NSPA & ACP THROUGH THE DECADES

1986

⊲ WORLDWIDE

1980 Ronald Reagan is elected president.

1981 Sandra Day O’Connor joins the Supreme Court.

1982 Citizens keep cable TV under local government control.

1983 A suicide bomber in Beirut kills 241 soldiers, mostly Marines.

1984 U.S. and French researchers discover the AIDS virus.

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the last leader of the USSR.

1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after takeoff.

1987 Van Gogh’s ”Sunflowers” sells for a record $39.9 million.

1988 The Supreme Court upholds censorship at Hazelwood East High School, Hazelwood, Missouri.

1989 Exxon’s Valdez oil spill is the world’s worst environmental damage.

SETTING THE PACE — From 197479, the Five Star yearbook award was presented instead of the Pacemaker. Engraved plaques were presented to NSPA 1974 Five Star Yearbook Award winners and the 1974 Newspaper Pacemaker winners at the Los Angeles convention. The winners were Randy Palowski and Barbara Greci, co-editors, Aries, Millikan High School (Long Beach, California); Becci Brodehl, editor, Tokay Press, Tokay High School (Lodi, California); Vivian Svestka, editor, Hornet, Hazen (Arkansas) High School; Cinthia Hossler, editor, Pennant Annual, Elkhart Central High School (Elkhart, Indiana).

BEST OF SHOW: FIRST WINNERS

NSPA’s inaugural Best of Show competition highlights the Chicago convention, with four publications taking home the first gold-cup trophies awarded by NSPA:

Pioneer (yearbook), Kirkwood High School (Missouri)

Falcon (yearbook), Fairfield High School, Langdon, Kansas

Featherduster (newspaper), Westlake High School, Austin, Texas

Arlingtonian (newspaper), Upper Arlington High School (Ohio

NSPA LEADS “DESKTOP REVOLUTION”

With the growing popularity of the Apple Macintosh 512k and Aldus PageMaker design software, desktop publishing appears in school publications offices across the nation.

Trends introduces its popular “Desktop Repartee” column by Bruce Watterson. The same year, NSPA launches the first desktop publishing workshop taught by Watterson and Jim Jordan.

1987

FIRST ALL-AMERICAN VIDEO YEARBOOKS

Four high schools and four colleges receive the first All-American ratings for video yearbooks. The video yearbooks were produced during the 1985-86 school year and varied in length from 30 minutes to an hour.

1988

Hall Of Fame Charter Members

Charter members of the ACP/NSPA Hall of Fame feature 16 college and 13 high school publications. To earn Hall of Fame status, publications earned 10 consecutive All-American ratings starting in 1976. As of 2021, there are 69 collegiate and 225 high school publications inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Carter Keynotes Convention

Former President Jimmy Carter, keynote speaker for the ACP/CMA National College Media Convention in Atlanta, leads a town hall-style press conference.

1990

NSPA, JEA SPRING CONVENTIONS RETURN

For the first time since 1977, NSPA sponsors a spring convention with JEA, with CBS news anchor Harry Smith as keynote speaker at the Seattle convention. The spring-convention partnership continues today.

THENSPA WORKSHOP, co-hosted by the Minnesota High School Press Association, brought student journalists from across Minnesota and the nation to the University of Minnesota campus each summer. In 1982, Lynn (Rosenfeld) Loewy, Spring Woods High School, Houston and Bruce Watterson, Ole Main High School, North LIttle Rock, Arkansas teach writing and design. Donn Poll, NSPA graphic designer, demonstrates paste-up techniques during the new Redesign Workshop. After several decades, the workshop ended in 2016.

WHEN PRINCIPAL Robert Reynolds removed an article on divorce and another on teen pregnancy from the May 13, 1983, issue of The Spectrum newspaper at Hazelwood East High School, St. Louis, Missouri, editor Cathy Kuhlmeier and reporters Leslie Smart and Leanne Tippett sued, claiming their First Amendment rights had been violated. Ultimately, on Jan. 13, 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools may restrict what is published in student newspapers if the papers have not been established as public forums. The Court also decided that the schools may limit the First Amendment rights of students if the student speech is inconsistent with the schools’ basic educational mission.

Students On The Set

While attending the 1988 Washington, D.C, convention, adviser Jack Harkrider, Anderson High School, Austin, Texas, and his students were allowed on the set to watch Ted Koppell broadcast live. After the newscast, Koppell spent about 15 minutes talking to the students. “Ted was great — he’s an amazing interviewer. He was very enthusiastic and motivational for the students,” Bradley Wilson said. Wilson was student teaching with Harkrider.

Dateline Atlanta

A short walk from the hotel, CNN Center, headquarters of the news network, was a popular attraction for student journalists and their advisers attending the 2004 Atlanta convention. Craig Coyle, Lamar High School, Arlington, Texas, takes a staff photo at the iconic CNN sign.