The Towerlight is the weekly independent student newspaper at Towson University. It is run by Towson students, and frequently updates the campus on events and news. In the summer of 2008, Baltimore Student Media was established by The Towerlight's staff and general manager. BSM is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing support for aspiring student journalists, photographers, videographers and graphic designers. In July 2008, Towson University agreed to sign over its rights to The Towerlight to BSM.
History
According to the first issue of The Oriole, the very first newspapers were published in 1921 with no names, in order to advertise the school and increase enrollment. There were only two issues published in 1921, and the first monthly publication was created in January 1922. Also in the first issue, then-principal Lida Lee Tall wrote that the purpose of the newspaper was:
To give the students a medium for telling their life and their ideals to all groups of interested students in the state.
To give the school its opportunity to place its stamp upon education.
To give the state an opportunity to know what one of its normal schools is doing and aiming to do.
To send a message out into the schools of other states.
The original name was a suggestion from one of the seniors at the time, Ellen Hutchinson. There were a pool of names suggested, and the students voted unanimously for the name.
Notable editions
In September 2009, The Towerlight published a weekly column titled "The Bed Post", which received widespread coverage following the resignation of the paper's then Editor-in-Chief.
On April 9, 2002, the Towerlight staff—then run by Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Hykes—put out a special edition covering the controversial resignation of the University's 11th President, Dr. Mark L. Perkins. The issue, entitled "Promise Unfulfilled: Perkins Resigns", covered student, staff and faculty reactions, the historic events that led to Perkins’s eventual resignation, as well as all of the highlights of Perkins's tumultuous run as president. The issue was recognized with a Region TwoMark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Brian Stelter - Senior media correspondent for CNN and the host of Reliable Sources, former The New York Times reporter; was The Towerlight's editor-in-chief from 2005 to 2007.
Paul McMullen - The editor of The Catholic Review and reporter for The Baltimore Sun
Robert Richard Hieronimus - artist, author and radio host, was a The Towerlight columnist in the early 1960s.
Jack L. Chalker - Class of 1966, author of almost 50 novels, was a Towerlight theater critic
