurity. With a cast on my foot I have a feeling of power — I know that people will notice me . . . Then too, with this cast on my foot, I can hope that Bob Page, editor of Wesleyan's renowned "Argus," will be sympathetic and break down by printing some of my masterful literature. Actually the whole thing boils down to the fact that I'm pretty d — clumsy.

Civil Rights and Student Activism

The 1960s and early 1970s have been recorded as one of the most volatile socio-political ages in American history, and the events of the era took The Argus front page to a new level of coverage. During these years, students took over the front pages as often as they took over campus offices with sit-ins and protests. For The Argus, dealing with the impact that radical national events had on Wesleyan's campus was fairly new ground. As 1966-67 Argus editor Jim Dorsey ('67) put it, "We were so naive when we came here as middle-class col- lege students. The events of the time forced us to look outside Wesleyan."

Such was the case when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited IWU in 1961 and 1966. When King first came to Illinois Wesleyan, the world could not foresee the great impact his life would have on the civil rights movement. In fact, the February 10, 1961 Argus front-page preview of his visit read more like a resume than an article explaining his ideals. But staff writer Nancy Hitchings Danou ('61) placed King's nonviolent struggle in short but succinct perspective, noting that as "a man who never forgot to 'love his enemy;' he made sufferings a virtue."

In follow-up articles on "King: Nonviolence Answer to Segregation," and "Do We Really Love Our Neighbors?" staff writers Dave Kresl ('61) and Peggy Storey ('64) covered the Main Lounge banquet speech and radio interviews. They wrote that King advocated a peaceful movement towards racial equality and condemned the theory of separate but equal rights: "We have never had any separate but equal facilities," he said. King left his crowd with the type of inspi- rational words that made him famous:

Non-violence is the most effective weapon for oppressed people ... It is the only way to achieve an adequate solution to the problem . . . Violence in our struggle would be impractical and immoral ... to deal with a moral problem we should use a moral means. (February 17, 1961)

Phylis Sanders Salak ('63) was a sophomore when she met King — a memo-

Chapter 3 Front Page News 50

rable moment for her, but not as memorable as her meeting with another campus visitor. "I got to interview Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jack Benny," she said. 'Two big names, although, at the time, I think Jack Benny received the most attention from the campus." On an individual level, however, "I was in awe [of King]. It was so powerful. He was exceedingly charismatic as a person," Salak said.

King returned to Wesleyan in 1966 after winning the Nobel Peace Prize and Time Magazine's 1963 "Man of the Year" award. Despite his international fame, the February 4, 1966 article that preceded his visit appeared at the bottom of page one and only reported a brief story of King's accomplishments. Even at that, the preview on "Dr. King coming here next week" was more coverage than King received the week after his speech. His presence on campus was not noted until two issues later, when, in an editorial, King was referred to as "undoubtedly one of the top civil rights leaders of the century" (February 25, 1966).

Although the editorial board didn't think of it at the time, the fact that King's speech was not reported in The Argus shocks 1967-68 features editor Elizabeth Glosser Dorsey ('68) 27 years later. It seems that the newspaper maintained its policy of previewing speakers in order to bolster the size of the audiences, but not always covering what speakers said. Not until January, 1989 did Argus read- ers learn the importance of King's visit. In the retrospective "Martin Luther King, Jr. twice touched Wesleyan," managing editor Eric Gardner ('89) reported the essence of King's appearance on campus. Gardner wrote that Student Senate

Chapter 3 Front Page News 51

sponsored King's second visit, which consisted of a speech given to a crowd of more than 3,000 at Fred Young Fieldhouse, as well as classroom appearances and an address to local clergy.

Gardner was able to report King's speech thanks to a re-broadcast by Bloomington radio station WJBC:

King got through to his audience on that night in February of 1966; he received standing ovations on both entering and leaving the hall. He told his audience, "We must build a greater America. It cannot be built on bombs. It cannot be built on riots. We must work to change the cli- mate that makes for bitterness that causes individuals to turn to these types of self-destruction." After King's assassination on the early morning of April 4, 1968, Wesleyan mourned with a memorial candlelight vigil. In addition to that event, which was held on April 9, approximately 25 students, mostly African-Americans according to The Argus, held a vigil that evening. Both services received front-page treat- ment, though an inside letter to the editor best captured the impact of King's death and his legacy of nonviolent change. Sara Ellen Long ('64) wrote,

Not until Friday, April 5, did IWU have a deeper meaning to me. For on that day I faced a classroom of sixth graders in which the first hour of discussion concerned the tragic event ... It was with the notes from [King's speech in 1961] that I faced my class on Friday, and with them I address this letter to you. [King] challenged us to accept the responsibil- ity of taking the destiny of our culture and redirecting it and remaking it so that equality . . . might reign, and so segregation . . . would be elimi- nated. Have you as students considered your total commitment to your destiny and to that of the environment you live in? I challenge you to take all there is at IWU and give all you have to it and to yourself. Only in this way might you contribute to the world that Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned and hoped to obtain. (April 12, 1968) The Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke at the Religious Activities Commission's civil rights symposium in February 1967. According to Linda Henderson Fischer's ('70) article on the Baptist minister, Jackson emphasized the clash between Christianity and racism:

"The reason I do not hate whites is because I'm Christian. . . . Christ had

a new definition of man. He was free to deal with all men." People

today, the speaker believes, must "graduate from man's particularity to

man's universality." (March 3, 1967)

Like King, Jackson recommended nonviolent protest and change to a receptive

Wesleyan crowd. "It is a challenge to remain nonviolent in times like these, but

it is mandatory," he said. "I leave the violence to the fools and the foolhardy."

Jackson's presence drew an even greater response from Wesleyan than King's, according to 1967-68 editor Elizabeth Glosser Dorsey. "The campus was very attuned to and really participated in the civil rights movement," she

Chapter 3 Front Page News 52

recalled. "Jesse Jackson left an indelible impression. He was certainly the most militant person we'd ever seen."

Argus coverage of the civil rights movement not only centered on King and Jackson, but also on campus activism. A December 3, 1965 article, "We must face integration now," by Student Senate President Dick Muirhead ('66), report- ed a letter received from a disgruntled student at Whitman College (Washington) about the slow pace of integration on college campuses. "The Whitman College chapters of Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi cannot pledge Negroes," wrote Whitman's Robert K. Wallace. "If . . . your institution, and ours, and fifty more could place simultaneous pressure on our local chapters, then the national frater- nities would have to change or else lose a very substantial block of their member chapters." Wallace sent copies of the letter to 183 institutions.

In response, the Human Relations Committee of Wesleyan's Student Senate issued a statement calling for an integrated Wesleyan: "We also affirm our intent to demonstrate this faith by pursuing actively the practice of integrating Wesleyan affiliated groups and organizations" (December 10, 1965).

The next week's lead story, "What does rights statement mean?" reported

Student Senate concerns elicited by the Wallace letter and Human Relations Committee statement. The article told how senators debated the "risks" and "consequences" of voluntary racial integration imposed by a university organization. They questioned whether people would endorse the rights state- ment for the sake of equal rights or to inhibit Greek life. Although the administration took no official position, associ- ate dean of students Donald Ruthenberg said, "Too often people who support this sort of movement are more anti-frater- nity than pro-integration. We have to respect the right of selection of the fraternity." At the time, Ruthenberg was also adviser to the Interfraternity Council advisor and a member of the Human Relations Committee.

While senators bickered over the pros and cons of the rights statement, Human Relations Committee member and sociology professor Emily Dale clari- fied the committee's declaration in the December 17, 1965 Argus:

It means that we believe in an integrated community rather than in a dis-

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Reverend Jesse Jackson and local minister Jack
Porter (1967).

Chapter 3 Front Page News 53

integrated one. It means that we intend to practice what we affirm rather than paying mere lip service to an ideal. And it means that we pledge our encouragement to those organizations as yet unintegrated which affirm their support of the ultimate goal, rather than disowning or dis- avowing them. After the Human Relations Committee ensured that the rights statement would not shut down any university organization, Senate approved it on December 12, 1965. (In 1968, five black students chartered Wesleyan's first predominantly black fraternity. The organization disbanded in 1971.)

The formation of the Black Student Association (BSA) in 1968 sparked the next campus uprising over civil rights. The November 22, 1968 front-page story "BSA demands ten percent black faculty by fall of '69" described the organiza- tion's reaction to IWU's number of African-American professors at the time — zero. The article reported the need for black professors and staff in order "to complete the black students' educational experiences and to aid them in identify- ing with the modern aspirations and goals of the Black man in this country." Newly inducted President Robert Eckley responded to BSA's demands in the December 6 Argus, writing that the university would make "extra efforts" to employ black professors. However, Eckley added, "There is little likelihood that a major portion of the specialized positions can be filled by black candidates, even with the extraordinary efforts we are prepared to make." Eckley said that recruiting black professors was difficult since blacks composed only two percent of the Ph.D. holders in liberal arts at the time. What followed was a series of petitions and meetings between BSA and Eckley over the integrated faculty issue.

BSA's demand came to a theoretical resolution, as reported in the April 18, 1969 article "New faculty policy calls for integration." The faculty approved a statement made by the Human Relations Committee to 1) "make special efforts to attract qualified black persons to IWU," 2) support the increased recruitment of African- American students, and 3) offer "directly relevant courses" for minor- ity students. Two years after BSA demanded a 10 percent African- American faculty, Wesleyan hired one black faculty member, and the university has employed at least one black faculty member since that time.

The 1969 integration policy did not stop reports of alleged discrimination in The Argus. Assistant managing editor Jim Robinson's ('74) October 13, 1972 front-page story, "Alleged discrimination mars fall cheerleading tryouts" report- ed how Cheryl Portwood ('74) filed a petition with the university against the cheerleader selection process. Portwood contended that "there were only five out of a required seven judges, only one black judge, only one person selecting judges and internal conflict within the squad" at the tryouts. After weeks of Student Senate debate on whether the cheerleader selection process should be revised, Dean of Students Jerry Jensen took the matter into his own hands. "It is obvious to me that there are other problems surrounding the whole matter of cheerleading selection and the total operation of the cheerleading program," Jensen said. "All future procedures for selection and governing of cheerleaders

Chapter 3 Front Page News 54

will need to be made in consultation with the Dean of Students." That year, the cheerleading squad was expanded from eight to 1 1 women.

Kent State and Campus Protest

As on other campuses across the nation, Wesleyan students also protested the Vietnam War. Although violence never erupted in Bloomington-Normal to the same extent as other college communities, The Argus looked outside the campus to cover nationwide protests. The May 8, 1970 Argus extensively reported the deaths of four students at Kent State University in Ohio after President Richard M. Nixon announced the United States' invasion of Cambodia. After 500 to 600 students set the Kent State ROTC building on fire the night of Saturday, May 2, National Guard troops fired 30 to 40 shots into a crowd of more than 2,000 dur- ing a Cambodian invasion protest, according to the May 8 Argus. The bullets killed four students and wounded nine. "Bloody Monday," as Kent State politi- cal science professor Byron Lander called it in a May 15, 1970 Argus speaker story, gave an emotional shape to the Vietnam protest that made campus journal- ists as active as their professional counterparts.

The Kent State incident prompted editor Tom Wetzel ('72) and The Argus staff to collect first-hand information on what took place. "We spent at least four hours on the phone with reporters and students in Kent, Ohio," Wetzel said. "The only outside help we had with the Kent State issue were a few photographs from the AP wire." The staff's hard work resulted in five pages of Kent State coverage in the May 8 Argus, which also printed both student and faculty reac- tions to the incident, along with a graphic of George Washington crying on Mt. Rushmore. Though things remained relatively peaceful at Illinois Wesleyan and nearby Illinois State University, The Argus reported that students broke store windows and held an all-day protest on the quadrangle at the University of Illinois less than an hour's drive away, while at Southern Illinois University, rioting became so widespread that Governor Richard Ogilvie called out the National Guard.

At Wesleyan, Student Senate asked the administration to lower the flag to half-mast at the south end of the quadrangle, in honor of those slain at Kent State. However, before President Eckley and Dean of Students Jerry Jensen gave permission to lower the flag at noon, an unidentified student lowered it at 11:40 a.m. This resulted in a verbal skirmish among 75 pro- and anti-war stu- dents about 10 minutes later, according to The Argus. At noon, IWU security and Jensen broke up the confrontation without injury or arrest. Jensen read Eckley's statement calling for the flag to be lowered "in memory of the four stu- dents killed at Kent State and those who have died in Southeast Asia." (Lowering the flag as a sign of loss was nothing new to Wesleyan students. Black students lowered the flag in honor of slain black activist Fred Hampton without administrative approval in October 1969, according to The Argus.)

At 12:40 p.m., some students placed a coffin filled with flowers in front of the flagpole and said prayers in memory of the four students. The flag remained at half-mast for the afternoon, except for a brief period at 1:30 p.m., when one

Chapter 3 Front Page News 55

student raised it to full mast and another "promptly brought it back down." The same issue of The Argus also reported that IWU students were involved in anoth- er flag incident at Illinois State, where a peaceful sit-in turned into a fist fight, with 300 students brawling below the campus' un-lowered flag. Only after 60 unruly students sat outside President Samuel Braden's office for three hours did he sign an agreement to lower ISU's flag to half-mast.

Still recovering from the Kent State issue, Wetzel was sitting in the Memorial Center Argus office the following week when he heard screams of "Fire!" from across the quad. What transpired that night culminated in the next edition's front-page article, "Fire destroys Presser Hall stage" (May 15, 1970). "The scene was just not to be believed," Wetzel remembered. "Smoke was pour- ing out of the building while music students sat on the curb in tears. This was their home."

Two fires were reported to have started in the early morning of May 12, 1970. One blaze started above Westbrook Auditorium's stage and the other in a basement practice room. After the Bloomington and Normal fire departments had battled the blaze for over two hours, the crowd of spectators dispersed with the exception of members of Phi Mu Alpha — the professional music fraternity — who guarded Presser until the next morning. Damage was estimated at $150,000 in addition to two grand pianos at about $8,000 each and a $10,000 practice organ. The newspaper carried photos of the fire damage, which Wetzel described as "eerie. We walked through the [damaged portion of Presser] and found sheet music still standing on the [damaged] organ."

"The fire had developed rapidly, indicating the possibility of gasoline or other volatile fuels," according to the article, collectively writ- ten by The Argus staff. "[The fire chief] said it was definitely a case of arson." The suspi- cion of arson and the close proximity of the event to Kent State prompted widespread rumors that Wesleyan's fire was a reaction to the Ohio campus shootings. As a result, the fire was reported across the country through wire services. Two years later the arsonists were apprehended. Instead of a politically motivated protest, the fire had served as revenge for two juveniles who were upset at having been kicked out of Presser the night before.

Chapter 3 Front Page News 56

Just as Wetzel finished supervising coverage of the Presser fire, another flag controversy erupted. The front page of the May 29, 1970 Argus showed a pic- ture of senior Ronald Klipp ('70) marching in the Honors' Day Convocation with an upside-down flag sewn to his graduation gown, which caused a campus uproar. Instead of a story, Wetzel created an expanded "letter to the editor" sec- tion for the Klipp incident on page five of the May 29 issue. Six letters appeared, as well as Klipp's explanation of his gesture:

The American Flag worn and displayed traditionally stands for freedom, equality, opportunity, justice and, perhaps the most significant, democra- cy. By wearing the flag upside down, I am stating that America is no longer representative of the aforementioned qualities. I speak here of prevalent repression, racism, inequality, injustice the move toward racism and other symptoms of contemporary America. Fellow student Kai Nielsen ('72) defended Klipp's actions in one of the letters:

This gesture has been called disruptive; if it was, would somebody please tell me what it disrupted. . . . How shocking can the simple wear- ing of an upside-down flag (the international symbol of distress) be when taken in context of the deaths at Kent State, Augusta, Ga., and Jackson, Miss., the thousands of deaths in Indochina and the deaths of children from malnutrition all over the world, including this country? Wenona Yvonne Whitfield ('70) also defended the action saying, "As an adult, as a black woman, as a student and as a citizen, I cannot and will not watch another persons' rights being denied. I could give less than a damn about whether the flag was worn, carried or right-side up."

In another letter, three faculty members — Emily and Steven Dale and Max Pape — disagreed with Klipp, calling his actions infantile: "To use a collective com- memorative ceremony to indulge in personal protest is not only a waste of individ- ual energy but also alienates whole segments who might otherwise support needed change. ... We should build, not destroy. We should cre- ate, not desecrate."

Turning Honors Day upside down: Senior Ronald Klipp caused a stir by wearing an upside down flag on his gown.

Minor Skirmishes

Minority students were not the only campus group

Chapter 3 Front Page News 57

that pressured the university in the 1960s and 1970s. The women's movement was sweeping the nation, and started Wesleyan women questioning the issue of women's hours. In 1965, university regulations stipulated that female students could not leave their residence halls after 10:30 p.m. on weeknights and 12:30 a.m. on weekends. The fight to eliminate women's hours arrived on the front page on October 29, 1965, when it was reported that women were sent a Student Senate questionnaire concerning dormitory hours. The response was so negative that a special committee was formed with the purpose of working "to submit a formal report of what should be done to change the present hours system" (December 3, 1965).

The May 27, 1966 article, "Women's hours revised for fall," explained the impact of the committee's results. Under the new proposal, female students could look forward to staying out until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, but, like Cinderella with but one hour to spare, their evening would be ruined if they came home late. Why? Because the doors would be locked. The "buddy sys- tem" was the only way to gain entrance after curfew, with "late nights" extended to women according to class rank and grade point average. In response to the proposal, women petitioned to abolish hours for juniors and seniors. On November 1, 1968, The Argus reported that a commission composed of students, faculty and administration decided that junior and senior women living in resi- dential halls would be allowed to regulate their hours with the consent of a par- ent. According to The Argus, the proposal aimed "to help women 'develop social understanding' — an objective which is part of the official university pur- pose." Though campus femajes felt a battle had been won when the optional hours plan went into effect in spring 1969, the war was not over.

Women's hours "elapsed" altogether in fall 1973, making its last front-page appearance in the October 12, 1973 story on "Wine, Women, and Whatever." Restrictive hours spurred representatives from Munsell Hall to petition Student Senate for more freedom. They claimed that such hours were "an overt act of discrimination against the women of Illinois Wesleyan University by the admin- istration." Munsell representatives also asked that Wesleyan recognize women 18 years and older as adults, in accordance with the state of Illinois. Though hours were apparently abolished in late fall, the newspaper merely mentioned the disappearance of the mandatory restriction in an editorial supporting Tom Patterson ('75) for Student Senate president on March 1, 1974.

Perhaps the end of women's hours did not make front-page headlines because, at the time, The Argus was struggling against its own governing body, the Student Senate. A record four editors ran the newspaper in 1973-74, with most de-emphasizing coverage of regular campus issues to focus on Argus- Senate controversies. (Argus-Senate relations will be discussed in chapter six.)

Another issue that received a great deal of coverage was the university's alcohol policy. Although Wesleyan was a dry campus until 1973, 1957 and 1958 issues of The Argus indicate that students were no strangers to alcohol. Letters

Chapter 3 Front Page News 58

to the editor reveal that one student was almost expelled for consuming alcohol in 1957, while two were expelled in April 1964 for alcohol consumption.

Letters also indicate that students had contrasting views on the issue. In the column "Policy On Drinking Needs Revision," Stu DeLuca ('64) wrote that stu- dent consumption of alcohol had increased exponentially during his four years at Wesleyan and that the entire alcohol policy should be re-examined.

I was given to understand that alcohol . . . managed to seep into a few fraternity or sorority parties . . . Now, a scant four years later, it has become increasingly common to encounter students — male and female, Greek and non-Greek — half stoned before noontime. . . . I am . . . dis- pleased with the hypocritical attitude the school has shown during the past two or three years toward students who have become virtually alco- holics. (February 26, 1964) While DeLuca berated the university's "see-nothing" approach to alcohol on campus, Pete Zappa ('66) criticized the university for being too stringent when it expelled two students for drinking that April:

The two scapegoats made only one mistake — they got caught. So what did they do that was so bad — rob a bank, snatch a purse, or assault a girl? Hell no! The big bad, boisterous, benevolent Normal Police department caught them drinking, foul as it may seem, beer. ... If that is the case, there are a few hundred others that should have been given an extended leave of absence. A 1960 column, penned under the pseudonym "Akanthos," maintained that the alcohol issue was destroying the campus. The writer criticized the policy of alcoholic "abstinence" and proposed 1) that the university recognize drinking with "a more realistic attitude on the part of the administration [and] make it pos- sible to provide a better way to dispose of empty beer cans. . ." and 2) that the uni- versity require students to attend a seminar on alcohol education — adding, "This doesn't mean how to mix drinks."

Ankanthos' flippant argument for a "wet" Wesleyan became a moot point once the state of Illinois lowered its legal drinking age from 21 to 19 in 1973, and the October 26, 1973 Argus reported the Wesleyan Board of Trustees'

Trophy time: Though Illinois Wesleyan was a dry campus, the winners of the Homecoming float- building and house decorating competition took home an empty beer keg.

Chapter 3 Front Page News 59

"landmark decision" to allow consumption of beer and wine in private rooms for the first time in 123 years. With the lower drinking age, an estimated 60 percent of the student body could purchase beer and wine in Illinois.

Still, the 1973 policy continued to come under attack in The Argus. A November 1977 front-page article reported that many readers did not completely understand the policy. Only after the newspaper interviewed several administra- tors (a technique that finally came into use in the late 1960s) did students fully understand when and where they could consume alcohol. In addition, beer or wine could only be transported between private rooms without going through study lounges and stairways. Political editor Don Thompson ('80) interpreted the statement to mean that the board did not "want Wesleyan to become known as a party school," but wanted it to "keep and develop a reputation for its acade- mic orientation." (November 18, 1977). By the end of the school year, the administration tightened the alcohol policy. During the fall of 1978, the univer- sity banned beer kegs and prohibited alcohol consumption in certain campus housing areas. This step allowed the university to monitor room capacity and regulate beer parties in Greek houses.

January 1, 1980 meant the end of the state of Illinois' six-year experiment with a lower legal drinking age, and the drinking age was reset at 21. In the lead article from September 12, 1979, Dean of Students Glenn Swichtenberg announced that Wesleyan also would return to its pre- 1973 policy:

The University decided to eliminate alcohol entirely from the campus, rather than to allow those 21 or older to drink in order to remain 'consis- tent,' Swichtenberg said. ... He said that the University adopts 'rules and regulations to fit the majority of the students, not the minority.' The reality of Wesleyan's renewed "dry" attitude hit as the new year arrived. The Argus warned students of possible punishment in its first two articles of the new decade, "Bell tolls age change, violators face penalties" and "Dean vows 'no more games.'" Both articles demonstrated the severity of violation but, between the lines, assumed drinking would still take place on Wesleyan's cam- pus— "Just don't get caught."

Alcohol also played a prominent role in the aftermath of the 1977 campaign for Student Senate president. With the March 22, 1977 front-page headline pro- claiming "Changeover carried out despite scandal," the newspaper looked more like the National Enquirer than a college publication.

Newly elected Senate President Jerry Pope ('80), who gained the presidency in a run-off election by only 16 votes, reportedly conducted his first meeting under a haze of scandal. The Argus wrote that senators questioned Pope's alleged purchasing of alcohol for Greek houses before the election. Editor Maria Donato ('78) wrote that Pope provided alcohol for "one particular fraternity" and for "an interfraternity function." However, Donato also reported that a majority of students were unaware of Pope's connection with the Student Senate election and thought he was buying the kegs as a gesture of friendship:

Chapter 3 Front Page News 60

When questioned by The Argus about any signs concerning Pope's elec- tion one TKE senator stated that the only sign up stated "Vote for Jerry Pope and win two kegs." After the question and answer session an oral vote of confidence was called for [Pope]. He received it. The vote of confidence allowed Pope to stay out of the media spotlight until he resigned the following December. On December 9, 1977, in front-page cov- erage completely devoted to Pope's resignation, political and issues editor Don Thompson and staff writer Elizabeth Martin Hordgraf ('80) related Pope's strug- gle to remain president. Pope explained that he was too involved in extracurricu- lar activities and needed time to study. During a "tearful good-bye" Pope stepped down, promising continued involvement with Senate.

"Involvement" was an understatement, however, as the next issue of The Argus on January 27, 1978 described how Pope — now a senator for Tau Kappa Epsilon — initiated a filibuster that spanned two meetings. The issue which sparked the stall tactic centered on Pope's desire not to include independent stu- dents in a Rush-Pledge study committee. Those wanting to include independents argued that pledge activities affected residential life, necessitating the involve- ment of non-Greeks. When the motion passed in favor of the independents, Pope tried to pass two amendments attempting to keep them from voting on committee issues. Both amendments failed, but "Pope took the floor once more to make another amendment, this time with no voting qualification attached . . . and kept talking," according to managing editor Ann Orth Nussbaum ('78).

Hoping eventually to kill the motion using Washington-style politics, Pope read from chemistry and English books while disgruntled senators wandered about the room, waiting for him to finish. Because filibusters lasted as long as a senator remained standing, Senate could not adjourn. Forty minutes into Pope's "speech," however, students left the meeting and decided to continue the discus- sion at the February 5 Senate meeting. In an interview with Orth-Nussbaum, Pope felt he did the "right thing," even though senators left the meeting angry. "I just felt it was important enough that I should lose some respect over it," he said. Pope was effective in making his point, as Senate passed the independent non- voting status amendment on February 5. By the end of the ordeal, Senate minutes reported that the meeting lasted more than 340 hours — the longest in history.

The Late 1970s: The Argus as a Police Blotter

The news reported during the Pope scandal seemed trivial when compared with reports of campus attacks and break-ins that followed. The April 1977 Argus reported a string of break-ins and assaults against members of the Alpha Omicron Pi (AOPi) sorority, forcing security to put the campus on alert. The newspaper reported that the AOPi attacks may have been related to the 1975 murder of ISU student and sorority member Carol Rofstad.

Security concerns returned one year later when The Argus reported how a

Chapter 3 Front Page News 61

female Gulick Hall resident entered the bathroom, opened the shower curtain and found a fully-dressed man in the shower stall. Another woman was showering in the next stall at the time. Though the man escaped and was never caught, he matched other descriptions of a prowler that had reportedly been seen elsewhere in the dorm.

Improved security and safety programs (campus buildings received new locks and security systems, and security hired two additional people for night watch) had little effect the following fall. For the next three months, The Argus read like a police blotter. A September 22, 1978 article, "Late night attack... Muggers assault women," reported that two women were mugged while walking down Main Street in the early morning. One woman was hit with a club, and later received six stitches in her head. The Argus reported that the mugger made away with a three or four dollars. A week later, an intruder broke into the Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) sorority house and awakened two women before he escaped. No students were injured, but two additional break-ins, including one rape, had been reported the same night "within blocks of IWU." One Kappa told The Argus that fraternities should not raid sorority houses at the risk of getting reported to police. "We'd like you to tell people lock everything, shut the win- dows, shut the doors and put on alarms if you have them," she said. "We're real- ly jumpy now. We've got tennis racquets and things in the rooms now, and really, we could hurt someone and not mean to." (September 29, 1978).

The week between September 29 and October 6 witnessed the molestation of five AOPi members and the rape of another. All were roommates and were assaulted by a man armed with a gun and a knife. Despite their tennis racquets, another intruder invaded the KKG house. Outside Wesleyan, three attempted rapes and one intrusion were reported to Bloomington police.

As a result of the violence, The Argus reported an increase in the sale of tear gas and mace, and the addition of self-defense courses. The violence also prompted staff writer Elizabeth Martin Holdgraf's October 6, 1978 story, "What motivates a rapist?" Martin's article dispelled the myth that rape "is an act designed to fulfill the sexual needs of the attacker" and defined it "as a planned act of violence whose purpose is to dominate and humiliate another's body." The article also reported that "in 60 percent of the cases, a rapist will be married and lead a normal sex life at home."

When the violence disappeared from The Argus front pages as suddenly as it had begun, an October 20, 1978 editorial reminded female students to be careful with the protective items they purchased and techniques they learned. "Women are armed these days," wrote The Argus staff. "They're equipped with whistles and sirens and discovering seventeen ways to break a person's ear drum without even trying. The safety steps are all very necessary, but use the precautions with caution." Despite the apparent paranoia, The Argus reported no injuries at the hands of mace-wielding female students the rest of the year.

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The 1980s: A Slow News Decade, Except for . . .

The Argus covered one of the most controversial incidents of the decade with a story on administrative grade-changing, "Students protest grades" (December 5, 1980). When business policy instructor Robert Lee gave A's to everyone in his Principles of Management 341 class, including some students who had dropped the course, administrators decided to re-issue grades on the basis of stu- dents' grade point averages. "I should give The Argus credit," Pamela Muirhead ('68), then chairperson of the Faculty Advisory Committee, said. "The faculty did not know [of the situation], The Argus broke the story. This was one of the times that the newspaper was ahead of everyone else."

As reported by staff writer Greg Jackson ('82) and managing editor Lora K. Weliky ('81), once Lee received notice that the university would not renew his contract for the following semester, he changed the class's format. "He would continue to present the material . . . but it would be possible just to earn a grade," The Argus reported. "Lee said he never told his class that they would all receive 'A's' but according to students in the class, the implication was clear." The grades were turned in to Registrar James Barbour, who then alerted Dean Wendell Hess of the situation. According to The Argus, grades were changed on the basis of a student's past performance, how well the student had performed in his or her major and the student's overall grade point average. Hess declined comment to The Argus, and the administration gave no reasons for the grade changing.

Editorials fought the administration's decision to undermine professors' actions: "We must protest the University's actions. Once a teacher has given a grade, the grade must stand. This principle far outweighs the thought that an entire class may be assigned one grade. . . It is a matter of upholding the princi- ple that one lives by" (December 5, 1980). The editorial board, led by Tracy Higgins Fox ('81), urged Management 341 students to protest their "changed" grades in front of the Academic Appeals Board. Many students followed their advice, according to Muirhead, though the details of the Board's decisions were confidential and could not be printed in the newspaper.

That fall, another scandal rocked the campus, a story so controversial that it was covered not only by The Argus, but also by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Newsweek, The New York Times and The Village Voice. When IWU English professor Robert W. Burda's second novel, Clinemark's Tale, was dropped by the Book-of-the-Month Club because of similarities to W. Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil. A local bookstore sent back the copies it had ordered, and reviewers who had planned to devote space to the book suddenly dropped it. Burda was quoted in the local Pantagraph as saying that he took the plot and some of the language from Maugham in order to do a take-off on the novel, to turn it "on its male chauvinist pig head."

The Argus did a thorough job of reporting the accused plagiarism for the February 15, 1980 issue, informing readers that editor-in-chief Don Thompson

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and news editor Cathy Aumack ('81) spent two and a half hours talking with Burda, in addition to reading both books in question. In a one-and-a-half page treatment, editors compared sections of text and included an extended interview with Burda. The reporters also asked tough questions, as, for example, why Burda told Newsweek reviewer Walter Clemons that he had never read Maugham's Painted Veil. The Argus reported that Burda said his interview with Clemons "got off to a bad start and ended with a tug-and-pull situation." Burda added,

I found him extremely hostile with these types of questions and I was a little bewildered. . . . When we finally got to a point where he read a couple of lines from Somerset Maugham ... I said, "but the sexes are changed." There was a brief silence and then he said, "oh, ah yes," and it was clear that he didn't know the sexes were changed. ... A point was reached in the interview where I wouldn't respond to any of his questions about Maugham's book, "I guess I'll have to say I've never read the book." Burda dismissed the Tribune criticism as "phrase after phrase of lies" and told The Argus that the Newsweek article reached for its accusations of similarity, saying it took him six chapters to get to "a 'strangely similar' incident. What did I accomplish in those six chapters? Was I incompetent? My book is in a totally different genre. My book is a first-person novel, Somerset Maugham's is a third- person novel. He has no narrator, and the narrator is at the heart of my book."

Editors warned their readers that they would have to read both books to make up their own minds, but followed with an editorial on February 22 which began, "The evidence is in." In it, they called for the university to act quickly and to "try [Burda's] use of Maugham's work just as it would judge a student accused of a similar violation," whether the verdict is innocent or guilty. The episode was brought to a close when Burda resigned rather than face possible action from the university's tenure and advancement committee. The lead story in the April 11 Argus began with a Burda quote: "T think enough's been written, or mis written, about the whole thing,' Professor Robert Burda said, turning away an Argus reporter. T just plan to write for the next couple of years.'"

Other events covered during the 1980s had little relevance beyond Wesleyan's borders. The November 7, 1980 Argus reported how Brent Smith ('84) used CPR to save a car accident victim's life. A 1985 fire that ravaged the fourth floor of Munsell Hall made the front page. All residents escaped injury but were moved from the hall until repairs were made. Caused by a misplaced cigarette, the blaze resulted in $35,000 in damage. Other top news stories included the fall 1980 opening of the Phoenix (an experimental music and drama arena) and the 1984 addition of the first two public computers in Sheean Library. Alcohol caused a stir once again in January 1985. A front-page article, "Dean pulls charter; Acacia prepared to fight" described the university's suspen- sion of the Acacia fraternity. News editor Greg Tejeda ('87) and editor Rick Linneman ('85) reported that yet another alcohol violation was responsible for

Chapter 3 Front Page News 64

the loss of the charter. Dean of students Glenn Swichtenberg had warned frater- nity members after previous alcohol violations that their charter would be revoked, but the warnings "seemed to have no affect ... I'm through playing games" (January 18, 1985). Acacia President Rick Herrick ('86) fought the deci- sion to no avail, believing his fraternity was "made an example of in regards to the alcohol policy and Greek life. Other campus groups supported Herrick's claim. The Argus featured photos of both independent and Greek residences sup- porting Acacia with signs of encouragement. After all previous members had graduated, the university permitted Acacia to recharter its chapter in 1988.

Students expanded their questioning of authority to include more worldly issues the following school year. Student Senate approached the issue of Wesleyan investment in South Africa, in light of the anti-apartheid call for divestiture against the country. Senators drafted a proposal demanding the Board of Trustees reveal whether or not Wesleyan held investments in South Africa. The October 18, 1985 Argus said that the proposal called on the university to "acknowledge the 'immoral' nature of apartheid," notify Senate of any invest- ment in South Africa and tell Senate what actions Wesleyan would take against South Africa.

With the help and cooperation of the administration, an article the following week, "Trustees denounce apartheid" (October 25, 1985), answered the student body's questions. Without denying allegations of South African investment, the Board of Trustees "joined a growing number of institutions voicing official abhorrence of the practice of apartheid in South Africa." The trustees also employed the help of the Common Fund Corporation in making future invest- ments. The corporation was a non-profit organization that helped educational institutions manage investments while considering "international social responsi- bility." The trustees organized a monitoring committee to examine Wesleyan 's portfolio of company investments.

The Titans of Politics; The Argus and National Election Coverage

Although most presidential elections have been covered, or at least men- tioned, in The Argus, political coverage did not become a mainstay in the news- paper until the 1960s. Television has made political candidates more accessible to the public, prompting an increase in student interest and Argus coverage.

The first presidential race that received in-depth coverage by The Argus was the 1932 contest between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover. The November 3, 1932 front page was a larger-than-life ballot with pictures of the candidates, and Argus editors, knee-deep in Republican country — McLean County, Illinois, which didn't even vote for favorite son and Democrat Adlai Stevenson during his runs for the presidency — chose to mark the Republican bal- lot (a subliminal hint to the readers?). Hoover may have lost the national elec- tion, but he won The Argus mock election by a landslide of 260 to 73 votes.

Perhaps the campus elections jinxed the national outcome for the 32 years that followed. Wesleyan was unable to pick a winner until Lyndon Johnson

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became president in 1964, and seldom was the campus outcome even close. As reported in the October 28, 1936 edition, "If the national election were held today, and confined to the Wesleyan campus, the Republican candidates for pres- ident, governor and United States senator would be elected by a margin of more than three to two over their Democratic rivals." Landslide results in favor of the losing candidate also occurred in 1940, 1952, 1956 and 1960. Outcomes of the 1944 and 1948 mock elections were omitted from The Argus in lieu of Homecoming articles.

Though Wesleyan's students favored Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy with a vote of 761 to 198, according to the November 8, 1960 Argus edition, the campus felt the national shock wave that hit when Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. The Argus paid homage to America's slain president in its December 6, 1963 issue. Though the news was not given front-page treatment (the assassination occurred just before Thanksgiving break, making it too late to be timely), three opinion pieces of grief and mourning appeared on page two. In "Greatest Tribute Continues Progress," an editorial encouraged Americans to carry on:

Of all the tributes paid to our late President, perhaps this last fact is the greatest of all. For this country which Mr. Kennedy had so much confi- dence in and had given his all, his America — our America — was still moving forward. The Argus did not cover national politics in detail after Kennedy's assassination. News of Robert Kennedy's assassination and the Nixon Watergate affair were omitted from the newspaper.

After the successful prediction of the Johnson presidency in the 1964 mock election, students continued to choose the winner in presidential campaigns. Nixon won the 1968 Wesleyan election by 63.4 percent of the vote. Ronald Reagan received roughly two percent of the Wesleyan write-in vote that year.

From the time of the 1980 election, The Argus would become one of Reagan's most frequent critics. In the mock 1980 election, Reagan received only 35 percent of the vote, placing him behind independent candidate and Illinois native John B. Anderson, who received 40.3 percent. Still, a November 7, 1980 editorial (whether sincere or tongue-in-cheek) called for the campus to support the new president: "Ronald Reagan stands for all that America is: clean cut, heroic in a sad way; an old and decaying society. . . . We must encourage our new President in his desires to return to what is good in our past." Four years later, an editorial endorsing Walter Mondale for President said that "the dreams of a better country through better education" would die with Reagan's proposals to cut student loans and force other education cutbacks (November 2, 1984).

The 1988 election brought George Bush to Bloomington/Normal on September 30, 1988. Speaking on the Illinois State University quad, Bush blast- ed Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis for his liberal beliefs and announced his "infamous" plan of "no new taxes." Managing editor Eric Gardner reported the event for The Argus, including the presence of anti-Bush demonstrators, not-

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ing, however, that their yells and protests could not be heard above the large Republican crowd. The campus correctly selected Bush as the winner, giving him 50.3 percent of the vote to Dukakis' 43.1.

In 1992, editor Jennifer Barrell ('94) and managing editor Amy McCoy ('94) conducted an interview with future first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the University of Illinois' voter kick-off address. Information gathered in the inter- view and at the following address shaped an article which gave Argus readers information on the Democratic platform and its visions for health care and edu- cational reform. Since Barbara Bush never made it to town, Argus readers had to settle for Derek Roach's ('96) article on the McLean County GOP fundraising picnic to hear the Republican voice by way of Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and U.S. Senate candidate Rich Williamson. The rally focused on comparisons between the policies of Bush and rival Bill Clinton, which Edgar claimed was a "clear difference." According to Edgar and Williamson, Bush's tax-reduction policy and experience in international affairs were more desirable than Clinton's "inexperience" and "tax and spend" tactics. "This is not a time to put someone who has no experience in international affairs in the presidency," Edgar said.

Despite the governor's plea, Clinton received 54 percent of the campus vote, while Bush and independent candidate H. Ross Perot received 35 and 1 1 percent, respectively.

Politics and Political Correctness in the 1990s

Often accused of being a liberal-minded newspaper through letters to the editor, the 1989-90 Argus gave front-page coverage to such politically controver- sial issues as abortion, "family values" (touted as an issue by the Bush adminis- tration) and condom distribution. During the 1992 election, articles not only reflected campus concerns, but also included local, state, national and interna- tional events. While one issue discussed the Liberian civil war, "Liberian crisis spans international boundaries" (November 13), another carried stories dealing with different levels of government elections (October 16).

On April 6, 1990, The Argus' headline read like that of a major metropolitan daily, informing the campus that four IWU students were among 500 protesters arrested at an El Salvador march in Washington, D.C. One of the students' fore- heads was "gashed during the arrest process." The following week, "about 500 people crowded the [Memorial Student Center's] Main Lounge to see psychedel- ic pioneer [Dr. Timothy] Leary debate [Curtis] Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting organization, on whether drugs should be legalized." The April 17, 1992 Argus reported that eight Wesleyan students were among 1.2 mil- lion to participate in a pro-choice march in Washington, D.C. Staff writer Julie Belinski ('94) described the magnitude of the event and the reason the students wanted to attend:

The Pro-Choice March held in Washington, D.C. on April 5th was the largest civil rights demonstration in United States history . . . The chant stemmed from concern in the pro-choice movement that Roe v. Wade

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will be overturned this summer. One of the primary goals of the march . . . was to show that the majority of Americans are pro-choice.

Not only did The Argus of the 1990s cover political and social issues, but it also focused on political "correctness." In an era when America felt the need to, at least verbally, accept everyone and political correctness became a cause, cam- pus activists made women's issues and gay and lesbian rights a priority.

A March 1992 article reported the formation of the Gays and Lesbians of Wesleyan (G.L.O.W.), a support group for "those with homosexual concerns." Although 22 faculty members sent letters of encouragement to the group, only 15 students attended the first meeting. Despite the small turnout, those 15 peo- ple built a foundation that provided weekly campus speakers and discussions for the IWU community. Less than a year later, G.L.O.W. caused a ruckus when it petitioned for a seat in Student Senate, according to The Argus, After weeks of deliberation, G.L.O.W. gained Senate representation by a three-vote margin.

Women's issues were covereed by The Argus in the 1990s with articles con- cerning date rape and sexual awareness appearing on page one. When various political figures denoted 1992 the "Year of the Woman," The Argus had more reasons to feature women's rights and roles. Staff writer Deborah Obalil ('95) reported the address given by Eleanor Smeal, president of the Fund for a Feminist Majority, in "Activists call for gender awareness" (March 13, 1992). Articles such as this gave a feminist perspective to The Argus, covering topics from women in leadership roles to a "work vs. family" debate to women's politi- cal issues in an election year.

The Argus has continued to cover national hot topics such as nuclear disar- mament, gun control, sexual assault, abortion, feminism, racism and AIDS awareness through reports on campus speakers or other campus tie-ins. For example, the December 3, 1982 front page told how "more than 100 IWU stu- dents, teachers and administrators crowded the Memorial Student Center President's Room to attend an open forum on racism," while the November 19, 1993 Argus reported that "more than 125 people joined four IWU female profes- sors in the Davidson Room on Tuesday, Nov. 9 to discuss their ideas on and experiences with feminism."

The reality of violence nationwide also has hit the campus during the 1990s. "An Illinois Wesleyan student was assaulted on Monday night at about 7:15 p.m. in a parking lot behind the old Bloomington Jr. High school," wrote news editor Julie Belinski on page one of the March 12, 1993 issue. The woman, who was on her way to dance class, advised other students to "never drive alone off cam- pus at night." The newspaper reported an even greater loss when former Wesleyan student and Argus staff writer Jennifer Lockmiller was found strangled to death in her apartment near Illinois State University on August 30, 1993. Lockmiller transferred to ISU to take part in the school's journalism program in 1992 and worked as a feature writer for ISU's Daily Vidette.

As The Argus centennial approached, one organization that lost its front page prominence was Student Senate. Editors reduced Senate meeting coverage from

Chapter 3 Front Page News 68

lengthy stories to a paragraph or two in "Senate Spot," a bi-weekly front-page Senate update. But because Senate still holds the purse strings for the newspaper, senators occasionally think The Argus should be more appreciative toward the hand that feeds it — meaning, more space and more positive treatment.

The final front-page story of the decade has become a fixture in The Argus since 1989, repeating through 1993: Wesley an's No. 1 ranking among regional universities in the Midwest, as reported annually by U.S. News and World Report. Articles such as "Wesleyan captures top position in Midwest" (October 13, 1989) and "Popular belief confirmed again . . . Wesleyan crowned #1" (September 27, 1991) have told how IWU has been ranked at the top of approxi- mately 130 regional universities in the Midwest each fall for the last five years.

Chapter 4 The Argus Goes to War 69

Illinois

VE8LEYAN

MILITARY NUMBER

OCTOBER 17, 1917 Bloomington, Illinois

Volume- XXIV Number 2

r.t\. k**t*\y

Over there! (1917)

Chapter 4 The Argus Goes to War 70

CHAPTER 4

The Argus Goes to War

Each time America has gone to war, The Argus has responded differently, according to the public's changing perception of conflict. Still, the newspaper's coverage has consistently offered a look at war's effects on a student community thousands of miles away from the front lines. Stories on campus speakers and editorials played a significant role in shaping public opinion. Additionally, trends that The Argus observed — flag-waving patriotism during World War I, intense hatred of the Germans and Japanese during World War II, Korean and Vietnam War draft fears and protests — mirrored national attitudes.

World War I: War Fever Hits Campus

When Great Britain entered World War I on August 3, 1914, Wesley an rhetoric professor Lyde R. Porter was on a nine-person European travel tour. As a result of her timely travel, Porter wrote the first war story for page two of the September 30, 1914 Argus, "Some Experiences in the War Zone," describing her unplanned, extended stay in neutral Switzerland and her struggle to return to America. Without her passport — which was supposed to be forwarded to Europe but was delayed because of fighting — "it seemed impossible to cash our American Express orders, our banker's checks, and letters of credit, and other commercial paper," she reported. "It was utterly impossible to get word of our whereabouts to our anxious friends in America." Porter also witnessed the Swiss government's halting of cab, automobile and streetcar rides to conserve energy and its banning the use of telegraph lines for non-military purposes. On August 18, after a 15-day stay in Berne, Switzerland, Porter's tour group boarded a long- awaited train for Paris while watching Swiss soldiers "throw up intrenchments" in case of invasion. By the time she boarded a ship to America, Porter was "glad to come home, but sick at heart over the devastation and desolation of a conti- nent at war."

Porter's war sickness was not echoed elsewhere in the fall 1914 Argus. Instead, the newspaper tended to portray war as romantic, adventurous and even humorous. In an article discussing Professor Wilbert T. Ferguson's trip home from Switzerland, The Argus casually reported, "Professor Ferguson was fortu- nate to be in Paris the two days that the German aeroplanes hovered over the city, marks for sharpshooters, but no prey."

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In another account, "Letter From Professor Parlin: Relates Exciting Experience in Escaping from Field of War," students read not of bombs or trench warfare, but of Elwyn C. Parlin's adventure after being mistakenly arrested by the German army. "My unpolished German resembled so closely the German spoken by the French . . . and with my camera and tablet paper, I spoke with sus- picion," he wrote. After Parlin convinced German officers he was an American, the Germans shipped him to neutral Switzerland, where he could not cross the border since he, like Porter, never received his passport. Obtaining a certificate of identification at the border, Parlin "rode the 650-mile gauntlet of military trains to the Holland border" where he boarded a ship back home.

While Dr. Harold H. Love's ('09) letter to The Argus of October 14, 1914 related a less life-threatening experience, he portrayed more of a spirit of adven- ture than danger. Love described visiting Germany during wartime as a "privi- lege," and he was impressed by the German army. "The marching of the regi- ments to the railroads was an inspirational sight," Love wrote. "The German people are a great lover of flowers and the soldiers were much decorated with flowers and wreaths on their bayonets."

But reports of slaughter and disease brought increasingly serious Argus war coverage as the 1914-15 academic year progressed. Front-page opinion articles throughout the year proclaimed that it was America's responsibility as a Christian and independent nation to end the European war. "The Opportunity of the United States" graphically challenged readers to picture five million men "engaging in the slaughter of human souls. I am sure that you have attempted such a picture, though it is probable that you have abandoned the undertaking when you began to color the soil with human blood." In another article, staff writer Roy L. Davis ('15) called on education and equal trade as peaceful war solutions, predicting the United States would lead formation of an "international commonwealth, court and police force."

The Argus editorial board supported America's neutrality. "In peace, we grow stronger, we build up greater industry and commerce, and strengthen our position as a world power," one editorial said. "The warring nations are losing life, wealth, prestige, and blocking the progress of their own history." A February 24, 1916 article on former Illinois Governor Joseph Fifer, an 1868 IWU graduate and Civil War veteran, confirmed these anti-war sentiments. In an address to the student body reported by The Argus, Fifer said that many argu- ments had been made to expand the Army and Navy since the Civil War, yet "the nation succeeded just as well without them." Fifer, whose older brother, George, was Wesleyan's first casualty of the Civil War in 1863, also believed that the United States would not enter the conflict. But on April 6, 1917, after German submarines had sunk five American ships the month before, President Wilson asked for and Congress voted to accept a declaration that a "state of war exists between the United States and the Imperial German Government."

As a result, the May 3, 1917 Argus reported that all Wesley an men would be required to take military training (as would most U.S. collegiate males) during

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the 1917-18 academic year. Women were encouraged to enroll in Red Cross nursing classes at Bloomington's Brokaw Hospital. American nationalism flour- ished. A four-page article on "Wesleyan Patriotism" gave extensive coverage to an April 18 patriotic celebration of the campus' new flag and flagpole located just south of Hedding Hall. Amidst this day of flag waving, Star-Spangled Banner singing and 21 -gun salutes, students were told not to enlist immediately in the armed forces but to await military authorities' instructions as to "where they could be of most use." As The Argus patriotically said, "It is gratifying to every local Wesleyan student to know at this critical period Wesleyan is ready and willing to shoulder her share of the burden and take part in the great struggle which is now being raised for liberty, equality and freedom."

The Argus staff gave impressions of the conflict page-one treatment. "What War Meant to the Senior Girl," for example, relayed an unnamed student's emo- tional distress over the number of male graduates who missed their final college days to serve their country. The war's uprooting of students made her realize how the conflict had changed Wesleyan and how women would have to rise up and bravely aid the boys overseas:

Girls are not so light-hearted and frivolous as you had supposed. It is for the senior girls to show their bravery, courage and sympathy at home which their friends show on the field. Happy, cheerful thoughts and a calm spirit are a help and protection to those on whom you think and help perform their share in the war. (May 14, 1917) By the time students returned for the 1917-18 academic year, Wesleyan's students and alumni were playing active roles in World War I, and what was once sporadic war coverage in The Argus increased to two or three articles per issue. The first active-duty issue, which appeared on October 17, 1917, com- plete with a patriotic front-cover graphic, told how "war fever" had set in at Wesleyan. Even the peace orators who had been preaching international cooper- ation just one year before were now "devoting all their energies to the study of how to fight successfully for Uncle Sam," according to an editorial. President Theodore Kemp labeled World War I the "holiest cause ever undertaken by the country" and proclaimed that Wesleyan would be at its country's service. A semester later, the January 16, 1918 Argus reported more than 152 stars, repre- senting Wesleyan's 152 alumni and student soldiers, highlighted Amie Chapel's newly unveiled "service flag." At war's end, that number increased to more than 200, with 14 white stars representing those who lost their lives.

Despite Wesleyan's "war fever," The Argus preached a "stay in school" message.

Our nation at present has as many men in its service or under call as it can equip and train. But in back of the soldiers in the camps and in the trenches there must be kept a far greater number of men who are study- ing in the colleges and universities. And in back of the Red Cross nurses in the hospitals there must be a great reserve of girls who keep on with

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their studies in the schools. This generation of American boys and girls must still have its college chance. (October 17, 1917)

Those who took their "college chance" read about the war news from former student and alumni letters. In September 1917 Argus staff members, led by edi- tor Marion J. Austin ('18), contacted as many Wesleyan soldiers as possible in hopes that they would send word about their war experiences. Servicemen responded enthusiastically, in front page stories at first, then later in inside columns titled "Words from the Front" and "From the Army Mailbag." In return for their on-the-scene reporting, soldiers received free copies of The Argus.

The first letter from the front lines appeared in the November 14, 1917 issue from Chaplain Jesse S. Dancey, an 1899 Wesleyan graduate serving in an Army base hospital near the Ypres front in France. Dancey wrote of the men wounded and dying around him but insisted that all "loved" the fact that they were fighting for a holy cause. "It is a great experience to see convoys of wounded coming in, worn to the limit with sleepless nights, days and nights of fighting, and weak- ened with loss of blood, but exhilarated with the flush of battle," Dancey wrote. "At the time, the loss of the leg, or an arm, or an eye seems of no importance when compared with the fact that the Germans are crumbling before their attacks."

Dancey's description of the ultimate patriotism and unflagging morale of all soldiers might have been exaggerated. As a chaplain, he was part of a military copy-editing committee that made sure soldiers' letters did not leak confidential battle information or speak negatively about the war effort. Excerpts of a letter from Wesleyan student Paul Martin ('15) show the extent of such censorship. Martin appeared to know this when he wrote, "I would like to tell you all about our trip but cannot on account of the censorship regulations." Positive attitudes were prevalent in soldiers' letters, which focused not on battles, but on boot camp, cadet life and traveling. "I have talked with many English soldiers and they say [life in the trenches] is not so bad after all. They laugh at our fears," Martin wrote.

If soldiers did not return letters to The Argus, the staff would contact their families or bases for information. The result would be two to three pages of Wesleyan "military profiles" that ran alongside soldier responses. Letters and profiles dominated the newspaper to the point that the February 14, 1918 issue, normally the Valentine's Day issue, contained no mention of Cupid or kissing coeds — only campus and war news.

The Argus also reported war's effects on colleges around the globe. The enrollment situation was much worse overseas, according to "British Universities And The War," written by Latin and Greek Professor Francis Marion Austin. While Wesleyan had 110 student and alumni soldiers in Europe at the time of the January 30, 1918 article, Cambridge and Oxford, respectively, had 13,128 and 11,176 students and alumni fighting. More than 3,000 of those serving had already been killed; another 1,500 were missing in action. Despite the war, no American college or university was forced to "significantly diminish"

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its operations or activities, according to The Argus. The most outstanding atten- dance drops came at Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton, where male enrollment had decreased by over 3,000 since the 1916-17 school year.

War took its toll on Wesley an's enrollment as well. At the start of the 1917- 18 academic year, enrollment dropped 15 percent to 265 students (including those in the law school), with women outnumbering men 141-121 in the under- graduate college, according to university records. As the year progressed, more men enlisted in the service to the point where the commencement issue listed only six men graduating.

The university sponsored speakers and events designed to boost war morale and combat the reports of death and destruction circulating in The Argus and other newspapers. One speaker, U.S. Representative John A. Sterling (1875), emphasized that the United States was a peace-loving nation and that Germany's sinking of American ships forced America into the war. Sterling assured his audience that America would quickly win the war, "provided her people buy a significant number of liberty bonds." Wesleyan tried to boost morale for soldiers overseas by sending books. In a page-two story, "More Books Needed for the Camp Libraries and Our Men 'Over There"' (March 14, 1918), the editorial board set a goal of "as many books sent from Wesleyan as she has in the ser- vice"— that number being 186 at the time. The newspaper believed that the "boys in khaki" who spent their leisure time reading would not only be better prepared on the battlefield, but better prepared for life after the war.

Between spring 1918 and Germany's surrender on November 11, 1918, Argus war coverage continued with letters, military profiles and speaker stories, with but addition — obituaries. Fourteen Wesleyan men died during the war — three on the battlefield, the other 11 from severe illness, usually pneumonia. News of the soldiers' deaths came after the war ended, making postwar editions bittersweet. The same issue that reported the Armistice celebration also announced the deaths of five Wesleyan men.

Not all postwar issues, however, were filled with doom and gloom. A humorous front-page article by Army chemist Mark R. Bodell ('15) contrasted life in boot camp with postwar adventures in downtown New York. Bodell com- pared his upstate New York boot camp experience to that of George Washington at Valley Forge. "We were living in tents during the cold spell, up to the week after Christmas," Bodell wrote. "One fellow sat down on his cot one night [for bed] and said, 'Well, I guess I'll undress now,' and removed his glasses. Instead of undressing for bed, we dressed" (February 22, 1918).

Wesleyan rejoiced along with the nation at first news of the Armistice. According to the November 22, 1918 Argus:

Shortly after two o'clock at the first sound of cannon and bells, Wesleyan students were awake and were ready to give full reign to their joy and enthusiasm. ... As the parade passed the university and Kemp Hall, the girls, throwing books and lessons to the wind, joined in the ranks to make them 100 percent strong.

Chapter 4 The Argus Goes to War 75

The Armistice party went on all night with classes meeting in the afternoon (not without protest, of course). The final World War I article, an editorial titled "Frontiersmen," proudly proclaimed that the war's end meant a new beginning for Wesley an:

Why have so many of our recent campaign speakers told us that they envied the irrepressible enthusiasm and dauntless courage of our youth? Because it is the youth of our nation . . . who are to take the lead in the reconstruction of this, our new era. We are the Frontiersmen just as truly as the Pilgrim fathers were the frontiersmen of the greatest democracy in the world. (November 22, 1918)

World War II: "One Hundred Percent All-out Cooperation in the War Effort "

Although the January 14, 1942 Argus indicated that World War II "war fever" rose even faster than during World War I, The Argus editorial board offered students the same advice as it did in 1917 — prepare for battle, but don't forget about education:

Certainly, this university will be hit by the war emergency, but if proper adjustments are made, she will not be hurt. But even more important than this is the post-war period. Students, by taking advantage of educa- tional institutions and their facilities must prepare to step into the world facing the gravest and greatest responsibility ever put upon a genera- tion— that of remaking the world — a world fit to live in and not to be killed in. The campus responded to this message with cotton in its ears. By spring, 1942, five Wesleyan faculty members entered the armed forces to join another 219 IWU students, faculty and alumni on active duty. (More than 1,110 Wesleyan men and women served in World War II. Fifty-one gave their lives during the conflict.) The university even coined its own patriotic slogan — "One hundred percent all-out cooperation in the national war effort," which made its first of many appearances in a page-one article on January 14, 1942. The story presented adminis- tration dean Malcolm A. Love's wartime recom- mendations after he returned from an educa- tion and war conference in Baltimore, Maryland. He immediately

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Chapter 4 The Argus Goes to War 76

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appointed a faculty committee to "improve the physical fitness of students" and "inaugurate the instruction of first aid for men students." (Love took a leave of absence to accept a naval commission the following year.)

With the men away fighting the Germans, Japanese and Italians, women dominated The Argus during World War II. On both national and local levels, the decrease in available male workers pro- vided new openings for women in the working world. The newspaper had a string of female editors from 1942 to 1946, and the 16-member 1943 editorial staff contained only three males. "The reason I became the editor was because all the men went to war. At that time they weren't giving much recognition to women," 1943-44 editor Margot Smith Lucas said. Other World War II editors recall similar experiences. Eleanor Ann Browns Fennelly ('46) edited The Argus in 1945-46 and remembers the search for male editors. "I'm sure [the university] wanted some men for editors, but there were very few men in comparison to women," she said. However, 1942-43 editor Beth Mackey Stiffler viewed the female staffs of the 1940s not as last resorts but as a phenomenon that was long overdue. "I don't believe we were placed in our spots because there were no men around. Women were becoming more interested in journalism and were doing what they could to learn the pro- fession," Stiffler said.

Wesleyan women not only took an active role in The Argus, but in the war as well. A number of stories told how Wesleyan's female-led Student Soldier Contact and War Record Committee helped boost soldier morale with daily letter writing. During the holiday season, the local YWCA sent soldiers care packages containing shaving soap, razor blades, candy, cookies and the latest Argus. Women also worked as "canteen aides" at the Bloomington train station, passing out goodies to traveling soldiers, while the IWU Women's League established a

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Chapter 4 The Argus Goes to War 77

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The Argus jumped on the "One-hundred percent all-out national war effort" bandwagon during the 1943-44 academic year. The editorial, "Are You Boosting The Red Cross and War Activities?" urged students to work in a newly complet- ed bandaging room and to buy and sell war bonds and stamps. "When the time comes, won't you plan on giving it some of YOUR time?" The Argus asked. "It may cost you a bit of effort, but is that comparable to what it's costing others?" Other editorials challenged students to "give up one Coke, one package of ciga- rettes, one show or some other little pleasure" to help American GIs.

Along with the push to support the troops with money, editors wanted to keep in touch with Wesleyan's soldiers. The first-hand experience of watching their friends march away to war had Argus readers hungry for overseas informa- tion. "We were the first class at Wesleyan that watched men leave at the local train station, and that's when we really got serious selling war bonds and writing letters," Mackey Stiffler said. "We put a lot of emphasis on keeping in touch." Argus appeals definitely drew a response from the student body. The March 4, 1942 issue reported Phi Gamma Delta fraternity's "new kind of Hell Week" sold $25,700 in war bonds. The February 10, 1943 issue reported that IWU topped its $50,000 war bond sales goal and posted total sales of $109,903.25. The Argus reported that the money was used to purchase two pursuit planes — one named Wesleyan.

By the middle of the 1943-44 academic year, "war wasn't everything at Wesleyan, it was the only thing," and The Argus, occasionally featuring patriotic pictures of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, expressed this with at least two pages of war coverage in every issue. Feature stories disappeared in lieu of war articles. "I think there was a more serious attitude on campus, and feature stories tended to be a little more frivolous. There was more of an effort to get stories about the war and selling war bonds," Mackey Stiffler remembered. The somber campus cut back on parties and the few Student Union, fraternity and sorority dances that were held frequently had patriotic themes. The Argus announced another book drive and ran a number of war bond advertisements. In addition, Illinois Wesleyan also started a government-commended Civilian Defense program consisting of 10 committees ranging from soldier contact to consumer information. Page one of the March 4, 1942 issue reported that Wesleyan's new course offering — a non-credit pre-induction military course — would help men "not be so handicapped upon entering [the service] since they will know something of military commands, courtesy, discipline and the manual of arms." A credit course in first aid was later adopted. The Army, Navy and Marines all ran widely publicized recruiting drives in The Argus and enlisted 48 students in the reserves during campus visits.

As in World War I, letters continued to splash The Argus with the war's details, this time including more graphic accounts. One of the more eye-opening letters came from Ed Dirks ('43), who left Wesleyan to join the Navy. Dirks

Chapter 4 The Argus Goes to War 78

thanked the editorial board for sending copies of the 1942 Homecoming issue abroad and expressed distress over the war's great length and the amount of "flag waving" in the United States. "Uniforms and parades and flags are won- derful, but they don't compare to the rain and mud, and blood and death that we guys out here see," Dirks wrote. "I have not personally experienced all of the war's hardships, but what I have seen, and what my friends from home have seen, has impressed our minds vividly with the magnificence of peace — and the horribleness of war."

Nonetheless, the IWU administration offered students opportunities to finish college early in order to enable them to more quickly join the fight. According to page one of the January 21, 1942 Argus, the university established a 12- week summer session that, if taken twice, could replace a student's final year. Taking extra-credit hours could eliminate another semester. In the following issue, the newspaper reported that over one quarter of the campus "patriotically" registered for summer school. In turn, those students drafted by selective service received course exemptions. For example, liberal arts students who would normally meet all the requirements for graduation in June and were taken by selective service before completion were given credit for the last semester.

Enrollment for the 1942-43 school year dropped to 621 students — 106 less than the previous year. The university lost 48 more students, according to the March 3, 1943 Argus, when all of Wesleyan's reserves were called to active duty. As a result, Wesleyan would offer classes 48 weeks a year by adopting a quarter system the next fall (March 17, 1943). The quarter system further hastened the graduation process, allowing a year's work in one subject to be completed in 12 weeks. After the war, Wesleyan returned to the semester system.

Reports of the Wesleyan community's bravery filled the newspaper during and after the war. Lieutenant Cecil Petty ('38) manned an Army transport plane through a storm after weeks of fighting at Guadalcanal and miraculously crash- landed the plane on a coral reef when it ran out of fuel. Ten days later, the Marines rescued Petty and 19 other soldiers who stayed alive despite being sick and wounded. Joe Joseph ('49) participated in a "miracle" bomb run that ended up saving a number of soldiers and journalists from German ground forces that were just about to open fire. Although Joseph and his comrades could not see their targets because of horrible weather, they were still able to bomb the German forces.

Perhaps the greatest show of courage came from Lieutenant George R. Fox ('32), a Methodist Army chaplain on the ship SS Dorchester. On February 3, 1943, when German U-Boats torpedoed the Dorchester off the coast of Greenland, Fox and three other chaplains — one Catholic, one Jewish and the other Protestant — aided panicked soldiers with lifejackets and assisted them into the sinking ship's lifeboats. "From a box they distributed lifebelts and when this supply was exhausted, each, without a moment's hesitation removed his own precious lifebelt," wrote members of The Argus editorial board (January 10,

Chapter 4 The Argus Goes to War 79

1945). "These belts they gave to the next four men in line." As the ship plunged into the icy waters, "the men in the water and the men in the life boats saw the chaplains, arms linked, voices raised in prayer, standing together as the fated ship went down." The government later awarded all four the Distinguished Service Cross and, in 1948, issued a postage stamp remembering their bravery. The story also prompted the movie Four Men of God. In 1951, President Harry Truman dedicated the famous "Chapel of the Four Chaplains" at Temple University in Philadelphia, which was later moved to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

As a balance to Fox's tragic story, an uplifting feature titled "Two Brothers Meet Across Half A World" appeared in the same issue. Sergeant James F. Thornton and Corporal George A. Thornton ('34), both of whom attended Illinois Wesleyan from 1932-34, had not seen each other for nearly three years since joining the service. Sergeant Thornton hailed from Bloomington and was stationed in Egypt, while Corporal Thornton lived in Springfield and served in Persia. With the help of the American Red Cross, they were finally able to take leave and meet in the Holy Land for eight days. Together, according to The Argus, they toured the Biblical sights, went to the donkey races, danced, shopped and swam in the Mediterranean Sea. "And to make their stay complete, they were billeted in the same tent, where they whiled away many hours just talking about their family, friends and home back in Illinois" (January 10, 1945).

Even a trend story appeared as a result of war. The newspaper reported that college youths were postponing marriage plans as a result of GIs reporting to active duty (February 25, 1942). According to Student Opinion Surveys of America, only one-third of college students had marriage plans in 1942, com- pared to more than 50 percent the year before. The article also laid to rest the myth that the war caused "a rush to the altar" among collegians. In both 1941 and 1942, only one percent of college students said they were already married. However, over 30 percent declared they would like to be married within two years after graduation, suggesting, perhaps, that many thought the war would be over soon.

Those students would have to wait four years for the Allied victory bell, let alone the wedding march. The first step came when Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 8, 1945. As in World War I, news of German surrender appeared on page two of The Argus, since the newspaper had already set its front page sto- ries. The May 9, 1945 headline read, "VICTORY IN EUROPE: Germany Forced to Capitulate After Six Years of Fighting; Allies Face Big Job in Pacific," and the victory report was as dramatic as Wesleyan's war involvement:

As the Germans capitulated, behind them lay the remnants of a once all- powerful army, which, like Napoleon's, underestimated the vast steppes of Russia, and then found the U.S. and Britain gathering force behind its back; behind them lay Germany's blackened cities and shattered railway lines, pulverized by Allied aerial attacks; and behind them in the ruins of Berlin reportedly lay Adolph Hitler's dead body.

Chapter 4 The Argus Goes to War 80

Although Berlin's capture was a gigantic step toward peace, Americans accepted victory with restraint, according to The Argus. America's focus shifted east, where Japan and the United States remained locked in battle. As these battles raged on, somber reports of some of the 5 1 members of the Wesleyan communi- ty who gave their lives for their country appeared on the inside pages of the newspaper as the 1944-45 school year ended.

After the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, and Japan formally surrendered on August 14, the war was officially over. But the newspaper continued its coverage, reporting the return of soldiers, Red Cross workers and journalists. Page one of the August 31, 1945 Argus reported that three former Wesleyan students, Sergeant Roger Rasmussen ('44), George Thomas Jr. ('43) and Elmer Rylander ('43), "engaged in research leading to the perfection of the atomic bomb." Rasmussen, an electrical engineer who attended IWU in 1941-42, was one of the 160 people who witnessed the bomb's first test in New Mexico. Former Argus editor Everett Melby ('36) observed World War II in Switzerland as the assistant general secretary of the International Student Service — a group that organized student exchanges and international cooperation between universities. During the war, Melby organized refugee schools in southern France, Hungary, Romania and Poland.

The most extensive coverage of postwar affairs occurred when editors devoted the entire four-page April 25, 1945 issue to the "Dumbarton Oaks Documents, Proposals for the Establishment of a General International