Back in the early 1990s we didn’t have Google. Most of our news came via mainstream media, whether that was television channels, radio, or newsprint. Cable news was starting to take off. However, that didn’t mean that you couldn’t have alternative voices. Most campuses in North America had a free student press, funded by newspaper advertising and usually run by the student union.
Canada had something unique. Canada has the oldest student organization in North America and longest running student news service in the world with the Canadian University Press or CUP. The organization was setup in 1938 and continues to today.
When I wrote and edited at Memorial’s newspaper The Muse, we were members of CUP and the Atlantic region version, ARCUP. Student and alternative voices were and I believe, still are critical in society. We were not afraid to question the status quo, whatever that might be. We forced conversations whether you liked them or not, and we were a safe space for otherwise silent voices and ideas.
But being part of CUP meant also learning from so many students across Canada. So it’s my pleasure to welcome Alayne Armstrong, one of the presidents of CUP. She was president during my 1993-94 year otherwise known as CUP 56.
