Looking throughout The Trumpet’s history, 1971 marked half a century of publications for the student newspaper, making history for West Liberty.

The newspaper was still known as “The Trumpet” at this point; however, many changes occurred between 1941 and 1971 notable to mention. Page two of the April 1 issue stated, “Published weekly by the Journalism Department students at West Liberty State College during the school year, except for holidays and examination periods.” The newspaper staff also obtained an office located in College Union, where the current office is now and a phone number.

As previously reported over the past two weeks, some issues and volumes of the newspaper are missing from the archives due to unknown causes. Despite statements of The Trumpet being published weekly, only four issues have remained intact and viewable. For the year 1971, the library has these following issues documented and able to be viewed on the new website MEGA: April 1, April 22, May 6, and Sept. 23. Each of these issues contained six pages (two more than 1941 issues), pictures and ads. In addition, more articles were dispersed throughout the paper such as hard news, features, and sports. (Note: There were no specific sections or pages for these stories like in present day Trumpets).

Volume 54, Number 20: Thursday, April 1, 1971 Trumpet issue contained several important campus events and sports stories. Page one had four notable new stories about the play “Playmate Party” being performed in the College Union, a long week event organized by young Black individuals on campus, 13th science fair scheduled to take place on campus, and pre-registration for summer school was announced. Another new object appearing on page one different from previous Trumpets was a block box stating, “2 ISSUES REMAIN: APRIL 22, MAY 6”.

Page four reported on housing applications for the 1971-72 college school year for upperclassmen. This was a time when staying on campus was required unless permission for other living situations outside of the residence halls was approved by the “Dean of Men or the Dean of Women”. Also reported on page four was the debate teams Mountaineer Debate Tournament in Morgantown. The topic for debate discussion was “Resolve that the Federal Government should adopt a program of compulsory wage price control”.

Page six covered the sports on the Hilltop for the week; although, most of page six was taken up by the article “West Liberty’s “Baseball Team Plays 11 games on Pre-Season Tour”. Many pictures of the baseball team was featured on this page, which is much different from past Trumpet issues.

West Liberty’s head of learning resources, Katy Zane, created viewable high-definition PDFs of old Trumpet newspapers uploaded to the new cloud encrypted storage website MEGA. The new home to the archives is organized into folders by years starting with 1921. To view the new site, please visit this link.

In August 2020, The Trumpet underwent a media convergence process and has switched to a completely digital publishing platform. To view certain issues of past Trumpets and all the newest ones, please visit issuu.com/thetrumpetwlu.

Celebratory plans for the newspaper’s centennial include production of a documentary and a coffee table book. Updates on production for these projects will come from The Trumpet’s faculty advisor, Professor Danielle Mehlman Brightwell. Questions regarding centennial celebrations can be directed to [email protected].

For more information regarding the history of The Trumpet, how to join the current staff or general questions, please email Annalise Murphy at [email protected].