Tradition.
Where is it on this campus? Oh yeah, we have “L” Day and the Rock, but those are the only two that come to mind. Tradition was something I was looking for when I first came to the University of La Verne, and I quickly found it in an unlikely place.
It was about four years ago, the spring semester of my freshman year, I was taking Journalism 100 and looking for answers and a direction to take in the communications profession.
Then it happened that my class was taking a field trip to the Campus Times room to see how a newspaper was put together.
As I entered the CT room I was amazed and awestruck by the surroundings, as all freshman are when they see something new for the first time. I gazed around the room and saw nothing but these prestigious portraits of past editors of the Campus Times.
I will always remember that day because that was the day I decided that I wanted to be on that wall. A wall full of tradition and excellence. Being on the wall was the final accomplishment for a journalism major. I had set the goal for myself. A goal not so much to see my portrait on the wall and know the honor being bestowed upon me, but by being put in charge of one of the oldest and most time-tested institutions of the University.
It was not until recently that I discovered the full extent of the tradition of being placed on the wall, as the 75th Anniversary of this paper approached and research had to be done. I found myself thumbing through the different issues of the Campus Times and realizing the effect the paper has had on the University over the past 75 years. The names may have changed, but many of the stories which occur on the campus have a way of repeating themselves and the Campus Times has always been there to report the problems and present the students with the answers on these topics.
Going through the past issues, I learned something else about the tradition of the Campus Times, which was that each of the different editors and their staffs tried to do something new and improve on the paper.
Many of the early issues of the Campus Times were very bland and did not use photography much, except in the form of still portraits, because of the limited technological resources that were available during that time period.
Imagine how Mabel Royer, the editor in 1927, must have felt when she and her staff were able to publish the first action photograph in the paper. The photo was of the La Verne football team running a sweep. It brought the page alive and allowed the reader to see something the writer may not have described in the story. This is one of the major accomplishments in the history of the Campus Times. Royer and her staff helped pave the way for the tradition of outstanding photography found in the Campus Times today.
Reading through the paper, I recognized that each editor made his or her own contribution, big or small, but each tried to improve the paper in one way or another and make it the best.
Today is a very historic day in the history of the Campus Times, as the paper takes another step forward in trying to provide a professional newspaper to the students and community of the University of La Verne. The Campus Times, because of an ad purchased by the Associated Student Federation, is publishing for the first time ever in four-color. Not just color bordering and shading, but photography and graphics.
Publishing in color is a huge step to take for the Campus Times and is a step in which the whole staff, including me, is proud to be taking a part in.
Although my portrait is going up on the wall and I will be remembered as the editor in charge when the first color issue was published, it is just another step in the on-going improvements that editors of the Campus Times strive for during their tenure.
What is going to be the next step for the Campus Times?
