Friday November 2, 2012
125TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
December 8, 1941
VOLUME 126, ISSUE 55
September 12, 2001
WVU and U.S.-NAZI WAR America LOOMS in shock
DAILY ATHENAEUM EXTRA
HOW IT HAPPENED WHAT IT MEANS
America went to war yesterday with Japan, after Nippon bombers, operating off aircraft carrier, had opened fire on defense bases at Pearl Harbor and Manila. Undisclosed presidential orders sent the nation’s army into quick action as retaliation.
Hundreds of students watched as a couch erupted in flames at the intersection of High and Willey streets Sunday night, marking the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Chants of “F--- Yeah,” “God Bless America,” “Eat S--- Pitt” and “Let’s Go ... Mountaineers” roared across the crowded streets. OCTOBER 12, 1967
Should Beer Be Sold in ‘Lair?
Matt Sunday/THE DAILY ATHENAEUM
Ex-Mountaineer basketball player John Flowers, center, signals to the sky before leaping into a fellow student in the early morning of May 2, 2011. Students gathered near the top of High Street to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden and the abolition of an era shrouded in fear.
Happy 125th, DA.
50 Students Polled -- 47 Yes, 3 No Stephanie Evans, nursing senior: Yes. “Someone wanting just one beer would go there and be less likely to get drunk than if he or she would go somewhere else. Besides, it would mean more money for the University.”
SEPTEMBER 6, 1980
Opening day: Beginning of a new era
September 6, 1980 will go down in West Virginia University history as the beginning of a new era. It also will be remembered as the day many Mountaineer traditions died.
Have Mountaineer fans seen the last time the band will face the student secton while playing? Possibly paid patrons have beat out high-spirited, pro-band student section, which used to be easily whipped into a frenzy when the band made its entrance.
editor-in-chief
So you’re a student at West Virginia University, reading a copy of your school’s daily newspaper, and you wonder, “What is the storied history of such a long-standing and indelible publication?” OK, so probably not, but I’d love to tell you anyway – partly because I have a lot of time on my hands these days, but also because it’s the DA’s birthday. It’s turning 125, which makes it 20 years younger than the University itself and old enough to remember when gasoline was 10 cents a gallon. The Daily Athenaeum, the official student newspaper of West Virginia University, was established in 1887 as a weekly literary magazine. To put it in perspective, Grover Cleveland was president and the world’s first road trip by car was still a year away. The DA now serves as a daily student newspaper divided into four sections: news, sports, arts and entertainment and opinion, and is printed Monday through Friday during the academic year and every Wednesday during the summer months. It is currently the 9th largest circulating newspaper in the state of West Virginia, and was voted one of the top 15 college newspapers in the country by The Princeton Review in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The newspaper was an independent paper from 1887 into the 1920s when the newly formed School of Journalism took control of the writing, editing and production. In 1970, the paper split from the SOJ and now functions independently again, governed only by the Student Publications Board, which oversees
the hiring of its student editor-in-chief and managing editor each year. The Daily Athenaeum is currently housed in its own building at 284 Prospect Street; the building was constructed in 1994. It’s a short walk from the main campus, in case you were considering dropping off a card, present or application. The word “athenaeum” translates to “institution for the promotion of higher learning” and is a Latin word derived from the name of the Greek goddess Athena, the patron goddess of wisdom, courage and inspiration. Our staff, like the newspaper they serve, tries to be wise, courageous and inspiring at least five days a week. Our motto, found just below the masthead of every edition, reads “Little good is accomplished without controversy, and no civic evil is ever defeated without publicity,” which is arguably catchier than that of its predecessor, The Athenaeum - “Tros Tyriusque Mihi Nullo Discrimine Agetut,” or “Both Trojans and Tyrians shall be treated by me on equal terms.” The quote comes from Virgil’s Aeneid, and is spoken by Dido, founder and first queen of Carthage. If you’re wondering what it has to do with anything, well, we haven’t figured it out, either. The mission of the DA hasn’t changed in 125 years, however. It’s still a college newspaper by the students of WVU for the students of WVU, and in another 125 years, when everyone has a jetpack and newspapers aren’t printed anymore, it will – hopefully – still be there for our great-great-great grandchildren. The crossword will never go out of style.
APRIL 6, 2010
Maybe it was all the excitement and hoopla of opening day to blame for the traditional aspects of the football game being overlooked. That’s doubtful. Afterall, once tradition is forgotten, it’s gone forever.
by lydia nuzum
A GREAT RUN
‘JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED’
West Virginia FALLS TO DUKE TO CAP OFF HISTORIC FINAL FOUR RUN
MAY 2, 2011