The Pre-daily Titan Times and Titan newspapers at Cal-State Fullerton University (1960-1969: The Beginning)
Note: I wrote this short essay for the 50th anniversary publication of the Daily Titan, distributed during the 2009-2010 school year at California State University, Fullerton. The essay was followed by reproductions of 10 front pages from the campus newspaper published during the 1060-69 era.
by Jim Drummond, Fall 1965-66 Titan Times editor
Early issues of the student newspaper—named the Titan Times and the Titan during the nine years before the Daily Titan—mirrored both the physical and academic growth of the campus as the college morphed through the names Orange County State College, Orange State College, California State College at Fullerton (first with and then without “at”) and finally California State University, Fullerton.
Although the 12th campus in the state college system was authorized on Sept. 11, 1957, the first year’s 452 students didn’t occupy six leased classrooms at Fullerton’s Sunny Hills High School until Sept. 21, 1959. They registered for 41 classes, including 28 in late afternoon or evening, and picked the “Titans” nickname in the weeks before the first of eight two-page biweekly issues of the Titan Times rolled off the lone press at the Brea Progress newspaper on leftover glossy yearbook paper.
These first issues reported on the beginnings of the intercollegiate athletic program under successful basketball coach Alex Omalev, classes conducted by the first five faculty members, selection of royal blue and white as school colors, dances and other social activities as well as the hopes and dreams of the first five graduates who received degrees in elementary education on June 10, 1960.
During the next year the newspaper began weekly publication under the auspicious of the fledgling journalism department and new assistant professor James Alexander before department chair J. William Maxwell completed a Fulbright scholar program and assumed the position of newspaper adviser for the remainder of the Titan Times’ eight-year run. The move to a professional journalism program matched the college’s move to its current permanent site, although classes were held in so-called “temporary” buildings.
Through news stories and photographs during these early years, the paper chronicled the rapid addition of nationally accredited academic programs and the equally quick physical growth of the campus, including the $5.8 million Letters and Science building (now McCarthy Hall) in 1963; the $3.2 million Music, Speech and Drama and $2.3 million Physical Education buildings in 1965; the $4.1 million library in 1966; the $1.2 million College Commons in 1967; and the $3.6 million Humanities building in 1969.
The newspaper, which began twice weekly publication in Fall 1965 and three times weekly in Fall 1968, covered student clubs and organizations and activities at the early residence halls—Olympus in 1963 and Othrys beginning in 1964—and promoted the first of several years of elephant racing on May 11, 1962. Newspaper stories continued to follow athletic success in several men’s sports and the first women’s basketball team members, who purchased their own uniforms and paid for transportation to games.
The student protests of the mid and late 1960s also were a staple of campus activity and press coverage. The first recorded protest occurred in 1963, when students gathered to voice opposition to the name change from Orange State to California State College at Fullerton—“a mouthful,” they complained. As controversy over the Vietnam War heated up, so did the newspaper’s lively Letters to the Editor columns.
A March to support U.S. troops in Southeast Asia was chronicled, along with teach-ins, anti-draft rallies and a host of noontime speakers in the quad area supporting and opposing the country’s foreign policy. A controversy surrounding the one-act play “The Beard” embroiled local politicians, outside media, campus administrators, faculty and students in a dispute over the meaning of academic freedom in a college setting.
By the end of the first decade, the campus had grown from 452 to 12,835 students, from five to 564 faculty members and from five graduates to the awarding of 1,726 bachelor’s and 420 master’s degrees. During that time student and academic life reflected the same forces at work on the larger national and worldwide stages, and all of it was presented to readers on the hundreds of front and inside pages of the student-run newspaper.
Note: I wrote this short essay for the 50th anniversary publication of the Daily Titan, distributed during the 2009-2010 school year at California State University, Fullerton. The essay was followed by reproductions of 10 front pages from the campus newspaper published during the 1060-69 era.
by Jim Drummond, Fall 1965-66 Titan Times editor
Early issues of the student newspaper—named the Titan Times and the Titan during the nine years before the Daily Titan—mirrored both the physical and academic growth of the campus as the college morphed through the names Orange County State College, Orange State College, California State College at Fullerton (first with and then without “at”) and finally California State University, Fullerton.
Although the 12th campus in the state college system was authorized on Sept. 11, 1957, the first year’s 452 students didn’t occupy six leased classrooms at Fullerton’s Sunny Hills High School until Sept. 21, 1959. They registered for 41 classes, including 28 in late afternoon or evening, and picked the “Titans” nickname in the weeks before the first of eight two-page biweekly issues of the Titan Times rolled off the lone press at the Brea Progress newspaper on leftover glossy yearbook paper.
These first issues reported on the beginnings of the intercollegiate athletic program under successful basketball coach Alex Omalev, classes conducted by the first five faculty members, selection of royal blue and white as school colors, dances and other social activities as well as the hopes and dreams of the first five graduates who received degrees in elementary education on June 10, 1960.
During the next year the newspaper began weekly publication under the auspicious of the fledgling journalism department and new assistant professor James Alexander before department chair J. William Maxwell completed a Fulbright scholar program and assumed the position of newspaper adviser for the remainder of the Titan Times’ eight-year run. The move to a professional journalism program matched the college’s move to its current permanent site, although classes were held in so-called “temporary” buildings.
Through news stories and photographs during these early years, the paper chronicled the rapid addition of nationally accredited academic programs and the equally quick physical growth of the campus, including the $5.8 million Letters and Science building (now McCarthy Hall) in 1963; the $3.2 million Music, Speech and Drama and $2.3 million Physical Education buildings in 1965; the $4.1 million library in 1966; the $1.2 million College Commons in 1967; and the $3.6 million Humanities building in 1969.
The newspaper, which began twice weekly publication in Fall 1965 and three times weekly in Fall 1968, covered student clubs and organizations and activities at the early residence halls—Olympus in 1963 and Othrys beginning in 1964—and promoted the first of several years of elephant racing on May 11, 1962. Newspaper stories continued to follow athletic success in several men’s sports and the first women’s basketball team members, who purchased their own uniforms and paid for transportation to games.
The student protests of the mid and late 1960s also were a staple of campus activity and press coverage. The first recorded protest occurred in 1963, when students gathered to voice opposition to the name change from Orange State to California State College at Fullerton—“a mouthful,” they complained. As controversy over the Vietnam War heated up, so did the newspaper’s lively Letters to the Editor columns.
A March to support U.S. troops in Southeast Asia was chronicled, along with teach-ins, anti-draft rallies and a host of noontime speakers in the quad area supporting and opposing the country’s foreign policy. A controversy surrounding the one-act play “The Beard” embroiled local politicians, outside media, campus administrators, faculty and students in a dispute over the meaning of academic freedom in a college setting.
By the end of the first decade, the campus had grown from 452 to 12,835 students, from five to 564 faculty members and from five graduates to the awarding of 1,726 bachelor’s and 420 master’s degrees. During that time student and academic life reflected the same forces at work on the larger national and worldwide stages, and all of it was presented to readers on the hundreds of front and inside pages of the student-run newspaper.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 AM
