WSC Archives

Shelved as: ARCH RG 10.02
Collection: Alumni Relations
Series: Newsletters and Magazines
AN 2006/000/11
Persistent link to Conn Library OPAC: http://library.nscs.edu/record=b2133317~S0

Background Note

The State Normal School at Wayne began publishing the Nebraska State Normal School Bulletin the first year of its existence. This Bulletin was initially issued quarterly. It became a bimonthly publication in 1929. One issue in each volume was the typical college catalog with a list of courses, faculty, the school calendar, and general information about the school. Another issue was usually devoted to summer courses. “Service bulletins” highlighted special topics relating to the college and may have included recruitment materials aimed at high school students and information beneficial to teachers in elementary and secondary schools.

About 1920 an Alumni Register with the current addresses and occupations of alumni was published as an issue of the Bulletin. It was meant to be an annual publication, but the Archives has only three issues from the 1920s, namely 1924, 1928 and 1929, so it’s unclear if it was indeed published according to this schedule. In 1936 an issue of The Bulletin, entitled The Alumni News, announced that the Register would be discontinued due “to the great expense and the vast amount of time required for its preparation, and because it is felt that the same purposes may be attached through other, and less expensive means.” (The Register, however, would be reintroduced in 1938). In the place of The Register the Board of Governors of the Wayne College Association “contemplat[ed] issuing a monthly news bulletin, which will maintain the contact with the alumni accomplished formerly by the Directory.” It stressed that “[t]he monthly alumni news bulletin is not a thing of certainty—it is only a project whose practicability is being considered.” The writer solicited feedback from alumni to ascertain interest in this project.

Problems such as financing, maintaining an editorial staff and the full support of alumni, however, prevented the project from being carried out as planned. An alumni newsletter was still published but only on an irregular basis (and under several different titles) through 1952.

In 1952 Here’s News from Wayne State was introduced. The first issue in September of that year announced that it was “a combination of campus news and alumni bulletin which will be published monthly during the school year.” Although there were later changes in frequency and format, Here’s News was published consistently through 1986 when the title was changed to Willows, named for the weeping willow trees of the Willow Bowl, a campus landmark. Willows was more of a magazine than a newsletter. This was reflected in a name change in 1989 to Wayne State Magazine: Willows. In 1992 “Willows” was dropped from the title. Today the alumni publication is simply titled Wayne State Magazine.

Concurrent with the Wayne State Magazine the college published an Alumni Newsletter from 1996 through 2008.

Scope and Content Note

Copies of the various alumni bulletins, newsletters and magazines were found in the boxes stored in the Library prior to the formal establishment of the Archives as well as the materials transferred to the Archives from College Relations in 2010-11 and other sources.

These alumni new publications have been brought together to form this collection. (Note: The alumni registers / directories are included in a separate collection).

• Box 1. Alumni bulletins and newsletters, 1936 through 1952
• Box 2. Here’s News from Wayne State, 1952 through 1957
• Box 3. Here’s News from Wayne State, 1958 through 1971
• Box 4. Here’s News from Wayne State, 1972 through 1976
• Box 5. Here’s News from Wayne State, 1977 through 1986
• Box 6. Alumni Newsletter, 1995 through 2008
• Box 7. Willows, 1986 through 1988. Wayne State Magazine: Willows, 1989 through 1992
• Box 8. Wayne State Magazine, 1992 through 1995
• Box 9. Wayne State Magazine, 1995 through 2001
• Box 10. Wayne State Magazine, 2002 through 2007
• Box 11. Wayne State Magazine, 2008 through 2013
• Box 12. Wayne State Magazine, 2014 through present