October 4, 2007
‘University Week’ remembers — 25 years and counting
This school year, University Week, the UW campus newspaper for faculty and staff, turns 25 years old. To note the occasion, throughout the year we’ll revisit some stories from our past, in no particular chronological order, and then provide a brief update on how things have changed over our quarter-century, and counting.
Oct. 6, 1983: ‘U-week begins new life as weekly paper’
Ronald Reagan was in his first term as president. The Seattle Mariners had finished seventh in the American League, losing 102 games along the way. Prince had a hit with his 1999 album, and baby boomers grew wistful over The Big Chill, released that year.
University Week began production as a weekly newspaper on October 6, 1983, being sent to all employees throughout the UW campus. Formerly a mimeographed sheet of announcements and notices, the new version included news stories, photos, graphics and profiles of faculty and staff as well as those notices and announcements. The newspaper was edited — and mostly written — by Bob Roseth, now director of the Office of News & Information and Uweek’s publisher. He was assisted at the time by Barbara Miller.
Roseth, who had trained in journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia, already had worked several years in media relations at the UW, at one point covering “everything north of Pacific Ave.”
He said he enjoyed the news-gathering and writing for the fledgling newspaper, but the technology was old-fashioned at best. “We built the paper the way people had built newspapers since there were newspapers,” he said. “And we had to figure out how to navigate this embryonic digital world … it was hard because we were breaking new ground — no one was trying to do a weekly publication.”
The pace of the work was challenging, to say the least. “I was working harder than I’d ever worked in my life, and when I got done I had to turn around and do it again. It was a nightmare.”
Roseth hired Nancy Wick and Tom Griffin (now editor of Columns, the UW Alumni Association magazine) in 1984. Griffin took over as editor when Roseth moved up the ladder and Wick served as assistant editor. Roseth said, “I could barely keep my head above water and I hired people who were much better at this than I was — and I’m grateful they were available.”
Since then, Uweek has faithfully informed the campus community of news and events, and with a suprisingly unchanging staff for a 25-year stint.
After Griffin moved on, Nedra A. Paulter served as editor for several years and is now at the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. Wick became editor in 2000, assisted by Steve Hill until 2004, and by Peter Kelley since then. The Health Sciences pages of UWeek were long edited by Claire Dietz, and in 2006 Marsha Rule took over that work.
In keeping with changing times, University Week began an online version in 1998. In the fall of 2002, the newspaper’s print version schedule changed from weekly to biweekly, with an online-only version in the intervening week, at www.uweek.org. UWeek’s print version began taking advertising in January of 2003 and works with Varsity Communications of Seattle for its advertising content.
Even we at UWeek glance back this year at the changes it has covered since that first “above-the-fold” headline announcing its birth in 1983, we’re looking ahead, too. This will be a year of innovation and change for the publication, on paper and on the Web. We appreciate our readers campuswide, who give us news tips and correct us when we’ve erred. Keep it up, and keep reading University Week.
