The 1940s can be divided almost too easily into three distinct time periods; the happy times before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the solemn war years and relief of the post war years. All three time periods had a direct and lasting effect on the country.
The early Forties started out with signs of activity, growth, signs of progress and reasons to be optimistic everywhere. Enrollment at Kent State had risen almost 26 percent. The decade opened with a bang in the Stater office too.
"Get it first, but first get it right"
Late in the fall of 1940 the Stater went to four days a week under the direction of advisor Bill Taylor. Taylor, well known for the slogans he plastered on the walls of the news room, ran the Stater under the premise that "nothing short of right is right."
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George Betts, Fred Marbut, Bill Taylor, Murray Powers, Stan Fern, and Dale Rooks, Journalism and Communication faculty in the early Forties. |
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Taylor also instated a policy that all Stater editors would no longer serve an academic year they would instead be selected at the beginning of each quarter or semester.
These changes, combined with the news that the journalism program was to become the School of Journalism made the Stater office an exciting place, but the excitement was short-lived.
The war years
By the fall of 1941 international events were beginning to careen out of control. Enrollment at Kent State plunged to less than 700. More than 5,000 Kent State students, faculty, staff and alumni served in World War II.
On the Sunday Pearl Harbor was bombed, Editor John Mine and his staff gathered to put out an extra edition. Just 30 minutes after Congress' vote, the Stater was being distributed on campus.
Mine enlisted shortly after his graduation, as did many Stater staffers. On campus, the Stater cut back to publishing twice a week to help the war effort.
Stories about the war were often censored to prevent information leaking to the enemy. There was time for a little humor, however. In the spring of 1944 Editor Ruth Recht had the Easter edition published in purple, perfumed ink.
The post-war years
A Newswriting class in Merrill Hall, taught by Bill Fisher. Source: jmc.kent.edu |
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After the end of the war Kent State and the Stater began to grow again quickly.
During the war the Stater had begun to publish a column called "Radio Waves," recognizing the growth and importance of the radio programs on campus. By 1949 the Stater was carrying the WKSU-FM weekly schedule.
The university's branch campus in Canton began to grow after the war. In 1947 the university approved the publishing of the KSU-Canton Stater . Although the paper lasted only a few years, it signaled the growth of KSU branch campuses. |
The 1950's
The Fifties rolled in with another enrollment spike. Some 6,000 students were enrolled in 1950, a healthy percentage of them, veterans.
The Kent Stater went back to being a daily publication and new slogans graced the walls of the Stater office. "Integrity Without Compromise" and "There's a difference between journalism and responsible journalism" both became part of the paper's mantra.
The Stater continued to run WKSU-FM programming schedules and even began pushing for more broadcast power and coverage for the station.
As the decade wound down, a feeling continuity and consistency existed in the Stater office. The paper ended the decade as it came into it; winning awards. It was named the top daily in Ohio.
In the decade ahead the Stater would win more awards and offer new opportunities and challenges to its staff. The next decade would lay the foundation for one of the greatest stories never covered at Kent State.
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