The Student Voice

Documentation of the University of Connecticut comes in a variety of formats, styles, voices and completeness.  Documentation of the regional campuses can be even more difficult.  Some of the hardest  to document are the experiences and voices of the students who have passed through the many “doors” of the University, especially those not at Storrs.  On campus for a relatively brief time, students are at the core of the University and yet they tend to take the documentation of their activities and experiences of their college experience with them when they leave.   As a consequence, the little that is left behind is even more valuable–like the student newspaper.   Thanks to a recent transfer from the Waterbury campus, the University Archives now has in its collections numerous student publications dating from the 1940s (extension courses were offered at the Waterbury YMCA in 1942).  It will take a bit for the Archives to sort through the materials but there are four or five different student newspapers alone that will illuminate the interests, concerns and activities of the students on the Waterbury campus throughout its history.  Let’s hear it for the student newspaper!

The University of Connecticut Begnalight, March 1947