Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 156

"writing to parents about petty misconduct, tiptoeing up to doors, and eavesdropping." It made bold references to the ..noisome, unsightly barn behind the shops that harbors the shop steeds." Yet rarely was the paper or its editors subject to faculty censure. One editor-in-chief, in 1893, was forced to resign for having published a parody on a faculty meeting, which was enacted at the '94 Half-Way Thru banquet.

The W P I was not prosperous during much of its lifetime. To accept a membership on its staff was a risk as well as a signal honor, for editors sometimes had to share losses as well as profits. The paper became a bi-monthly in 1892, and the subscription price was increased to a dollar and a half. With the issue of July, 1896, it suddenly ceased publication. Investigation has disclosed that not only were finances then in a perilous state, but the Institute administration considered the paper frivolous and unworthy as the organ of a technical college.

As early as 1890 there was a faculty proposal looking to the conversion of the W P I into a scientific and news publication. On this proposal the editor of the paper queried, "Could faculty and students combine to publish a successful journal? Possibly, but for a moving spectacle of frictionless, considerate, love-one-another conduct, witness the convivial action between faculty and students of this school for several years past." But such a journal was to come, a rather drab publication in comparison with the W P 1.

Gregarious instincts of students were stifled by the lack of dormitories and social clubs. These instincts found expression in slight degree in such organizations as the student Y. M. C. A., an outgrowth in 1885 of an earlier Christian Association. Various semi-technical and academic groups were organized: in 1886, the Thompson Club, a discussion and debating society, which disbanded two years later; in 1889, a camera club, which continued with intermittent success; and in 1890, the Tech Elect, an electrical engineering society organized by Professor Kimball.

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999