IU Indianapolis Student Newspapers

This collection contains digitized student newspapers of the Indiana University and Purdue University presences in Indianapolis held in IU Indianapolis University Library Special Collections and Archives. Indiana University’s presence in the capital city began in response to calls by education reformers for public higher-education opportunities for city residents. Starting in 1891 Bloomington-based faculty offered public courses in the city. The university established its Indianapolis Extension in 1916. The Indianapolis Extension attracted thousands of students. The oldest student-newspaper holdings are The Capitol Student (1950) and The Indianapolis Student (1958-1969). Purdue University began Indianapolis industrial-training programs in 1941 in response to World War Two-related industry needs. Soon it established an Indianapolis Extension. Starting in 1965, students of the Purdue U.-Indianapolis Extension campus published The Component newspaper. Responding to political pressure, in 1969 administrators of Indiana University and Purdue University merged their Indianapolis operations into Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (later dropping the “at”), or IUPUI. Still, the campuses—miles distant from each other—published separate student newspapers: Onomatopoeia for IUPUI’s “Downtown Campus” and The Component at its “38th Street Campus.” Responding to administrators’ calls for unity, in 1971 the two newspapers merged into The IUPUI Sagamore, which published until 2009. Banner image by Liz Kaye.