Bob Tomaszewski
Staff Writer
Daily Herald Deputy City Editor James Kane ascended to his position as a student media writer from very familiar roots. Kane was a member of North Central College’s student newspaper, The Chronicle, from 1970 to 1974. Serving some of his time as an editor, Kane started right after the Kent State shootings during the anti-war movement in which he described the event as having “quite a bit of turmoil.”
Kane spoke recently of the upheaval in administration and the student body of the 1970s.
“We were calling for student empowerment,” said Kane. The handbook that Kane received when he started said things such as “no drinking, no card playing, and no dancing” it certainly didn’t fly with students then and understandably so.
In the early 1970s, Kane and The Chronicle were dealing with issues such as coed dorms, and whether colleges should allow them.
Back in the 1970s the demand for newspapers was much higher than it is today and the newspaper did its best to print weekly, although sometimes they printed biweekly due to a lack of either human or financial resources.
Kane revealed that it was a very controversial time period and confirmed that they did encounter resistance at times. “The paper once ran a front page editorial calling for the firing of the president of the University.” He commented that sometimes “if there was something somebody didn’t like, the copies of the paper at the Student Union would disappear. “ In that instance The Chronicle made sure to mail a copy of the paper to all of the Trustees.
As an editor, Kane had a run-in with the dean who said that he was being “unfair” on one of the stories the newspaper ran. “Looking back as an adult,” he said, “when you’re a college student sometimes you’re more opinionated and not looking at all sides of the issue.”
Kane called The Chronicle “a very good learning experience.” His experience there very much reflected the times, the antiwar movement and the social restrictions of the 1950s falling away.
