Review History

While the Review is the paper of record for the College, it sometime seems that no one recorded the Review's history. We're trying to rectify that with a little help from archives and the memories of our alumni.
If you have factual information you would like to contribute, please email the Long Term Manager at ltmanager@oberlinreview.org

Wednesday, April 1,1874 - C. N. Jones establishes the Oberlin College Review. "A semi-monthly journal devoted to the interests of Oberlin College." It was a two column 9x11 inch paper and supported by the Union Library Association.

February 24, 1875 - Oberlin College Review is shortened to Oberlin Review with the second volume. The first advertisements appear on the back page. The staff has grown from one person to eight on the masthead by this time.

1889- Oberlin Review becomes a weekly publication (sometime between 1874 and 1889 it moved from semi-monthly to bi-weekly) under W.H. Wilson and moves to magazine format.

1890- Clark B. Firestone was editor in chief.

1908- Oberlin Review ceases to exist as a literary journal and moves to news writing. The "Oberlin Review Monthly", a spin off of the Oberlin Review, takes the position as literary journal.

April 19, 1911- The last bi-weekly paper is produced and on the 25 it begins its semi-weekly publishing schedule.

1918- The Oberlin Review has its first woman editor.

1926- The newspaper goes to broadsheet.

1935- Editors add the United Press Daily Service to the Review offerings.

1937- The Review makes one of its first style-guides.

October 4, 1932- The Review moves to new headquarters in the Grill Block, 13 S. Main.

October 26, 1934- The Review celebrates its renovation of its headquarters.

1939- The Review releases, for its 65th birthday, a short history of the paper which notes that in 65 years there were 75 editors in chief - 17 journalists, 14 businessmen, 13 teachers or administrators, 13 lawyers, 5 ministers, 3 social workers, 2 in government, 1 drowned and 1 suicide.

1937- The Review prints on the presses of the Oberlin Times.

1941- Another styleguide for the Review is published.

April 1, 1949- The Review's 75th anniversary. Staff and former staff celebrates with cake cutting in Stevenson.

1954- The Review staff moves its offices behind Fazio food store (60 S. Pleasant St.).

1963-64- A Review staff member appropriates $10,000 of Review funds for personal use and the College never presses charges. This causes the Review to go into debt for almost 10 years. Because of debt faculty members no longer received free copies of the newspaper.

1967- The 7th female editor-in-chief is named. There have been 104 editors-in-chief up to this point.

1968- As the Review climbs out of debt, faculty members get newspaper for free again.

1970- Following the first bombing of Cambodia and the events at Kent State U (May 4), when the College canceled class requirements and went into teach-in mode for the remaining 2 weeks of the term, The Oberlin Review published daily (5x/week) for roughly two weeks.

1971-The Review receives $22,000 for operating costs from the Student Finance Committee.

February 15, 1972- The General Faculty Committee passes a bill that allows one Review and one WOBC reporter into the GF meetings, provided s/he does not record the meeting with any electronic device.

1974- Senate threatens to cut Review funding after the Review refused to print a story of the affiliation of the candidates for student political parties. Senate reverses their decision and no funding is cut.

1974- A student is expelled for overturning a table in anger. His anger was caused by the tongue-in-cheek headline the Review ran over his letter to the editor.

1974- The Review celebrates its 100th anniversary.

1977- The Review continues to print twice weekly under editor in chief Tom Rosenstiel.

1980- The Review moves from its semi-weekly format back to weekly (the last time it was weekly was in 1911).

October 5, 1982- An ad "Term Paper Service," selling written term papers causes a stir on campus.

1983- Writer R.B. Brenner notes that the Review has finally moved from typewriters to IBMs.

April 4, 1983-The Review threatens to cease publication due to insufficient funding from the Student Finance Committee.

1984-The Review conducts a student poll about the paper.

1986 - The Review began doing its own typesetting, design, photo screening and paste up, increasing staff size.

1988 (?)- The Review offices move from behind Fazio's (now the public library) to the basement of Burton Hall.

1996- The Review becomes available online for the first time.

1998 - The Review gets its first digital camera.

January 2000 - The Review changes publishing software to Quark XPress and gets new design look.

January 2001 - The Review website becomes PDA downloadable, one of the first college newspapers to do so. We also claim the fame of being the longest continuously running college newspapers in the country.

July 2001- The Burton basement offices get renovated.

August 31, 2001 - The first, as far as anyone can remember, orientation issue is published.

September 2001- The Review online moves to a .org website and gets a redesign.

November 2001- The Review online edition is named a finalist by the Associated College Press Online Awards.

January 2002- The Review receives a Silver Medal Award from the Columbia Scholasic Press Assocaition for 2000-2001 academic year.