The Carillon through the ages
Our student newspaper in the early 1990s
When flipping through the archive from the 1970s (which we discussed in an earlier Carillon through the ages article) to two decades later, it’s obvious that the Carillon looks different; the graphics are much more detailed, and the advertisements have gone from 60s-style clothing boutiques and Coca-Cola to Dr. Martens boots and 7-Up. Like now, ads are just one part of the picture, and the paper is made by the content that the student staff work to produce.
In 1990, the University of Regina (U of R) had been an autonomous university for 16 years. Though many of us are more familiar with products of this decade than those of the 70s, a lot has changed in the two decades between now and then… or has it?
An article from September 1990 states that “The U of R is busting at the seams. Sure you see a lot of construction going on…”
Today, we do see a large amount of construction going on – most notably in Ad-Hum and spaces left empty by Chartwells’ departure. The article from September 1990 only passively pointed out the inconvenience of construction to move forwards to a more pressing topic: the rapidly growing student population.
According to this piece, “The same buildings that held 5,000 students in 1973 now hold almost 11,000 students.” The U of R was in desperate need of more space, and this construction contributed greatly to campus as we know it today, and added “the new Language building,” now known as La Cité, to campus.
In November, the headline “New building on the way” shared a page with construction plans for the building that was to be known as W.A. Riddell Hall which “would be located between College West and the Education Building,” and would be designed by a local architect. The student centre at the time had been built back in 1969 and was meant to be temporary.
In the same issue, a full page advertisement for the grand opening of the Lazy Owl Club told students to “Come to the Owl for great times.”
There is no denying that the Carillon itself remained a newspaper by the students and for the students. There was a “Question of the Week” section, which asked something that was usually about university spending and management or pop culture, occasionally, and students’ opinions would be published alongside their picture, name, year, and major. One of these weekly questions was, “Did Dances With Wolves Deserve Best Picture, and if not which movie did?”
The Arts section of the paper at this time featured not only frequent updates as to what events in music, theatre, and film were going on in Regina that week, but also many album reviews by students on new albums from artists like Pixies, Huey Lewis and the News, and Sarah McLachlan.
At this time, the staff were also selling Carillon t-shirts for $10 which said “Don’t Rock the Boat, Sink It!” In the early 90s, rocking the boat meant frequent reporting on rights updates for the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community, spreading awareness about domestic violence, date rape, and violence against women in general, as well as awareness about safe sex and AIDS prevention.
Students also seemed to be quite concerned about the implementation of a campus no-smoking policy.
Issues in 1990 and 1991 were each around 25 pages long. One from October had a front page titled “WE’RE 28 YEARS OLD!” and featured a special spread of pictures, a timeline of important events in Carillon history, and news clippings from articles over the years. How strangely familiar…
