The Archive

The cover of the first-ever issue of HCC's student-run newspaper. The paper had no name at the time. It was published Oct. 11, 1967.

Photograph by Brandon T. Bisceglia. Documents courtesy of Esther Watstein.

Housatonic Community College has been around for nearly 50 years, but is only now beginning to take care of its own history.

Early on in my student career at Horizons, I asked adviser Steve Mark if he knew what year the paper had started. I wanted to put a nod to the paper’s history on the masthead of every issue - something simple, such as “Since 1999.”

Mark didn’t know when it had started. No one I asked knew for sure, though it seemed to have been around as long as anyone could recall. I eventually gave up active pursuit of the subject.

The question, though, never left the back of my mind. Part of my curiosity stemmed from my own involvement with the paper. It felt similar to not knowing one’s family history. What legacies was I inheriting? How had we changed, and how had we stayed the same?

By the time I graduated from HCC, I thought the answer would be lost to me for good.

Then one day in early January, Mark and I were discussing the Publications course before he had to leave for India and he mentioned that Esther Watstein, a part-time employee in the president’s office, had been creating an archive for the college. He had heard it included the earliest copies of the student newspaper.

From that moment, I was determined to see that archive, simply to satisfy my own inquisitiveness.

In the meantime, however, other work took precedence. My desire to find the archive was a personal goal, not a professional prerogative.

In late February, though, it took on new relevance. Long-time journalism adviser Robert M. Isaacs died. I found out that he had, in fact, developed the early journalism program, including the newspaper. Editor-in-Chief Dave Weidenfeller asked if I’d be willing to put together a piece for Horizons honoring Isaacs, and I agreed.

I now had a legitimate reason to track the archive down.

Watstein was more than willing to allow me to look through all the information I could find on Isaacs and the newspaper. She has for months been collecting and organizing material collected from around the college into a room full of file drawers. Although she is not a professional archivist, she has been researching the proper way to catalog and care for the documents. She’s the sole person systematically preserving the college’s history.

Inside the archive was a folder containing clippings, pictures, press releases and other informattion from Isaac’s time at HCC. There is also a copy of his first book of poetry, Notes to the Diggers. There are early copies of the college’s literary magazine that Isaacs helped create.

And there are copies of the student newspaper, all the way back to the very first issue, published Oct. 11, 1967.

The paper had no title. Instead, the masthead consisted of two question marks on either side of the college seal. The reports in the paper shed light on the state of the college at the time. One story explains that makeshift offices were strewn across the town of Stratford, with most classes taking place in Bunnell High School. Another article reports on the very first election of members for the Student Council (what later became the Student Senate).

The newspaper was almost immediately embroiled in controversy. The editorial board held a contest to pick a name. “Speak Easy” won. The Student Government objected to the process. In a letter to the editor, then-President Howard Harinstein wrote that the editors should have either held a vote of the entire student body to choose the name or taken the list of names to the executive members of the council so they could choose one on behalf of students. He went further, suggesting that because the funds for the paper were allotted by the Student Government, “it [the Student Council] should be dealt with as your advisory board in many instances.”

The Speak Easy shot back with an editorial of its own:

“We will again state that we will not be advised, oriented, or “deal” with any “advisory boards” in making the policy decisions of our newspaper. We speak to the student body about what is going on in their school. Representing the students is the job for the Student Council and we will, possibly, at times, criticize their decisions.

We will publish freely. We will not be controlled by whether what we say is liked, whether approval is given, or whether faculty advisor, administration, or Student Council disagree with us. The pages of the Speak Easy are always open for responsible comment…. It must be free of pressure and threat in order to be valuable.”

HCC’s student newspaper has gone through numerous incarnations since those heady early days. I’ve spent several hours rifling through the archive, and seen the paper transform over time. It has been a fiery political animal, a docile repository for college events, an artsy culture rag, and a watchdog for malfeasance. The paper is a reflection of prevalent attitudes and concerns throughout the last half-century, as well as a product of the ebb and flow of administration and funding.

The growing archive has made it possible for me to understand the institution that is Housatonic Community College like never before. None of us, after all, exists in a vacuum; we’re part of a historical continuum that sets the starting parameters for our lives.

Watstein told me I was the first person to use her system for research purposes. She hopes others will find it useful. I do too.