The Spectrum (NDSU)

The Spectrum
Type	Student newspaper
School	North Dakota State University
Founded	1896
Website	ndsuspectrum.com

The Spectrum is the student-run newspaper of North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. The Spectrum has been in publication since 1896. Its oversight committee is the Board of Student Publications (BOSP) made up of a rotating group of four faculty members and five students and receives a portion of the student activity fee as a means to subsidize its production. The Board Of Student Publications is also responsible for hiring and firing the editor in chief.

History

The first recorded issue of the student-published newspaper at North Dakota State University (then North Dakota Agricultural College), titled "The Weekly Spectrum" was published in December 1896. The top story in the first edition praised the invention of the electric light.^[1]

In April 1969, a published ad by then-NDSU student body president and subsequent front-page article in The Spectrum resulted in national attention and lead to the Zip to Zap party-turned-riot.^[2]

Awards

Either the Spectrum or its editors have won awards in the Associated Collegiate Press Best of the Midwest competition from 2013 to 2020. The Spectrum has won a Best of Show award for each competition year, switching categories due to frequency of publication in 2015 (to Four-year Weekly Newspaper)^[3] and 2018 (to Four-year More Than Weekly Newspaper).^[4] It has placed in the Special Edition Best in Show award category for every year (2013-2020) besides 2019,^[5] as well as other awards in Best of Show in categories representing the website and multimedia package in 2016^[6] and 2017.^[7] Staff members have also won individual awards for News Story, Feature Story, Sports Story, News Photo, and others in various years.^[3]