Three generations of the Algonquin Times staff, students, and faculty reunited for the first time on Sept. 29, to celebrate its 30th anniversary with drinks, food, cake and speeches at the Observatory.
The first issue of the Times came out on Sept. 16, 1986, and it has published continually through every academic season since then.
More than 120 alumni and students attended this event to help celebrate 30 years of the Times. There were even some faculty from the past.
Bob Louks, former coordinator of the journalism program who oversaw the launch of the Times in 1986, told the gathering that it was the Students’ Association that actually initiated the Algonquin Times.
“I’d suggested they call it the Algonquin Journal but they insisted on the Algonquin Times,” said Louks.
For its part, the SA saw the new campus newspaper as filling an important role.
“The Times has a democratic function as a watchdog,” said Jack Doyle, 1986 SA president, and the current general manager of the organization.
The Times is also a training paper for journalism and advertising students.
While working for the Times, both staff and students develop a strong relationship that even after they leave here, they’ll always remember production days and the comments from their teachers.
“I had the greatest times of my life with all the students,” said Louks.
Others involved in that first issue of the Times included graduates Ross Brown and Michel Hell, and former instructor Pat Dare. All three men were in attendance.
A recent graduate from the program, Michael Miller said he missed his teachers, especially Joe Banks and Julie McCann.
“Joe will always be Joe and Julie will be Julie,” he said laughing, as three of his classmates – Danica Roberts, Amelia Buchanan, and Keenan Kusan nodded their heads in agreement as graduates and faculty from other years mingled in the background.
In the midst of this celebration, the Times also remembered two of its staff members, Steve Forster and Mark Anderson, both lost to cancer in their early 50s; Forster in the early 2000s and Anderson nearly two years ago.
Joe Banks, current coordinator and professor, told the crowd that Steve Forster was instrumental in getting him hired.
“Steve Forster was a journalist, teacher, musician but most of all a friend to any journalism student he came in contact with at the college,” Banks told the crowd.
Former students who worked for the Times now have top positions as staff members.
That includes the dean of the School of Media and Design, Robyn Heaton, who was also a former advertising student.
“What I have seen through my years working with the Times is how students find their path and work as a team,” said Heaton.
The journalism program would not have the Algonquin Times without advertising, said Banks in appreciation of dean Heaton’s speech.
With the advent of social media, there has been lots of improvement and innovation with the Times. Today, there is digitally-delivered content which didn’t exist in 1986 when the paper was first published.
“We were the first and had nothing to look into,” said Ross Brown, one of the pioneer reporters for Algonquin Times.
He said this in reference to the fact that the current journalism students use social media for news production and thus have access to more information than what he had back in the 80s.
“There was nothing. No Internet, no social media. We used landline phones,” said Brown.
“Everything was done using typewriters and film cameras,” he added.
“It was difficult and challenging at that time because you only saw the results when the paper was printed,” said Marilyn Mikkelsen, photography teacher from when the Times started.
However, students did very well with their photos back in the 80s because they knew it was important to have both skills – writing and photography.
And the transition from film to digital meant better results in photography, she added.
Journalism has evolved over the years and students today now posses multiple skills for both their print and online content.
Jake Davies, a student from the 1999 class, said they used “QuarkXpress” for layout, which is equivalent to InDesign today.
“It is interesting to see how programs change,” he said.
Steve Ladurantaye, digital online editor for CBC, spoke on behalf of the journalism alumni of the program. He graduated in 1998 and went on to report at the Ottawa Sun, Peterborough Examiner, Kingston Whig-Standard, the Globe and Mail. Prior to joining CBC, he worked for Twitter Canada as a media liasison.
“One thing I learned from the Times is that, we learn how to interact with difficult people, and how to make decisions,” said Ladurantaye.
Some of the skills we learn from this program cannot be taught in the classroom, Ladurantaye explained.
Also on hand at the celebration was his father Clarke, former Ottawa Citizen composing room employee, who was responsible for putting the paper together back in the 80s.
Even back then the paper was published every two weeks and it was always interesting mixing with the students, he said.
One piece of advice from Chris Lowrey, a 2016 graduate from the program, to all the current second-years is to keep in touch with classmates because most of the jobs they got were from their peers.
Joe Banks thanked his colleagues, Julie McCann for being a great partner and copywriter for the Times, and Ralph Plath’s contribution as photo and video instructor on the Times.