In the winter of 1926 a group of students at the Kent State Normal School created an independent newspaper hoping to create a forum for debate and fuel their quest to turn their tiny college into a four-year university.

Their paper, The Searchlight, ran under the slogan “Remember, in five years, Kent State University.”

The Searchlight promised “fearless debate on all topics” and never held back criticism of the college when it felt the need, but criticism of college and state officials was not welcome.

In May 1926, the Searchlight editors were questioned by state officials about continued critical remarks. In July, the paper’s editor, Walter Jantz, was suspended for insubordination and the Searchlight was prohibited from printing another issue.

The Birth of the Kent Stater On July 29, 1926 the Kent Stater replaced The Searchlight as the new “official” voice of the college. The paper ran only conservative articles that had “the best interests of the school at heart.” The Stater’s first editor, Helen Margaret Hayes, had worked closely with Jantz as an assistant editor on The Searchlight, but very little of The Searchlight's style showed in the conservative piece. With the early Stater, students got listless articles and editorials rather than “fearless debate.”

Hayes resigned in January turning the paper over to Marian Fisher, a reporter and assistant editor who had served under Hayes.

Fisher’s main contribution to the Stater was hiring and promoting a young staff reporter named Alfred Hill. In June, Hill became the paper’s new editor.

College officials thought so highly of Hill that they allowed him to develop a new curriculum for the journalism program. He held his position as editor for 34 months, the longest tenure of any Stater editor. He ultimately resigned over, what he thought was, a lack of basic amenities for his staff.

In his time as editor, Hill revamped the Stater’s design and organization. In 1928, he boosted the paper’s circulation to 2,250 making it the largest in the state.

Hill also oversaw the move of the Kent Stater and its staff into a new home in the east wing of Merrill Hall. It stayed in this location for almost 40 years.

As the Kent Stater entered the 1930s it was enjoying considerable success. It had a large circulation and a strong news orientation. It has established itself as the official voice of the campus and had regained some of the editorial spirit of its predecessor, The Searchlight.

The 1930’s: Becoming a real newspaper
In 1930, under the guidance of Buryl Engleman, the son of Kent State president James O. Engleman, the journalism program continued to grow. Engleman established a liberal arts college in 1931 and a new Department of Journalism and Publicity in 1932. Kent State was on its way to becoming a true university, a status it finally achieved in 1936.

Energy and Change Midway through the decade the journalism William D. Taylor took over as head of the school. With the academic program progressing, so was its major extra curricular publication, the Kent Stater. In the early 1930s the nexus between the newspaper and the academic program began to take shape. By the end of the decade the connection was inseparable.

The Stater continued to serve as a training ground for journalism students, independent from faculty control.

“It got me started in the field of journalism,” said Walt Seifert, 1933. “I’ve spent my entire life since then either teaching journalism or working in journalism.”

An alive, alert, active paper
Harold Jones was editor of the Stater at the beginning of the decade. He and his staff of 54 covered the campus and provided editorial leadership.

In 1931 the Stater was named the third best college newspaper in Ohio. It is unclear if this is the first award won by the paper but it clearly signaled a pattern of excellence. In 1935 the Burr noted that the 1934 and 1935 Kent Staters had won All-American honors.

It also continued to serve as watchdog for the students. In the late thirties the Stater successfully campaigned to have slot machines removed from downtown businesses because students were gambling away their hard earned money.