A history of Wildcat political cartoons

Today's readers of the Arizona Daily Wildcat have come to expect forceful student editorials condemning University of Arizona policies, questioning everything from contracts with professors to agreements with apparel manufacturers.

Thirty years ago, readers also found strong criticisms, such as one by student columnist Mitch Dorson. In his piece headlined "Playing With Fire," he condemned the university for "arrogance" in refusing to allow the Associated Students to hire a lawyer, to sign a yearbook contract or to even access student government records.

But, students were not always as bold with their opinions.

In the precursors of the Arizona Daily Wildcat, such as the weekly University Life and the semiweekly Arizona Wildcat, news and comment were often indistinguishable, and a jovial tone pervaded many articles.

In 1912, opinion pieces were freely in terspersed with news on the front pages of University Life. On Oct. 23, a poem typical of the editorials of the period appeared under the banner headline "The Suffragette Number of Life."

One part of the Caroline Wells poem reads, "If you can make one heap of all your home life, / And lose it in this game of Pitch-and-Toss, / And lead a sort of Circus-Hippodrome life / and never care a cent about your loss / If you can lose your grace and charm and fancy, / And all the traits adorning woman best. And what is worse, you'll be a suffragette."

By 1939, two- to three-paragraph editorials were routinely placed in an unlabeled section beneath the staff box inside the Arizona Wildcat, which was published by the Associated Students. One editorial admonished students to stop spitting gum into the drinking fountains, in an Oct. 6 piece headlined "Cud It Out."

On Oct. 20, the freshman class officers warned, "Something must be done, for our school spirit is sadly lacking." The solution: "Wear your beanies! Carry your Bibles!" A Wildcat staff opinion 11 days later urged each student to invite "his" parents to campus on Nov. 18, to "reign campus King and Queen for him for that one special day in his life."

Any editorial hesitancy vanished by 1969, when at least one page of each Arizona Daily Wildcat contained unsigned staff opinion and occasional columns and letters-to-the-editor, in a section called "Voice of the Campus." The Wildcat editorial page had become a full-grown Martin Luther, hammering demands for reform to the closed door of an as-yet unresponsive institution.

In the fall of 1969, columnist Dorson was a senior majoring in political science. He was an assistant to the student body president, working with student leaders trying to convince the university to allows students a greater say in decision-making.

"Some people probably thought, 'This is terribly unfair, giving this guy a soapbox,'" he says.

During the spring semester, Dorson says, the paper's editorial focus shifted from world issues, like the conflict in Vietnam, to campus issues.

In February 1970, he wrote a series of three staff editorials called "Campus at the Crossroads." He made three points in the editorials: that UA was a "distorted and hateful place" because student concerns were being harshly repressed by the administration, that violent conflict had not occurred sooner because of earlier "student apathy" and that "real trouble" was certain if the administration did not change its ways.

The series was prompted by eight felony charges against some students involved in a Jan. 8 protest by black students at Bear Down Gym. The editorials also claimed that several faculty had resigned because of harassment by the administration.

"The Wildcat really got way out there," says Dorson, now a history teacher at Catalina Foothills High School. "We were very idealistic."

Dorson's editorials suggested that President Richard Harvill should meet with "concerned individuals and groups." Though some of his professors would talk with him about his editorials, he says, Harvill was not listening. He says the Wildcat then wrote an editorial headlined "Relate Or Resign."

Dorson says the administration could not see how much the students cared. "We were not very successful," he says. "It was a very sad year."

Dorson says his time on the Wildcat yielded some rewards.

"I can write effectively, quickly," he says. "College was the time I started looking at the world the way it was."

Hugh Holub, now the city attorney of Nogales, wrote Wildcat columns in 1968 and 1969. He also has found his work on the Wildcat useful in his career.

"Working on the Wildcat was a really great experience," Holub says in an e-mail interview. "A university is a city unto itself, and a campus newspaper is a good way to learn the ropes of writing and producing a newspaper."

Former Wildcat editor Mark Kimble, now associate editor of the Tucson Citizen, also values his stint as editor of the Wildcat in 1973 and 1974.

"The work on the Wildcat is extremely valuable to any journalism career," Kimble says, and the experience "can't be duplicated in classes."

He says the paper's editorials provide an opportunity for administrators, faculty, staff, regents, alumni and donors to hear from students.

Holub still keeps his hand in the commentary business, as the editor of an online journal of comment, the Frumious Bandersnatch. The name is taken from Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky," he says.

He started his "underground" publication in 1965, before he began writing columns for the Wildcat. After selling the trademark in 1967, when he began a brief stint at the Tucson Citizen, he reclaimed it in the 1980s, he says.

"Trying to communicate ideas and issues to a mass audience is really hard work, but (it) forces one to try and write better. And once one is a writer, it is sort of a curse," Holub says. "I keep hoping someday I can make a living with my creative and commentary writing, and quit my day job."