The Quill Archives
(Originally printed in The Quill Volume 1, Issue 1, Christmas Number 1910)
The question of issuing a printed college paper has been in the minds of many of the students for some time pasts. For two or three years it has been a plank in the platform of prospective Presidents of the Literary Society. The idea has been taken up and discussed with fervor many times, only to be laid quietly down again. The demand for such a paper has been steadily increasing until at last some definite steps towards bringing one into existence become absolutely necessary. The new executive of the Literary Society under the leadership of S.H. Potter ’12, took this step and asked the Society to elect a committee to carefully look into the possibilities of such a project and report at a special meeting. This committee completed its work and reported favourably. The report was accepted and a committee appointed to outline a policy and nominate officers and staff. The policy was outlined, editors and staff elected, the project launched and hence The Quill.
We enter upon our duties with confidence. Having examined the reasons for the discontinuance of the Brandon College Monthly some years ago, we find that these have been to a large extent removed by the development of the College in the intervening years. Our student body has grown to such an extent that the problem of getting sufficient material for a paper, as well as the financial difficulty, has been appreciably reduced. This development not only justified but demanded the advent of a College paper.
We are in a state of constant change. We are growing. We are coming to our own. For years our men’s residence has been too small. A few years ago Clark Hall, the ladies’ residence, was completed but so rapidly did the roll of students increase that this building is now inadequate. New buildings are under consideration. With the growth in the number of students comes the growth in the number of organizations, all of which are prosecuting their own tasks with an energy which bespeaks success. The affiliation with McMaster University, dealt with in another column, is also a phase of the change. We feel that we cannot allow this important period of our College history to pass away and be forgotten and are therefore attempting to record, for the benefit of the students and friends of the College, our doings from time to time.
Notwithstanding the promising outlook, and the encouragement we have received on every hand we have determined to move along slowly and establish ourselves as we go. It is our policy therefore not to issue an edition monthly as yet but to be satisfied with three editions in the present college year, i.e., Christmas, Easter and a special graduates’ number. Our aim, however, is to establish a monthly paper as soon as it is thought advisable to do so.
The management has been encouraged by the help and sympathy that have been given by all who have been approached. Such tasks as soliciting contributions to the paper, subscriptions and advertisements have been made a pleasure by the ready response that has been made. (Thanks to the S.J. McKee Archives for assistance)
