The Colgate Maroon-News started off as two competing newspapers on campus: The Colgate News and The Maroon. The Maroon was printed from 1916 until 1991 and The Colgate News was printed from 1968 until 1991, when it joined forces with The Maroon. 

The Maroon did not have an Arts section at all, but The Colgate News slowly began to integrate the arts into its content circa 1975, when the first Arts section was printed. Up until then, events relating to the arts on campus were included in miscellaneous sections, such as a “What’s Going On?” section at the end of the paper in 1974. 

The first Arts page of The Colgate News was published in the September 12, 1975 issue and only received one page in the paper. It featured current happenings in Dana Arts Center and a few films that were being shown in the “Hamilton Cinema” as well as in Olin Hall. 

By 1987, the Arts page transformed into the Arts and Entertainment section, which again was not as full of a section, but still included some of the events occurring in and around Hamilton, including some as far as Syracuse. 

At the end of the 1991 school year, a Features section debuted in The Colgate News. This section was a respectable length, but it wasn’t until September 1991 that the real Arts and Features section officially appeared in The Colgate News. This issue featured the Living Writers section, an article that still routinely appears in The Maroon-News today, as well as an announcement about the opening of the Colgate Women’s Center. While The Colgate News was short lived after this issue, with the final paper released in December of 1991, it kickstarted the Arts and Features section that we know and love. Seeing how long the Arts and Features section has been around for creates a new appreciation for The Colgate Maroon-News and the decades of dedicated staff that make Arts and Features what it is today. 

Contact Sasha Balasanov at [email protected].