First student newspaper founded 68 years ago
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Nine years after LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College was founded, the first student newspaper was established. The HI -CO SCANNER, which was published from 1933-1935, was the first of a series of newspapers, some published by the junior college alone and some in cooperation with LaSalle-Peru High School, since L-P-O was located in the high school building until 1968.
Those early newspapers typically survived two or three years, and after a two or three year hiatus, another newspaper would spring up. Reasons for the short lives of those publications are not clear, but lack of steady financing is a likely explanation since they relied on advertising and subscription sales.
The last paper founded at L-P-O is the sole exception to this pattern of short-term start-ups.
In the mid-1960s, a paper called the Apache Smoke Signal began publication at the junior college, funded through student fees administered by the student government.
Areas citizens approved the formation of Illinois Valley Community College as the Smoke Signal began its fourth year. A year later, the staff shortened the newspaper’s name to the Apache.
While the Apache is again in the process of a name change, this student newspaper is in its 39th year of continuous publication. The logo on page one reads 36th year because the issues were renumbered when L-P-O became IVCC.