The headline, “WAR CASTS ITS SHADOWS OVER ENTIRE CAMPUS” was published on the front page of the April 6, 1917, issue of The Minnesota Daily. The articles within reported how the U.S. entrance into the First World War was beginning to impact the campus. Subsequent issues chronicled the rapid changes to University operations, to which the student newspaper was not immune.
Article Clipping, "Minnesota Daily Will Include 'Mag' and Minnehaha as Result of Merger," The Minnesota Daily, October 10, 1917
I Have Subscribed Button and "Here's Your Button," Card, 1917
A reduced staff, rising printing costs, and an uncertain financial outlook cast a shadow over the future of the Daily, as well as other student publications.
The first issue of the 1917-1918 school year, published on October 10, 1917, announced that The Minnesota Magazine literary journal and Minne-ha-ha humor publication would be published in the Daily as featured sections.
Subsequent issues documented the campaign drive instituted by Daily staff to elicit student support for the newspaper. “I have Subscribed” buttons were issued to new subscribers with a card that informed wearers: “It proves that you have done your share to keep campus spirit alive.”
Attempts to bolster finances through increased subscriptions did not sustain the newspaper through this period of uncertainty, however. By the end of spring 1918, the efficacy of the Daily was taken up by University administrators.
Letter addressed to The Honorable Board of Regents from representatives of student organizations, 1918
Letter addressed to Dean Edward E. Nicholson, Dean of Student Affairs, to University of Minnesota President Marion Leroy Burton, June 3, 1918
At the May 22, 1918 meeting of the Administrative Committee of the University Senate, a recommendation was approved to request that the Board of Regents authorize the Daily as the official channel of communication to the student body and that subscriptions be required for all students through a fee assessed in the deposit paid at registration. President Marion Leroy Burton presented the proposal along with a letter of support from student organizations to the Regents on June 3, 1918.
Burton wrote to Edward Nicholson, Dean of Student Affairs, to inform him that the request was denied: “The Regents felt that it was scarcely within their power to make such a requirement of every student in the University.”
