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May 1958-A Newspaper is Born at Stern College

First Step - Stern 1958 web_Page_1 EleanorRooseveltatSternCollege May1958 May 1958 was a month of “firsts” at four-year-old Stern College.   The inaugural issue of the First Step, the College’s fledgling journalistic endeavor, was published.  The paper reported on Stern’s first graduating class of twenty-six students, Eleanor Roosevelt’s “Stern College Month” fireside chat on the future role of women in society, the Middle States evaluation, and even the library’s new microfilm machine.  The paper had its light side:  the creators of the Purim play described its origin: “’if the boys uptown can write satires of school life, why, so could we.’” And in a time before cell phones, a column entitled “Suspense Reigns on Monday Night Until the Telephone Rings” depicted life around the sole telephone in the dormitory. The editorial commented on Stern College in 1958:  “Four years ago there was no fight at Stern College over the honor system, no griping about the cafeteria line, no $15 fee for scholarship application. … Four years ago there was no Stern College. Today we have a school we can be proud of.”  And today, at age sixty, celebrating its 57th graduating class, Stern College indeed has much to be proud of. Posted by Shulamith Z. Berger