May 14, 2014 By: rolen
May 1958 was a month of 鈥渇irsts鈥 at four-year-old Stern College. The inaugural issue of the First Step, the College鈥檚 fledgling journalistic endeavor, was published. The paper reported on Stern鈥檚 first graduating class of twenty-six students, Eleanor Roosevelt鈥檚 鈥淪tern College Month鈥 fireside chat on the future role of women in society, the Middle States evaluation, and even the library鈥檚 new microfilm machine. The paper had its light side: the creators of the Purim play described its origin: 鈥溾檌f the boys uptown can write satires of school life, why, so could we.鈥欌 And in a time before cell phones, a column entitled 鈥淪uspense Reigns on Monday Night Until the Telephone Rings鈥 depicted life around the sole telephone in the dormitory.
The editorial commented on Stern College in 1958: 鈥淔our years ago there was no fight at Stern College over the honor system, no griping about the cafeteria line, no $15 fee for scholarship application. 鈥 Four years ago there was no Stern College. Today we have a school we can be proud of.鈥 And today, at age sixty, celebrating its 57th graduating class, Stern College indeed has much to be proud of.
Posted by Shulamith Z. Berger
