RALEIGH N.C.
N.C. STATE UNIVERSITY January 30, 2020
Vol. 100
No. 20
TECHNICIAN TURNS 100
CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF STUDENT JOURNALISM AT NC STATE Rachael Davis
( Managing Editor )
Riley Wolfram
( Assistant News Editor )
Austin Dunlow
( Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor )
In the 1920s, the United States was evolving: Women gained the right to vote, the NC State alma mater was composed, and the Great Depression was starting up. Amidst all the change, Technician, NC State’s largest student newspaper, was born. From the iconic NCAA tournament wins in 1973 and ‘83 to the protesting of the Kent State shooting in the Brickyard in the ‘70s to the creation of NC State Student Government (SG) in the 1920s, Technician has been there. Over the past 100 years, Technician and its ever-evolving staff has been dedicated to providing the NC State and Raleigh communities with timely, pertinent news. According to Dan Gilliam, editor-in chief during Technician’s 100th volume, Technician is editorially independent from the university, allowing its students to publish content without prior review or censorship from university administration. “It is made by students and primarily for students, though it serves the entire university community,” Gilliam said. “Being in that position, Technician can hold the university accountable … That provides a point of contrast between us and [outlets like] NC State News.” Patrick Neal, director of Student
On Feb. 1, 2020, Technician turns 100 years old.
Media, said this editorial independence is crucial, because students provide a diverse perspective that Technician publicizes to build a community that represents all voices on campus. Gilliam agreed that Technician is different from prior publications, such as The Red & White and the Wau Gau Rac, which were discontinued in 1917 and were all explicitly voices of the university. “The reason Technician has survived for 100 years is because the students want it to exist,” Gilliam said. “It provides a benefit for the community, the students like to see it, and it provides a great learning experience
PHOTO BY EMMA SHEPPARD/TECHNICIAN CAKE BY EMMA SHEPPARD AND RAFAEL ZINGLE
for the students who work on it.” Editorial Adviser Ellen Meder said Technician, along with other student-run publications on campus, has a unique network that other local news sources lack, as well as NC State-specific coverage such as club sports and SG. “The need for student journalism is as strong now as it was 100 years ago in that first editorial staff’s board,” Meder said. “There’s no better way to report on what’s important to students than have students do it.” However, while Technician has remained constant as an entity, change has occurred within the institution,
especially in its adjustment from printing multiple times a week to prioritizing online content. “When I arrived [at Student Media] just eight years ago, we were coming out five days a week,” Neal said. “Once you put a paper out five days a week, there really isn’t time to do much else. We had a website, but we were just cutting things from the newspaper and putting them online, because that’s all we really had time to do. Now that we’ve gone once weekly and gone to a digital-first mindset, that’s the biggest change I’ve seen.” Neal said he is interested in seeing the next big technological advance and how it will ultimately “shake up” the newspaper industry, as well as how Technician will handle the change. However, Meder said, the one thing that will never change is students’ commitment to reporting quality journalism. “We might not have a huge group, and when we get our students at Technician, they have all different kinds of levels of experience, and inevitably, every year, people keep coming back.” Meder said. “People get excited, they want to learn more, they want to do better. Clearly, they are here because they want to be.” While change is inevitable, Gilliam is optimistic about the future of Technician and the voice it gives to students. “It’s a big step to hit the 100th birthday,” Gilliam said. “Who’s to say it can’t go on for another 100?”
Editorial: A century in motion “A paper that is entirely the product of the student body becomes at once the official organ through which the thoughts, the activities, and in fact the very life of the campus, is registered. It is the mouthpiece through which the students themselves talk. College life without its journal is blank.” —Technician, Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1, 1920
It’s been 100 years since the first issue of Technician was published. That’s 100 years of late nights, early mornings, skipped classes, stressful deadlines, sad stories, happy stories and everything in between. That’s 100 years of student journalism at NC State. For a student newspaper, continuity can be a strange thing. Over the past few months, we as an editorial board have spent a significant portion
of our time invested in the details of the past, noses buried deep within the archives and talking to alumni, piecing together as best we could an image of Technician as one continuous and changing entity. Each part of Technician is the work of only a few individuals at a time, but also belongs to a much larger collective. Today, we see the cumulative work of 100 years of student journalism, leadership and initiative.
With 100 years having passed, it’s not hard to feel pride, but also hope — the type of hope that comes with an extra dose of uncertainty about what the future will hold. The founding members of Technician probably felt something similar; pride in the accomplishment of creating new work, but uncertainty as to whether they had built an institution that could Editorial continued page 5