THE DECADES

Kline Leads Through Tough Times

F. Gerald “Jerry” Kline, professor and director of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication is elected to the Board of Directors and has been named president of the board. Kline says he intends to play an active role in leading the organizations.

Kline addresses organizational and financial challenges facing the organization in his column appearing in Scholastic Editor throughout the 1979-80 school year.

“Our income is not sufficient to cover organizational expenses, let alone develop new projects to meet changing demands,” Kline writes. Dow Jones & Company Inc. and the Gannett Newspaper Foundation provide grants totaling $7,500 to stabilize operations. In addition, Kline leads the reorganization of the governing board and bylaws revisions.

NSPA and ACP membership increases more than 40 percent during his tenure as board president. New programs include summer collegiate workshops and a mid-year ACP national conference.

Kline serves as board president from 1980 until his death from lymphatic cancer on Feb. 3, 1984. He was 49.

1981

Pacemakers Return For Yearbooks

Pacemakers for yearbooks are reestablished, replacing the Five-Star Award. Yearbook Pacemakers were presented from 1927-1937 and then dropped. Newspaper Pacemakers also started in 1927 and were presented continuously, except from 1948-1960.

NSPA, JEA REUNITE AS PARTNERS

The fall convention, in Kansas City, Missouri, marks not only the 60th NSPA anniversary, but it reunites NSPA and JEA as convention partners. The organizations hosted separate conventions from 1978-1980. Thirty years after reuniting, the partners have jointly sponsored 72 conventions.

1984

First Scholastic Press Freedom Award

The first Scholastic Press Freedom Award, sponsored by NSPA/ACP and the Student Press Law Center, honors Cathy Kuhlmeier, Leslie Smart and Leanne Tippett, graduates of Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis, Missouri.

School officials had refused to publish a set of stories on teen issues in the May 13, 1983, issue of the Spectrum newspaper, prompting the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier lawsuit, with profound implications on student journalism.

The award was presented at the Little Rock convention on Nov. 11, 1984 — the week the trial started. The student journalists also appear on Phil Donahue’s TV talk show.

1985

AIDS: MOST COVERED NON-SCHOOL STORY

AIDS was one of the most covered “non-school stories” in the high school press during the 1985-86 school year, Trends magazine reports. NSPA praises Highlights, at Coral Gables High School (Florida), for “its maturity and frankness in reporting the way the AIDS virus is spread.”

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCTION was a hands-on activity before the invention of desktop publishing in the mid 1980s. (top) Images were shot on film and after developing, the negatives were placed into an enlarger for printing on photo paper. (center) Cropping required the photo be sized so it could be proportionately enlarged or reduced to fit the space on the layout. (bottom) Headlines were often created using transfer lettering. Ron Johnson, editor of the 1979 Reveille, Fort Hays State University, Kansas, positions the letters carefully on a yearbook pasteup board. In 2022, Johnson serves as the communications director for NSPA/ACP.