*This article first appeared in The Muse’s 75th Anniversary Print Supplement magazine, published January 2026.
The Muse has always highlighted student voices, in one way or another.
For over 50 years of its 75-year history, it’s had ‘Mouth Off’: short, quick comments from students on a variety of topics.
Mouth-Off always has at least one question, usually relevant to current events, and was put to a handful of MUN students from different faculties and years.
The earliest example of Mouth-Off I was able to find was from March 12, 1971, where The Muse asked students, “What do you think the University yearbook should contain?”
At the time, Memorial University had a student-run yearbook that was looking for staff and starting its first days of production. Responses were mixed, but mostly focused on a desire to highlight student life, not just the graduates.
Mouth-Off questions were sometimes light-hearted, asking stuff like “What events would you like to see at the winter carnival?” or humorous, like “Can you justify your existence?”
Sometimes they were even self-deprecating, with questions like “Do you think Mouth-Off is dumb?” which came back positive, except for comments about the student photos and the quality of the questions.
However, many Mouth-Offs were more serious, discussing topics like politics or sexual assault. One of the final Mouth-Offs of The Muse’s print era, November 13, 2014, asked students where they “drew the line in terms of sexual harassment.”
Throughout The Muse’s history, it has almost always covered topics such as sexual violence and safe sex, especially in times when it was not conventional in the media, and Mouth-Off was no exception; earlier editions of Mouth-Off from the 80s elevated the voices of young female students, asking about “birth control,” and “where they wouldn’t feel safe walking at night.”
Although The Muse went out of print in 2017, it did not mean the end of Mouth-Off; with the rise of platforms like YouTube in the early 2000s, The Muse transitioned Mouth-Off to a video format, with the same balance of serious questions and lighthearted fun.
Now, with The Muse being out of print for almost a decade, Mouth-Off has continued through short-form videos on social media like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
We re-asked current MUN students a set of questions from 1982:
- Do you think MUNSU has a moral obligation to support other unions?
- Estimate the number of student alcoholics at MUN.
Heather Guiney – 4th year Archaeology:
- Yes, I’d say so.
- I don’t know, the definition of alcoholic is pretty obscure…Maybe like 30 percent?
Max Jin – 4th year Computer Science:
- Yes, solidarity for unions.
- I’d say low bar 30 percent. Just like eyeballing.
Kassy Keats – 3rd year Political Science:
- I don’t know a lot about MUNSU’s responsibilities in general, but it’s nice to see them support other student unions.
- A lot more than we think.
Neil Villanueva – 1st year Science:
- I think they should build relationships with other unions as well.
- I think I’m going to say about 80 percent.
Ariaaza Dipour – 2nd year Computer Science:
- I think MUNSU has a self-interested responsibility to support other unions.
- Like 60 percent.
Falak Ajani – 3rd year Human Kinetics and Recreation:
- No it does not.
- 78 percent…I’ll see like half my classmates whenever I go downtown.
