"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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