In Defense of Print on Campus – The Scarlet & Black

This week, S&B Staff Writer Evelyn Wilber asked 26 students and faculty what they appreciate about Student Publications and Radio Committee (SPARC) print publications, including The S&B, GOGUE, the B&S, Grinnell Review, Press, Sequence Magazine and Grinnell Underground Magazine ( GUM).

Alyvia Bunkowski`26 is a self-proclaimed fan of The S&B, especially the back page. “I like seeing the people … I know in (the S&B), and then the stories written by the people I know. In a small space like Grinnell College, it’s just really cool to see that community from a newspaper… like, this is 2024 and we’re still reading newspapers, which I think is so cool.”

Cadence Chen `26 calls himself “a big S&B fan.”

“I think it’s great that we can have something that we can touch,” Chen said. When asked what she thinks is the importance of student journalism, she said, “I think it not only helps students become better writers and be able to communicate with their communities in more meaningful ways, but also builds connections between students to improve. students who are just reading the newspaper.”

Medhasree Adhikari ’26 reported that she most often reads GOGUE and GUM, while occasionally also reading The S&B. She said she appreciates GOGUE because it gives everyone at the college an outlet for their creativity. “So there is individuality, but (GOGUE) comes together in a community way,” she said. “And then I feel like with The S&B it… sometimes has very nuanced information and opinions. And I think that is important right now, especially because everything is so polarized.” When asked how she would feel if SPARC stopped publishing print editions, she said: “I would be sad, I don’t know… because everything is digital. But I like that we have something tangible and physical in front of us.” She said that when she was featured in GOGUE her freshman year, she enjoyed taking the print version home to show her mother.

“In general, I support student journalism,” he said Scott Lee ’26. “And I think it’s a great way to really understand what’s happening on campus and see what people are thinking, doing, etc. Gogue, I think it’s a really creative outlet for fashion at school. And I think people like to express themselves in the way they dress, and I think that’s a great way to market yourself in that regard.” When asked what he thought of the print issue, he said: “Let’s just say I’m generally in favor of more electronic features, which (The S&B) does have, purely for environmental reasons I would say. But I think I also see the benefit of just being physical, I feel like that’s just a trademark.

Grace Kurtz ’25 said she occasionally reads The S&B and other SPARC publications, such as when she knows someone in the article, or someone refers a specific article to her. “This morning I was in Noyce when they put The S&B down, so I read it because it was right in front of me,” she added. “I mean, I think all (SPARC publications) are probably a good outlet for creativity,” she said. She said she sees value in The S&B connecting students with the Grinnell community beyond the university. “I think a lot of people talk about the fact that they don’t really have contact with the community and that there is some kind of strained relationship – or maybe not, but from what I understand. And so it seems like a good way to better understand your community, and then you learn as you do it.”

In an email to the S&B: Sara Purcell, professor of history, wrote: “These publications, but especially The S&B, mark a very long-standing and important part of the history of life at Grinnell College. Thanks to The S&B, we can look back on decades and decades of issues at the university and beyond (everything from student life, to academics, to responses to national politics) from a campus perspective. There are a surprising number of important issues in university and city history that we would have difficulty filling in the gaps without the S&B’s reporting. Throughout time, as today, The S&B represents the views of students more than anything else, but it is also an essential source of campus news at large.” About no longer having a print edition of SPARC publications, she wrote: “There is currently no digital format whose permanence is guaranteed, so I hope that the print editions can continue to exist (even if their number decreases). It’s pretty essential for future campus archives and historians.

Timothy Dobe, professor of religious studies, stated that he reads The S&B on all other issues, but that he also pays attention to the B&S. “I think that we as professors, at least I, often have a distance from how students think and what is really important to everyone.” He says that while he doesn’t want to confuse The S&B with student opinions, it serves as a window into student life that goes beyond what the administration tells faculty about campus events. When asked about SPARC no longer printing, he said: “I think your digital access becomes a kind of gatekeeper and therefore reduces the sense of exposure to the news as part of the culture. So I think this would be a loss for the culture of Grinnell.”

Kelly Maynard, professor of European studies, said she is a big fan of GOGUE. “First of all, you know, it’s beautifully designed, the images are great, super inclusive,” they said. She also said, “As someone who lives in Iowa instead of going to school in Iowa and being here temporarily from elsewhere, I think it has a very positive vibe about what’s so special about being here without it being a is a bit negative, if that makes sense. .” Of The S&B, Maynard said: ‘I think its strengths are that we get, I think, a certain angle on a lot of institutional news, through the administration, through the usual channels, through the official public outreach of the College, and The S&B is a very good antidote to that, depending on the subject. She said that while much of the content and skills The S&B offers would not change if it were entirely online, the reading experience would suffer. “So as far as reading The S&B is about the pictures and the ideas, and getting a little grainy and having to go to page six to change the rest – that whole experience changes the way I think about what I’m doing the reading.”