SC024 Symposium

Sub-Series

Identifier: RG04-S01-SS09

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Running from 1979-2012, the Symposium collection contains newspapers originally published by Shimer students, but later published by the director of alumni relations. As such, purpose of the Symposium evolved over time, from keeping current Shimer students and faculty informed about campus news, to having a stronger focus on communication with alumni by the 2000s.

Dates

1979 - 2012

Language of Materials

English

Biographical / Historical

The 1979-2012 Symposium collection heavily evolves over time. From the 1970s through the 1980s, the student-published Symposium was focused on keeping students and faculty informed about news and events around campus, avoiding the miscommunication that can happen when such news is spread only verbally. It was then published by a student newspaper staff.

The collection does not contain any editions of the Symposium from the 1990s. By the 2000s, however, the Symposium was more concerned with communication to alumni than with communicating news to current students and faculty. Particularly, the editions from this time asked for financial donations from alumni, and asked for alumni to tell potential students about Shimer. This speaks to the financial struggles and low enrollment from which Shimer was suffering at the time.

The Symposium was published from two different Shimer campuses. From 1979-1981, it was published from Shimer’s Waukegan, Illinois campus. The college would later move to rent space on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus in Chicago, Illinois. With the move came concerns about Shimer’s shifting identity, which may speak to the growing concerns with alumni relations.