Response to October's trivia question:

The question was: When did students change the name of the University's student newspaper from The Colonial News to pipe dream? And what was the reason?

Answer: "As a result of the campus strike in the spring of 1970, the campus newspaper crossed the word 'Colonial' out of its masthead to protest the perceived American colonialism in Southeast Asia. The paper changed its name to pipe dream the following fall." (The Conerstone, p. 151)

What a treasure trove of information there is out there! This question hit close to home for many readers. Thank you all for the many responses we received:

The name of the Harpur College student newspaper changed from Colonial News to pipe dream in the 1969-70 school year, probably in the spring of 1970. Peter Salgo was editor. He may have been the one who came up with the new name. There had been some protests (not mass demonstrations, just letters to the editor) about the name elevating the idea of colonialism: stronger countries invading and taking over weaker ones and sending colonists to live there. The ironic thing is, the paper's name harkened back to America's own days as a colony of England (and maybe to columns on some of the Harpur buildings?), and had nothing to do with America colonizing other countries. Those of us who worked on the paper knew that, but in the context of the Vietnam War, the U.S. was seen as potentially colonizing places like Southeast Asia, so the name Colonial News was defeated by the more whimsical pipe dream . . . a name with which many of us were not exactly pleased, although we could see that changing it FROM Colonial News was probably, to quote Martha Stewart, "a good thing." What amazes us most is that the name pipe dream has lasted, lo, these 30 years.
-- Miggie Warms '72 ("and don't you dare call it 'BU'")

Believe it or not, I still have an issue of pipe dream that I picked up during the summer I attended Orientation for Binghamton (1987). In that issue, there was an excerpt from the Tue., Sept. 15, 1974, issue that explained why the name was changed from The Colonial News to pipe dream. The reason was that as a large meeting, the students decided that the name The Colonial was "too easily identified with the inhuman policy of this country towards other peoples of the world."
-- Nancy Livingston '91

The name was changed in spring 1970 as a result of anti-war sentiment. The Vietnam war had entered a new stage with the "incursion" into neighboring Cambodia. The University went on strike, and there were large and frequent marches on campus and downtown. The old name seemed inappropriate in view of the feeling on campus against American imperialism in southeast Asia and elsewhere.

President Nixon announced on April 30, 1970, that the incursion was taking place. Rallies started that evening, so the first days of May 1970 were a period of rallies and demonstrations. Among the actions taken was to change the name of the college newspaper.
-- Michael Hohn '72

The name was changed to pipe dream in the fall of 1970 because it was "decided that a name such as the Colonial News was too easily identified with the inhuman policy of this country towards other people of the world."

Thanks for the challenge -- Stephanie Shapiro '96

I believe the first issue of pipe dream was my freshman year, fall 1970. In keeping with the tenor of the time, Colonial News was deemed too imperialistic.
-- Lee Schechter '74

The way I believe the story goes, in the late '60s, what with our nation's involvement in Vietnam, it was quite embarrassing for the school paper's name to evoke colonialism. The students demanded a change. Their joke was that it would be called pipe dream -- because they never believed it would be a reality.
-- Beth Dunn '79, pipe dream "blue pencil" night editor, spring 1976

1972. The Colonial News was too "colonial" or imperialistic.
-- Marc Ben-Ezra '87