College Magazines and Their Uses
Most colleges have their own magazines, edited by one of the students or a member of the staff, and made up of articles written mainly by the students themselves. They may be good, bad or indifferent; but a good college magazine may serve several useful purposes.
First, a college magazine encourages the students to practice writing, by affording opportunities to budding authors to see their compositions printed. A young man who will take little interest in doing a set of composition exercises in class, will put forth his best efforts when he knows that his composition will appear in print. It gives him a real thrill to see something that he has written appearing as an article in a printed magazine. To bring forth the best efforts, prizes are sometimes offered for the best articles.
Next, a college magazine, well edited, helps to foster what is called esprit de corps, or college patriotism. It can be made to help the college students to realize that they are a united body, however diverse may be their individual tastes and occupations. It should, moreover, teach them to be proud of their college, loyal to its best interests, and anxious to uphold its best traditions.
The college magazine, further, may serve as a link between the present students and “the old boys”, and help to keep the latter in touch with their old college. As former students read the college news month by month, they will feel again something of the old pride in the place where they got their education and their interest in it will be maintained. Sometimes it has been the college magazine that has led to the starting of an “old boys’ association”, which gives monetary help to the college. If a college has no magazine, these “old boys”, scattered about the country and absorbed in their own occupations, are liable to forget their college, and lose interest in its welfare.
To serve all these useful purposes well, a college magazine must be carefully edited. Too often such magazines do more harm than good, or are at best very poor productions, simply because the editor does not take his work seriously. The editor should raise the standard of the magazine by refusing all badly written contributions, and any that are silly, in bad taste, or objectionable on other grounds. Better no magazine at all than a worthless and silly production.
