Debora Cheney
Larry and Ellen Foster Communications
Librarian and head,
News and Microforms Library
Years Ago... The Historical Digital Collegian Database
Years Ago… The Historical Digital Collegian Database, now covering 100 years (1887-1987) allows us to re-visit and re-remember Penn State history through the eyes of the student newspaper.
The previous Years Ago…column described the life and times of women students at “Dear Old State” beginning in 1871. This column will describe the student women journalists who worked on the campus newspaper during this same period.
We, The Women: Considered Something of a Necessary Evil…
It’s a far cry from the day the first woman student was grudgingly accepted at this strictly men’s institution. –“We, The Women: Times Are Changing”—Daily Collegian, 9/10/1943, p. 4
Fall 1943: 430 of the 500 incoming freshman entering are women--a striking change from the 6 women and 784 men to begin classes in 1871. It was a sign of the times.
Women students (co-eds, as they were called) made up an increasingly larger percentage of the student body, yet, their role was largely separate on the Collegian staff until the war resulted in permanent changes.
Over the years, women journalists, slowly and steadily moved to take on larger and more visible roles on the Collegian staff. The most significant changes occurred during the war years, 1940-1946, as the number of male students on campus dwindled during these years. From modest beginnings, the co-eds marched steadily forward.
“I Scarce Know What to Write About”
The first found reference to a women student journalist appears in Free Lance (June 1, 1889, p. 194) under the headline: “From our Co-Ed. Correspondent.” “Dear Mr. Editor:,” the Co-Ed. goes on, “I feel awfully honored by your request, asking me to write a letter for the Free Lance. Since I have commenced, though, I scarce know what to write about….” The unidentified Co-Ed Correspondent’s contribution, more gossip than news, (“I might tell you about Miss S_____’s disappointment the other evening,…”) concluded, “Really, I don’t want to tire you with so much news, so I will close for this time.”
It was a single reference to a women journalist that wasn’t repeated again until October 21, 1914 (p.2) when a “Staff Addition” announced: “during the past week a new associate editor was added to the Collegian staff. Owing to the growth of the enrollment of women students it has become necessary to have some one to devote their entire time to the news from “Across the Way.” The Cottage news can, of course be reported best by some one who lives in the Woman’s Building. … Miss Luella Smith has been chosen by the board to take charge of all news for the Collegian concerning the girls of the college. The first “From Across the Way” column reported: “Four [girls] are on editorial staff or report for various college papers” (October 28, 1914, p. 2). Clearly women were finding ways to gain journalism experience, although their contributions remain largely invisible in the Collegian pages.
It is impossible to determine exactly how many women were working on “editorial staff” or were reporting. Until the late 1940’s articles rarely include a byline—for either males or female students. However, the newspaper’s masthead, describing the Collegian staff and editorial board, provide the most visible window into the inner workings of the newspaper. For the most part, male students are listed by their first and middle initials, last name and year of graduation (i.e., Editor in Chief, J.R. Mathers ’15) likely due to the hierarchical structure of the Board. Senior classman typically served as Editor, with underclassmen serving supporting roles or as reporters. Once the co-eds begin to make an appearance they are listed with the salutation “Miss” and their first name.
The first woman to be recognized on the Penn State Collegian editorial board, Miss Luella Smith ‘17, as one of the “Associate Editors” and continued in that role from 1914-1915 (but not until her graduation, for some unknown reason). After a gap, in which no co-ed’s name is included in the masthead, in January 1918 Miss Gertrude H. Dose begins to serve as “Woman’s Editor.” From that point on, a series of co-eds serve in the role variously named “Woman’s” or “Women’s Editor” until 1923. Finally, two women are listed: Miss E.R. Lowry and Miss M. Farley as “Woman’s Editor” and “Assistant Woman’s Editor” respectively in fall 1924. Note: the Misses are now equal with initials representing their first name, rather than their full first names, which began with Miss S.E. Cross, “Woman’s Editor” in 1922.
They, On Their Own Initiative
It is interesting to try and track how these changes developed and to try and better understand the responsibilities of the Women’s Editor. An editorial in the Feb. 6, 1918 Penn State Collegian, titled “Activities for Women” suggests “the girls … on their own initiative, immediately elect an Editor for the Women’s Editorial Staff of this paper… . The women’s editor could have powers in her department exactly similar to that of the editor of the paper… We are ready at once to furnish them with all needed information concerning the organization of the present Board…. At other co-educational institutions the girls have universally succeeded in making themselves heard and. … are playing important parts on the staffs of the student newspapers. We feel confident such an important staff can be organized at once and be in full and permanent operation before the close of the scholastic year.”
These Women’s Editors were elected by the “women students of the college” and then served on the Collegian board representing the women who had elected them to office. (See announcement “New Women’s Editor”, 4/15/1921, p. 2). This continued until 1924, when under the heading, The Woman Journalist, it was announced the women’s editor would be selected on a “competitive basis” (rather than by “popular choice.” in the same manner as the male editors. Sophomore and junior girls who wished to be considered for the position were encouraged to report to the Women’s Building. The final selection would be made by election by the Collegian Board in the spring. Sophomore women would become Associate Women’s Editors.
Us Gals Become We, The Women—A New Era for Penn State Women
On our women’s page we shall endeavor to completely cover all coed activities
and to reflect women students’ progress.. . . daily in this space we shall interpret
ALL the news from the women’s viewpoint. As occasion demands we shall
suggest improvements and crusade for their execution. (The Penn State Collegian, 1/9/1940, p. 2.)
Subsequently, women’s news was reported or commented upon on the Women’s page and in the Co-ed Chats column (or Co-Ed Chatter) (“Ink-Minded Women Began Collegian Work in 1927,” Penn State Collegian, 12/3/1937, p. 1) The Women’s Page included news and editorial articles and the “women’s staff promises the girls an attempt at least at better women’s articles than have ever before been published” (“Co-Ed Chats,” Penn State Collegian, 4/30/1929, p. 2).
The women’s page was identified by the banner: WOMEN [example below] typically in the upper left hand corner of page 3. The “Women’s Corner” (as it became known) had its own separate masthead and editorial board, for a brief time, with Katherine Holbrook, serving as the first editor-in-chief.
Columns titled variously: Us Gals, then We Women, became We, The Women by 1940. The editorial board, as reflected in the masthead included increasingly more women (no longer identified by Miss after 1924). From that point on co-eds began to contribute to the business side of the newspaper, as Associate Business Managers, Senior Secretary, Assistant Advertising Manager (1943) as the impact of the war took its toll on the number of men on campus.
Extra! Gals Oust Men: Special Women’s Issues
Likely one of the most visible and humorous artifacts of this period were the Special Women’s Issues, published by the women as “leap year issues” in late February of 1940-1942. These issues demonstrate the journalistic abilities of the co-eds, and, possibly, even the underlying irritation with the male student body. With tongue in cheek headlines screamed: “Gals Take Over; Push Men to Page 4” and “Women Take Over as Bashful Lads Hide but Hope for Leap Year Dates.”
A front page cartoon set the tone on the first Special Issue—“It’s a Date” depicted a male with a noose around his neck. The fun continued. Columns were re-named: “US GUYS,” “Woe-Men in Sports,” and “We, The Men.” Stories headlined: “Personality Pays, You Lucky Boys,” and “What the Well-Dressed Man is Wearing to the Senior Ball. A poem by “Maniac’s Maiden” and an editorial “Between the Liars”—declared “”Ain’t Our Boys Swell?” provided additional humor. All in good fun the women editors and reporters in these Special Issues provided a slightly different feature story: “Which is the ‘Line’ He Uses When He Says ‘I Love You’?” Clearly, change was in the wind—even if it only took place one issue at a time.
An Era Has Passed: An All-Coed Senior Board
Remember? The good old days when women just sat back and looked pretty [sic].
A woman could not be the editor of Collegian. Why, she could not even
be on the Collegian staff.--“Women Start Revolution, Make Out On Collegian,”
Daily Collegian, 6/4/1946, p. 4
The changing student body resulting from the war brought the biggest changes to the Collegian staff--“When we first tried out for the Collegian staff, men predominated everything. The women were segregated on a separate staff and were considered something of a necessary evil.” But the times were changing at the Collegian, slowly, but surely. “One-by-one the men have left, until today, the new senior board will be made up entirely of coeds” reported the We, The Women column.
A clear and inevitable sign of the changing times: the co-eds preferred playing bridge to playing poker on a Friday afternoon in the Editor’s office (“Coeds on Collegian Find Substitute for Poker”, Daily Collegian, 7/13/1945, p. 4).
The last Women’s Editor served in 1946, replaced by a Society Editor until 1953.
In 1954, Tammie Bloom (later Tammie Bloom Unangil) became the first female editor of The Daily Collegian, followed by Ann Palmer, in 1962.
From the Advertisements:
Although women were a growing presence at Old State, advertising aimed specifically at women was sparse in the pages of the Collegian over the years. Occasionally ads for beauty parlors, dress shops, or for specific clothing, such as the “new Junior VassarNette panti-girdle” (5/30/1940) are present. Unlike today’s ads: women did not even figure prominently as characters in the ads themselves. This changed slowly but about 1940 ads began to include women: an ad for Doublemint Gum (5/30/1940) featured twin girls; an ad for AT&T featured a young man speaking with a young lady and declared: “They “talk it over”…73,000,000 times a day.” Many of these ads simply place a female in an ad originally focused on males, such as the Chesterfield Ads (9/27/1946).
Not until 1953 does the “Women’s News [on] Pages 12,13” now include advertisements from the Danks & Co. targeted specifically for women. It is interesting, as the co-eds became increasingly more involved with the business side of the newspaper, it is possible they also began to influence what ads where placed and where they were placed in each issue.