The Colby Echo, established in 1877, is the weekly student newspaper of Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
The Colby Echo staff currently consists of 20 editors, who are responsible for assigning and writing articles, overseeing the production process and maintaining the EchoâÂÂs online presence. The Colby Echo editors also assign weekly articles to a team of 15 news staff writers. Students interested in contributing to the paper are encouraged to contact the editor(s) of the section(s) they are interested in working for in order to learn more. A current Editorial Board roster can be found at: https://medium.com/colby-echo/about
The Colby Echo is published every Wednesday that the College is in session, with 1,300 copies printed each week. A full year subscription costs $60. The paper is available at many locations throughout campus, including the three dining halls, the Street in Miller Library, Pulver Pavilion, the Diamond building, the alumni center, the admissions building and the athletic center. The Colby Echo is also distributed to several businesses in Waterville, including Jokasâ Discount Beverages, JorgensonâÂÂs Café and the Railroad Square Cinema.
Archives dating from the March 1877 issue to the May 2006 issue are available online. Hard copies are accessible in the Miller Library special collections.
The Colby Echo was first published on March 1, 1877. As editors noted in this first issue, âÂÂ[y]ears ago, college journalism was unknown; now every college of size and influence has its paperâÂÂsome, several. Colby had nothing of the sort, except the yearly Oracle.â The paper, then a monthly publication, was designed to serve as âÂÂan Echo of the ideas, views and opinions of the students; a conductor to dissipate the pent-up electricity of college intellect, without any disastrous explosion. College spirit had begun to demand such a paper, and sooner or later it was bound to be established."
After a Publishing Association had been formed, committee members worked on choosing a name for the paper, and were especially drawn to either âÂÂColbiensisâ or âÂÂColby Echo.â The ultimately selected âÂÂColby Echoâ because they found it unique. Unbeknown to the Colby editors, the College of the City of New York had created its own paper, The College Echo, a few months earlier. In an issue printed in May 1877, the Colby editors explain that they âÂÂdid not ascertain until too late to make a change in the name, or [they] certainly should have done so, recognizing the prior right of [their] brothers of the College Echo to the name.â However, they explain, they believe the decisions must have been âÂÂnearly simultaneous.â Upon learning of the similar names, the College Echo then wrote to the Colby editors a âÂÂgentlemanly note,â leading the Colby editors to request that âÂÂall exchanges, in mentioning us, to do so always as The Colby Echo, and the other as The Echo, or The College Echo.âÂÂ
From the beginning, editors of The Colby Echo emphasized the paperâÂÂs collective role within the College community. âÂÂThe paper is not by any means the property of a firm of half-a-dozen men...who are elected editors.... But it belongs to the whole College, and, as such, each student should take pride in it and feel bound to do all that he can towards sustaining it,â the editors wrote in April 1877.
The Colby Echo quickly âÂÂceased to be an experiment,â and became âÂÂregarded as one of the College fixtures.â It also began to provide a means for alumni to stay up-to-date on College events. In the October 1877 issue, editors noted that for some alumni, the Echo is âÂÂthe only link which connects you to your Alma Mater...we are sure the Echo will be to you a welcome messengerâÂÂbearing good news, awakening old and fond recollections, and bringing you back to the scenes of your College days.âÂÂ
By the twentieth century, editors began to implement many influential changes on the Hill, as former college official Earl Smith describes in his book, Mayflower Hill: A History of Colby College. Smith notes a number of instances in which Echo editors became active, both politically and within their own campus community.
After listening to former President William Taft speak at the Waterville Opera House in 1917, editors were so taken by TaftâÂÂs âÂÂmessage of patriotism and warnings of an inevitable warâ that they âÂÂpromptly urged the formation of a campus military company.âÂÂ
Joseph Coburn Smith âÂÂ24 âÂÂfirst proposed that the College adopt the white mule as its rather odd mascot,â while serving as the newspaperâÂÂs editor-in-chief.
In 1936, the Echo suddenly became MaineâÂÂs first Democratic newspaper when Roland Gammon âÂÂ37 praised RooseveltâÂÂs New Deal. âÂÂHis editorial raging against âÂÂthe outmoded Republican No-Dealâ¦with its laissez-faire in business and splendid isolation of foreign affairsâ created a firestorm. The local Sentinel and the Portland Press Herald called for gagging the upstart editor. Professors Galen Eustis and Curtis Morrow called for his âÂÂsuppression or expulsion.â However, Frank Johnson, then the president of the College, explained to Gammon that âÂÂfree speech and free press are as much a Colby tradition as a Constitutional guarantee.âÂÂâÂÂ
During the mid-twentieth century, âÂÂresponding to criticism that students were afraid to speak out, the newspaper created an âÂÂopen-forumâ column and invited readers to prove critics wrong.âÂÂ
Following the Watergate scandal, âÂÂthe Echo joined eighty-four other college newspapers in calling for NixonâÂÂs impeachment. âÂÂHe is no longer a legitimate leader,â the editorial said. âÂÂNo amount of double-talk or political timidity can obscure this fact.âÂÂâÂÂ
After the draft was reorganized in 1967, âÂÂRegistrar George Coleman explained the new rules in the Echo, where editorials reflected the sullen mood of students and acknowledged there was no sign of the kind of patriotism that had ignited past generations in time of war.âÂÂ
In 1970, the Echo supported the âÂÂChapel 18â incidentâÂÂwhen members of the Student Organization for Black Unity (SOBU) went into Lorimer Chapel âÂÂreciting five âÂÂdemandsâÂÂâ aimed at increasing the CollegeâÂÂs black student populationâÂÂand said that âÂÂthe protest merely âÂÂdramatized the need for rapid action on black problemsâÂÂâÂÂ