Dartmouth's newspaper celebrates 200 years
The Dartmouth will celebrate 200 years of student journalism at the College this weekend, holding a series of bicentennial events with attendees including about 100 alumni reporters, participants on the current staff of the newspaper and College President James Wright.
Bicentennial Chair Brock Brower '53 said the weekend will honor student journalism at Dartmouth, the college where the first ever student newspaper was printed, and will include discussions on key issues in journalism today.
Notable The Dartmouth alumni attending will include Honorary Bicentennial Chair and former Editor-in-Chief of The Dartmouth Budd Schulberg '36, who wrote the novel "What Makes Sammy Run?" and the film "On the Waterfront."
Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Gigot '77, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Frank Gilroy '50, both former editors-in-chief of The Dartmouth, will also be attending. The oldest alumni of The Dartmouth who will be present are Arthur Allen '32 and Edward Marks '32.
Former president of The Dartmouth Erin Loback '99, who organized the weekend with Brower, said alumni of The Dartmouth were located through The Dartmouth's own records and with the help of Alumni Relations. Invitations for the weekend were sent to all 1,400 alumni of The Dartmouth, she said.
Loback said the alumni response was enthusiastic, and many former reporters for The Dartmouth asked why reunions had not been organized in the past.
She said a large percentage of the returning alumni have pursued careers in journalism.
"We decided a reunion event would be really exciting, just to get people back to campus," she said. "It's a time for [older alumni] to learn about how the paper works today, but also people who are running the paper now can gain a perspective on the past and maybe learn something from their predecessors."
Saturday's events will include tours of The Dartmouth offices held by the present staff of the newspaper, in addition to an evening banquet that will include comments by Wright and alumni. A slide show displaying highlights of the history of The Dartmouth will also be shown at the banquet.
A panel will be held from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Sunday in Cook Auditorium, with the topic "Will the Internet Own the News?"
The panel members will be Gigot, reporter for the New York Times Christopher Wren '57, Dartmouth's Trustee and PBS correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" Susan Dentzer '77, former New York Times bureau chief and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler '64, and Jamie Heller '89, managing editor of TheStreet.com.
Ken Roman '52, former chairman and chief executive officer of the international advertising and communications firm Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide, will moderate.
A panel run by David Herszenhorn '94 called "Who Sets the News Agenda?" will be held from 12:30-2:00 p.m. in Rockefeller 3, and a colloquy run by the present members of The Dartmouth directorate will take place there at 2:30 p.m.
Loback said the weekend celebrates 200 years of student journalism at the College and not the bicentennial of The Dartmouth itself. "The Dartmouth Gazette" was the first ever college newspaper, printed for the first time in 1799.
"Dartmouth can stake a claim in the oldest college newspaper, even though The D is not the oldest," she said.
