1
February 26, 2025
EDITORIAL:
HISTORY CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN
Photo by Hayden Wittenborn
The Appalachian Editorial Board
H
idden in a tiny closet inside room 217 in the Plemmons Student Union, nine decades of history is recorded on weathered pages and hundreds of newspapers. Since 1934, The Appalachian Student-Run Newspaper has documented the history of App State, Boone and the greater High Country, and this small closet — filled floor to ceiling with newspapers, yearbooks, rolls of film and more — holds it all. The Appalachian was told by
Student Affairs that we have to clear out this space. According to Student Affairs, this decision was made years ago, but due to leadership changes in The Appalachian, Department of Communication and administration, communication about the move was unclear. The current staff was not made aware of the situation to the fullest extent until recently. The timeline proposed by Student Affairs indicates we need to clear out of this space by the summer. Since the majority of the information on the pages in this
room is not digitized and therefore unavailable online, our staff will be losing access to this vital history. University milestones such as the first Founders Day, the iconic Michigan upset, prominent figures coming to campus, and more have been covered. Our pages highlight the achievements of our student body and faculty, and remind us of the people and places we have lost. Major national moments such as the beginning and end of World War II, the Vietnam War, the 9/11 attacks and more are documented in the
pages of The Appalachian. Though plenty of coverage since our paper’s creation can be accessed online, losing access to its original print format would mean losing the voices accumulated over the past 90 years. If The Appalachian’s staff loses access to the archives, the general public does too. Losing decades worth of reporting would be detrimental to the organization, our mission of serving the community through reporting and to preserving history. History cannot be forgotten.
Why print? Why does this matter? Since its creation, print media has been, and will be for decades to come, one of the most important industries in the world. It is a way to update readers on national and local happenings, voice opinions of both journalists and the outside world and bring light to stories that otherwise would have stayed in the dark. Print media has been on a steady decline recently, with news sources primarily posting online content. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2