The Gleaner as a Public Forum
The Rutgers-Camden University campus newspaper, The Gleaner, provided national and local news stories, job opportunities, new music, and campus gossip for students. Controversial and political subjects were discussed frequently throughout the pages and, unsurprisingly, not every student held the same viewpoints. Prior to social media, students engaged in friendly and heated debates through articles and Letters to the Editor, if they were not a regular contributor or staff editor.
Like many other campus newspapers, The Gleaner offered college students an outlet to challenge or support the local and national government, social norms, university politicies, and more. These discussions showcase how students felt about disputed subjects like reproductive rights, racism, and homosexuality. More importantly, they demonstrate the significance of discourse in the campus newspaper. Rather than accept the staff editors' articles and views as fact or representative of the entire campus, students sought avenues to speak their minds. In response to heavy criticisms, the Gleaner staff defended their work. This back-and-forth engagement was indicative of a student body that was actively engaged in the world around them.
Description and Methodology
My name is Megan Heeb and during my Digital History course as part of my Master's degree coursework, I scanned a large portion of articles from The Gleaner. While reviewing the articles, I noticed how frequently students used the newspaper as a public forum to discuss topics such as dating, sexuality, racism, etc. I chose the most poignant writings to exhibit here. I worked in collaboration with my professor, Dr. Jesse Bayker, and the Rutgers-Camden archivist, Bart Everts. With their guidance and collaboration with classmates, I developed this digital history project on political discourse as part of the larger Digital Camden Archive. The series of articles included in this project is derived from the 1990-1991 Academic School Year, but the archival collections at the Rutgers-Camden Special Collections holds a wealth of entertaining articles and interesting dialogue. If you would like to view the current iteration of The Gleaner, click here.
You're welcome to peruse the general subjects covered in this collection. Under each subject includes a series of different articles "in conversation" with each other. The website is best experienced with a desktop, but if you are on mobile, know that quotes are presented in sets of two (a call and response or similar comments from two different writers). On occasion, two similar quotes will have a single response. The original articles are attached at the top of the webpage or at the beginning of the dialogue, which you can click on to see the full image and metadata. Sometimes the authors directly reference each other and other times the references are implied. Regardless, feel free to make your own conclusions about nature of the dialogue.