1920-1930 - Northern Magazine

The Roaring '20s were a time of a booming stock market, speakeasies, short skirts, the Charleston, and jazz. The '20s also showed great strides in women's suffrage—women got the vote in 1918. Archaeology hit the mainstream with the discovery of King Tut's Tomb. There were an amazing number of cultural firsts of the 20th century, including the first talking film, Babe Ruth hitting his home-run record of 60 home runs in a season, and the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. Lindbergh flies non-stop to Paris and Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic. Then the roaring ends with the stock market crash in October 1929.

To ensure off-campus decorum, the Student Girls' League issues an updated handbook for Matrons and Students, first published in the 1900s, which contains rules for matrons of roominghouses as well as for the residents. A sample: 

 “The Northern State Normal School stands at all times for the highest ideals in deportment and conduct. Students who desire to conform to these standards will not go automobiling unchaperoned, nor attend overnight camping parties without the permission of the Dean of Women…”

Tri Mu is the first fraternity to buy a house for its members, which was at 425 W. College Ave. The three Ms stand for mind, morals and muscle. 

Cox’s Inn on Brookton Road, is very popular with students, with many going multiple times each week. It later becomes The Brookton, a dance hall and frequented hang out. 

The first radio station on campus, WBI, a shortwave radio station, starts operating in 1922, with Harry Bottrell, a former U.S. Navy wireless operator at the helm. It receives broadcasts from Chicago and Pittsburgh and all-important basketball tournament scores.

The first Northern Alumni Association forms in 1924.

Most Northern students earn the Five Year Teaching Certificate at the end of their senior (second) year. Upperclassmen who return to work towards life certificates or baccalaureate degrees are called the Druids—the Wise Ones.

Starting in 1926, students can work toward a BS degree in art, commerce, home economics, manual arts, music or physical education. Correspondence courses are offered – a choice of 62 in twelve academic disciplines.

Northern Normal News is renamed Northern College News in 1927.