Libraries & Spaces
Why did protesting students burn issues of The Hoya in March 1969?
In the 1950s and 1960s, The Hoya reported primarily on campus news and events- a focus motivated both by tradition and by the belief that its staff was too small to provide coverage of off-campus events. The Hoya contains no mention of the election or inauguration of John F. Kennedy (who had once lived only three blocks from campus), the Tet Offensive, or the Woodstock Festival, for example. The paper did report on the Vietnam War and associated issues but only in so far as they impacted Georgetown students. This editorial stance led to debate, both internal and external to the paper. A faction of students demanded more coverage of anti-war protests, accusing Hoya editors of being too conservative and not adequately reflecting student opinion. One result of this debate was the founding of a second student newspaper, The Georgetown Voice, which first appeared on March 4,1969, promising to "present and analyze national and local issues of concern to the student, whose concern should spread beyond the campus." Student protestors burned hundreds of Hoya issues on March 6, 1969, while singing This Will Be The Last Time. Despite this prophecy, however, The Hoya continued publication.