Daily: A War Time Campus
By December 1941, any outlook for the Daily was halted, along with the rest of the student body and the nation at large, when the attack on Pearl Harbor catapulted the United States into World War II. Despite apprehensions, outgoing editor Lowell Jones instilled hope in the incoming staff by asserting their role in “taking over a job that carried with it a great responsibility and a greater honor - editing a newspaper that records the thoughts and actions of a generation that will be remembered throughout all time because, when it was young, it fought and worked and died to preserve the things it loved.”
In a matter of months, the University of Minnesota transformed into a wartime campus. Eligible male students were either enlisting or being deployed and military servicemen were stationed there for training. In the editorial from June 3, 1943, “The Daily Has Passed One Crisis; Another is In View,” it stated that the Daily was also greatly affected by this, as staff dwindled significantly. To support the student publication at a time of need, an all-women editorial board was appointed and Marjorie Twedt Benson was elected as the new Editor-in-Chief in 1943.
