2025 marks The Muse’s 75th anniversary.
Since 1950, dedicated student journalists at Memorial have reported on campus affairs, community events, politics, controversies, local entertainment – you name it.
This Week in Muse History series highlights notable articles and topics reported on by past students to celebrate 75 years of The Muse. This series also gives insight into student issues of the past – they are not as different as you might think.
On January 27, 1964, The Muse reported on the “feud” between Canadian Union of Students (CUS) President David Jenkins, and MUN student union representative Ian MacDonald. The two argued when Jenkins visited MUN, as MacDonald echoed student concerns about not seeing action from the CUS that justified the annual fee of 60 cents per student.
Similarly to conversations in 2025 surrounding Memorial’s recent audit, MacDonald was worried the student’s money was being mismanaged, and expressed frustration about Newfoundland not seeing positive effects of the CUS’s actions – especially compared to other provinces.
MUN’s student union proposed the idea of slashing the annual contribution from $2 000 total down to $300. This would result in MUN losing their vote at the national CUS congress, which MacDonald wasn’t averse to, because he thought that Memorial’s vote didn’t hold much weight. After some consideration, MUN remained with the CUS despite the student union’s concerns.
On January 28, 1972, The Muse wrote about labor relations issues affecting the cleaning company Sanitary Cleaners Ltd. that MUN hired to tend to Paton College.
This was when residence buildings were still segregated by sex – male cleaners would clean the men’s residence, and female cleaners would be responsible for the women’s residence. The company, however, was only paying female employees $1.10 per hour, and male employees $1.45–$1.65 per hour.
A new law in the Human Rights Constitution at the time stated that women should have “equal pay for equal work,” but the vague definition of what counts as “equal work” was a loophole for companies to pay women less, and discriminate based on sex.
Female employees of Sanitary Cleaners Ltd. decided not to comment on the matter – it seemed like they just wanted to get their work done and leave, but either way, the pay discrepancy was unethical. Newfoundland mandated a same-pay scheme a few years later that prohibited discrimination based on sex.
On January 30, 1997, The Muse covered a rally protesting rising tuition fees and government cuts to provincial education programs – sound familiar?
Both MUN and CNA students came together to protest at the confederation building in hopes of their demands being heard. The protest, however, did not see as good of a turnout as previous years. 1995 saw a significant turnout, with 5000 students coming out to protest too-high tuition fees. The “Emergency Student Loan Fund” dried up in record time, leaving students in bad financial standing without any loan forgiveness. There was also a significant increase of students going to the campus food bank, unable to afford groceries, similar to many student’s reality in 2025.