A little behind on campus news? Like, 130 years behind? Olin Library just digitized Student Life’s entire archive between 1878 and 2001, so it should be plenty easy to catch up to speed.

This week in Washington University history…

October 1888

This was pre-hilltop campus migration in 1899-1900, so 1888 Wash. U. looked physically and academically a whole lot different from what we see today. The University was founded in 1853, but Brookings Hall was constructed in 1900. Wash. U. without Brookings is like peanut butter without jelly, but Student Life persevered anyway, letting students know about the various academic divisions present.

October 27, 1909

Freshmen and sophomores had really intense fights back in the day–this is a theme throughout the early archives. In this case, Dean Snow stopped the class fights “with a death blow,” which seems altogether super uncool. Phi Delt also makes a cameo.

October 23, 1929

Back then, it wasn’t “student government” it was “stupid government.” 1929 Student Life was a lot punnier than 2018 Student Life. Campus’ governing body, on the other hand, was conducting itself in a manner “nothing short of horrible and ridiculous.” Oh and by the way, telephones are a thing now. Very cute how the first-years are called “frosh.”

October 24, 1969

How 1960s of you, StudLife. And what a great question–when are they going to legalize pot? While we’re on the subject, there are three measures regarding medical marijuana in the upcoming midterm elections in Missouri. They’re all quite different. Amendment 2 will legalize marijuana for ten medical conditions, tax marijuana sales at 4 percent and use revenue for veterans healthcare. Amendment 3 is overseen by Springfield, Mo. physician and lawyer Brad Bradshaw, will legalize marijuana for medical purposes, tax sales at 15 percent and develop a Biomedical Research and Drug Development Institute overseen by Bradshaw himself. Proposition C, as a proposition, may be changed by the Missouri legislature. It has a 2 percent tax rate on marijuana sales, legalizes it for medical purposes, and will divide revenue amongst veterans’ services, drug treatment, education and law enforcement. Much more reading recommended here, folks. Some issues just never get old.

October 21, 1988

Domino’s was officially designated campus’ favorite pizza. Whether or not this holds true today, we aren’t entirely sure how this made the newspaper.

October 16, 2000

Wash. U. was gearing up for the second presidential debate between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The town-hall style debate hosted 140 St. Louisans in the Field House. In the upper bleachers, 900 students, media and guests watched. Wash. U. most recently hosted the second 2016 presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Having also hosted presidential debates in 1992, 2004 and 2008, Wash. U. has held more debates than any other institution in the nation.

Those are only a few of the most noteworthy screenshots for this week. Until the next roundup, the rest of the archive can be found here.

To view the archive for each event mentioned here, click on the thumbnails below.