Student Publications

One month after the school opened in 1899, the Northern Illinois appeared. It became the school news source, a monthly booklet of articles on events. In 1923, it adopted a newspaper format and began using Journalism students as reporters. Also, it expanded to a bi-weekly printing, and, then, to four days per week. It became known as the Northern Star in 1954 and in 1968, it began to appear five days a week. The Northern Star receives its funding from student fees and from the advertisements it sells. Alternatives to the Northern Star have been short-lived. The Quarterback, which ran from 1961 to 1963, ended publication when its funding was cut. The University said its articles belonged in the Northern Star and its poetry in Towers. The Edge, 1964-1965, was sponsored by the United Campus Christian Fellowship. It was welcomed by the Northern Star as an alternative publication and a replacement for the Quarterback. The Edge, 1967-1968, was sponsored by a student group called the Edge Society. Most of its material was anti-Vietnam articles. This second edition of the Edge was opposed to the Northern Star. In 1967, the Kishwaukee Surfer appeared. Its primary purpose was to criticize the Student Activity Board elections and the University administration. It, too, opposed the Northern Star. The Kishwaukee Surfer was run by a person called K. Mulliner. Towers is the campus literary magazine. It is sponsored by the Xi Delta chapter of Signa Tau Delta, an honorary English fraternity. Towers began publication in 1939, but was not published from 1941 to 1946 due to the war. It was an annual magazine until 1963, but was published twice a year through 1988. Since that date it is again an annual publication. It contains prose, poetry and art works of students. The Collegiate was, primarily, a humor magazine. Only one issue is in the collection. The Autumn Journal was a magazine that appeared twice in 1790. It was published by the Intersolopsistic Command, which had an address in the Student Activities Center. Seems was a literary magazine that published works from writers outside of the DeKalb area. It appeared from 1971 to 1975 and obtained some sort of sponsorship from the English Department, though it never claimed to accept University funds. A group of students published Seems and the magazine was available either individually or through a yearly subscription. The Norther yearbook was first published in 1900. It was funded through subscriptions until 1934 when student activity fee money was set aside for the yearbook. Format changed from a book to a three issue magazine in 1971. Publication of the Norther ceased a few years later, due to increasing costs and decreasing student interest. In 1985 and 1986 students put out a new yearbook, The Gargoyle, but costs of publication again caused this publication to fold. For additional information on student publications, especially Northern Star, Towers, Norther and Quarterback, consult the Report of the Temporary Committee on Publications in the Boards, Councils and Committees records series.

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