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n September of 1969, Prince of Wales I College and St. Dunstan’s University

closed and the University of Prince Edward Island opened. On October 3, the first issue of UPEI’s first student newspaper The Cadre hit campus.

1969 was a different time. Headlines were the Vietnam War and ‘‘Nixon and Grass’’. Local news included discussions on whether UPEI’s having two campuses was a disadvan- tage. (Classes were being held in the present Holland College Charlottetown Centre, along with Holland College classes.) That was also the autumn provincial board exams met their demise.

The Cadre was a fun paper, publishing no- tices on the turnout at weekly apathy meetings (none) and the Committee to Bring Bears Back to PEI. UPEI was also less restricted in what could be said in the paper. Today we must refer to certain Barn events suchas the one on Dec. 16 without mentioning the word ‘‘drink’’. In the early 70’s, ads for ‘“‘beer bashes’’ often ap- peared. The recipe for Molotov cocktails was in the premiere issue.

Not all of the old headlines look as out of

place as the ones that use the word ‘‘mod’’. In 1976 students read that ‘‘ Proposed Fee Increase will Deny Education To Poor’’. Tuition was sixty dollars per course! In 1984 headlines included ‘*NO Jobs Last Year and Now More of Same’’. _ UPET has grown and expanded in twenty- five years. In 1974, CIMN (Campus Informa- tion Music and News, if anyone was wonder- ing) began and in 1983 they were granted an FM stereo licence - as atop forty station. In 1980 the newspaper reported that we were getting a planetarium and in 1983 there was much talk about the building of the Atlantic Veterinary College. The next year we were informed that there was not to be a nuclear fallout shelter built under the AVC because that would imply that a nuclear war was possible and that it might be possible to survive. It’s hard to believe that we were all so tightly in the grip of the Cold War just ten years ago.

Student groups wrote more of the paper in the early years, although it was not always enlightened literature. The engineers in par-

25 Years of Student Journalis! Lvolution M-IPress

ticular have grown soft in the last few years. In a View from the Top in 1982, they included recipes for Greenpeace workers and baby seals. IN 1979, someone also felt it important that the library carrels in the first floor are shaped like swastikas. They still do. I’m not sure if this implies a threat or not.

I found the back issues of the various Stu- dent Union papers very interesting, but not everyone agreed. In 1977 The Cadre begat The Sun. The name change was because of the “‘reputation of smut/trash at The Cadre’’. The Sun lasted until 1983 when the Netted Gem was founded. This name change was supposed to cut down or eliminate the interdepartmental rivalries that were common in the Sun. In 1986 the Gem took over where the Netted Gem left off, and in 1990 the X-Press was born.

UPEI has been through a lot in the past twenty-five years, and The Cadre and its suc- cessors have been there to chronicle it all. One hopes the X-Press of 1993 and years to come will show that UPEI keeps getting better.

SHANNON YOUNKER

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Acting Directing Playwriting Scenogtaphy . Technical Production Call or write: National Theatre School of Canada 5030 Saint-Denis St., “Montréal Quebec H2) 218

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Cat ea eee PP See ee ere ey,

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(514) 842-5661

10/X-Press/December 2, 1993