Daily Forty-Niner has long history of covering campus news, events

By Starr T. Balmer
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

The Daily Forty-Niner has covered thousands of stories over the last 55 years. The outpouring of art and entertainment, the development of various campus structures, the start of budget cuts and new technology, the affirmative action program, safe sex promotions and the threat of terrorism are only a few of the many topics the newspaper covered.

Art was a huge development during the late early ‘50s and ‘60s at CSULB. Orchestras were a hit during this era as they performed around the campus. A headline dated July 18, 1956 read, ‘McGarrity tells plans for orchestra concert.' A 52-piece orchestra was to perform a concert, free of charge, in the Little Theatre on campus.

For the first time students at CSULB also began displaying artwork such as woodwork sculpture, ceramics, paintings, jewelry and weaving while the headline read, ‘For the sake of art: varied arts, crafts exhibit first on campus this year.'

The campus was founded in 1949 yet there was a tremendous amount of development that occurred on the campus that the Daily Forty-Niner covered during this era, such as the construction of the South Campus Library. The 1959 issue displayed the headline ‘New college library layout portrayed for camposites' along with a sketch of a new library, consisting of conference and typing rooms, reserve reading areas, and slide view and micro film reading rooms, which is quite different of the current library.

The headline ‘Construction continues; four units ready for fall' announced the construction of a new science building, which housed industrial chemistry, radio-chemistry and police science labs.

Due to the campus expansion, the student population increased. ‘Enrollment figure climbs to 5, 272,' a 1958 headline read. There were 20 percent more students that year than the previous. In the ‘50s CSULB was a developing university.

The ‘70s were a unique era and a decade of change for society. One October 1969 headline read ‘A.S. Senate unanimously supports war rally' which proclaimed that the Senate would support a protest rally at the Fourth Street Long Beach Draft Board. The Daily Forty-Niner covered a small portion of the Vietnam War because students had different views about the event and many were drafted to fight for the United States.

A lecturer caught the eye of the Daily Forty-Niner in 1969 – radical black activist and philosopher Angela Davis. A reporter said the Board of Regents fired her because she was a member of the Communist Party. She refused her dismissal and fought back and began lecturing in topics such as recurring philosophical themes in black literature at CSULB, the new name for the institution. Many students attended her lectures. One headline said, ‘Davis: I'm not allowed to teach.' The Royce Hall was filled with thousands of students when Davis lectured, the article said.

Women across the country also began to voice their opinions about abortion laws, as it was a huge topic during this time.

In 1970 the Daily Forty-Niner covered a campus rally on abortion rights with the following headline: ‘Female radical speakers grace campus women's liberation day.'

The ‘70s were also the decade of promoting drug prevention. The Daily Forty-Niner had a number of stories about discontinuing the use of drugs such as the April 1970 headlines, ‘CSULB can help drug users' and ‘Acid; ‘You must have open mind to drop it.'

At CSULB, budget cuts were the talk around campus during the ‘80s. Budget cuts on university campuses mostly affect the students. But during the summer of 1988, the Daily Forty-Niner printed the headline, ‘CSULB staff most affected by budget cuts.' During this time, employees of CSULB saw merit pay eliminated, said Daily Forty-Niner reporter Dwayne Rogers.

The budget cuts could have also been due to the new technology entering the campus as ‘CSULB begins to use phone registration.' CSULB students used telephones in room 153 in the Psychology building to register for classes during the 1988 fall semester. Registering by phone was easier. Before, students found out by mail if they received the classes they wanted. If the classes were canceled or full, they would have to wait in long lines to find other classes, one student said.

During a 1988 weekend edition, the ‘Dukakis' son visits campus' headline ran across the front page of the Daily Forty-Niner as the newspaper also covered his trip to CSULB. He was supporting Michael Dukakis, his father who was a Democratic president nominee.

It was a good turn out as a photo showed hundreds of students sitting on the grass, waving Democratic banners and flags. The caption said that approximately 400 students attended the event.

The space program also caught the attention of the Daily Forty-Niner during the ‘80s. A headline read ‘NASA clears shuttle for blastoff,' with a story about the shuttle Discovery.

Even though Dukakis came to CSULB to help receive the students' vote for his father, many expected that a group of people would be missing at the polls as the ‘Experts predict half of students won't vote,' a Sept. 1988 headline read. This decade had problems getting students to vote, unlike the 2004 presidential election.

Affirmative action was one popular topic especially at various institutions across the country during the ‘90s, as it affected most colleges and universities. In fact, in August 1995, the U.C. system tried to end affirmative action as the headline read ‘Affirmative action to be abolished in U.C. admission employment.' Affirmative action helped minorities attend colleges, but ending the program only made it more difficult for people to receive higher education.

The Daily Forty-Niner also noticed that safe-sex issues were also dominating the decade. People were encouraged to use various contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and contracting sexually transmitted diseases. But in an August 1995 issue, a Daily Forty-Niner reporter said that most adults in the country are not well informed about sexually transmitted diseases other than HIV and AIDS, as the title said ‘Survey indicates STD knowledge is lacking.'

Birth control for males was also encouraged to promote safer sex as a 1995 summer edition article in the Daily Forty-Niner ran the headline ‘Hormone injections after male choices in birth control methods.'

Movies were also an issue as a July 5, 1995 title ‘Protesters see read over new Disney film's depiction of American Indian' ran across the Diversions section of the Daily Forty-Niner. The movie "Pocahontas" caused controversy as it depicted the animated character as having large breasts and buttocks, a reporter said.

While the university only had about 5,000 students attending during the ‘50s, the campus began to exceed the amount in the 21st century as the ‘Maxson tackles overcrowding' headline ran across the Daily Forty-Niner. In the start of 2000, the school's main concern was controlling the large student population at CSULB, Daily Forty-Niner reporter Jennifer Umaña said.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States has been on a terror alert, which caused CSULB to modify the school's budget. Daily Daily Forty-Niner reporter Sarah Lansford said that the school's budget will be revised because of the economic recession as the title of the story read ‘Trimming funds in response to terrorist.'

But the 2004 presidential election was the hottest topic so far in this century as ‘Bush wins second term, pledges to press anti-terror war' a headline read. The election was called ‘the most important election' by many citizens as it will shape our country in the next four years.

Many of the events and issues covered by the Daily Forty-Niner dealt with the occurrences around campus and not the major news across the country.

The campus newspaper did not think that news outside of campus was as important, Journalism Professor William Babcock said. They had to focus on a specific readership.

During the past 55 years, CSULB has been through tremendous changes. The newspaper was able to capture the peak moments of the campus and to inform the students, staff and faculty of the latest news, and to continue to deliver the recent news of present day.