Technician (newspaper)

Technician is the student newspaper of North Carolina State University. Its first edition was published in 1920, and it has been published continuously since that date, becoming a daily paper in fall 1988. Since 2018, the newspaper has been published on Thursdays, with stories also published online throughout the week at http://www.technicianonline.com. The newspaper is funded by in-paper and online advertising and is a part of NC State Student Media. NC State's Student Media Board of Directors oversees NC State Student Media, which includes Technician, other student-led publications, and a college radio station, WKNC-FM.

Notable alumni

 * Roy H. Park, media mogul, founder of broadcasting and newspaper chain Park Communications Inc.
 * William C. Friday (1941), American educator and leader of the University of North Carolina system from 1956-86.
 * Chris Hondros, photographer and 2003 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
 * Richard Curtis (1972), a founder and managing editor of graphics and photography for USA Today
 * Joseph Galarneau (1989), chief operating officer and digital general manager of Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

Controversies
Like many student newspapers, Technician has seen its share of controversies, including:


 * In 1990, the newspaper ran an editorial calling for the dismissal of embattled head basketball coach Jim Valvano. Valvano, a popular figure who led the team to the 1983 national championship, had come under fire for ethical and regulatory lapses in handling the basketball program. The editorial was resented as a publicity stunt. Valvano ultimately left the university under fire.
 * On September 3, 1992, a conservative opinion columnist harshly criticized African-American students' demands for a black cultural center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This column, paired with a front-page article with the headline "Black Students Vent Rage in Dining Hall"—a report on a NC State Student Government meeting to get feedback from African-American students on campus in a follow-up to recent events in Chapel Hill—resulted in widespread theft of the edition (it is distributed free). Students also burned copies of the Technician in the Brickyard in protest. The aftermath led to the creation of the university's African-American interest publication, Nubian Message.
 * Following disastrous Wolfpack basketball seasons in 1995 and 1996, Technician published staff editorials asking for the resignation or firing of coach Les Robinson. The editorials were timed to run on the eve of the ACC Tournament play-in game for last-place teams, which had become known throughout the conference as "The Les Robinson Invitational." Robinson resigned following his team's loss at the tournament. Asked if he had any regrets at his farewell press conference, Robinson said, "Only that the school paper called me a loser."
 * After new leadership took the helm at the paper in Spring 1997, several Technician editors and reporters were fired without just cause and escorted from the newspaper's offices by university public safety officers. Two months later, three of the fired editors used their inside knowledge of the production process to hijack the last edition of the paper for the school year, secretly inserting a full-column editorial criticizing the new editor-in-chief for using her power over personnel matters to settle personal scores and calling on university administrators to intervene. All 18,000 copies of the paper were distributed on campus the next morning containing the critical editorial, and the new student management was left unable to retract it until the resumption of publication the following semester. Technician's insulted editor-in-chief filed a report with public safety, which investigated the matter as a larceny. Despite dusting for fingerprints and questioning the former employees, investigators were unable to find any evidence against the suspected perpetrators and no charges were filed.
 * On August 29, 2005, a crowd of approximately 200 Greek Life and African American Student Advisory Council representatives gathered on Harris Field to protest a Technician article entitled "Sorostitutes are weak and wounded." Students complained the article was an unfair representation of women's activities in Greek Life. While the event received a lot of media attention, it was quickly overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina's destruction on the Gulf Coast.
 * In January 2006, Technician ran an article by student contributor Jeff Gaither, stating that drunk driving was at times unavoidable and giving tips on how to avoid getting caught. The author subsequently wrote a retraction of the article.
 * In February 2014, Editor-in-Chief Sam DeGrave discontinued the traditional "Daily Tar Hell" satire newspaper while citing racist, sexist, and homophobic humor of past editions as his motivation for halting the ever-popular publication. Several students and alumni were unhappy with the decision and consequently sent a plethora of letters to the editor to voice their frustration. Many argued that the "hateful humor" was not prevalent in recent years and the satire was all in good taste while others were upset to see one of the few longstanding traditions of the university being tampered with. Very few wrote letters in support of the decision to discontinue the satire edition. DeGrave published a letter from the editor titled "One week in Daily Tar Hell", in which he condescendingly responded to his readers' criticism. Nonetheless, the "Daily Tar Hell" was later brought back into publication.

Technician Editors-in-Chief
1919-1920 • vol. 1 • Marion Francis 1920-1921 • vol. 2 • J.H. Lane 1921-1922 • vol. 3 • E.C. Tatum 1922-1923 • vol. 4 • Alvin M. Fountain 1923-1924 • vol. 4 • W.S. Morris 1924-1925 • vol. 5 • S.R. Wallis 1925-1926 • vol. 6 • E. G. Moore 1926-1927 • vol. 7 • R.R. Fountain 1927-1928 • vol. 8 • W.L. Roberts 1928-1929 • vol. 9 • A. Lawrence Aydlett 1929-1930 • vol. 10• A.L. Weaver 1930-1931 • vol. 11• Roy H. Park 1931-1932 • vol. 12 • Louis H. Wilson 1932-1933 • vol. 13 • H.A. McClung Jr. 1933-1934 • vol. 14 • E.J. Lassen 1934-1935 • vol. 15 • Eugene S. Knight 1935-1936 • vol. 16 • Robert B. Knox Jr. 1936-1937 • vol. 17 • R. Hall Morrison, Jr. 1937-1938 • vol. 18 • Dick McPhail 1938-1939 • vol. 19 • Stephen Sailer 1939-1940 • vol. 20 • E.P. Davidson 1940-1941 • vol. 21 • Henry B. Rowe 1941-1942 • vol. 22 • Carl Sickerott 1942-1943 • vol. 23 • Don Barksdale 1943-1944 • vol. 24 • Gordon West 1944-1945 • vol. 25 • Walter W. Harper 1945-1946 • vol. 26 • Bobby Wooten 1946-1947 • vol. 27 • Jack Fisler 1947-1948 • vol. 28 • Dick Fowler 1948-1949 • vol. 29 • Avery Brock 1949-1950 • vol. 30 • Joe Hancock 1950-1951 • vol. 31 • Bill Haas 1951-1952 • vol. 32 • Paul Foght 1952-1953 • vol. 33 • Bob Horn 1953-1954 • vol. 34 • George Obenshain 1954-1955 • vol. 35 • John Parker 1955-1956 • vol. 36 • L.C. Draughon 1956-1957 • vol. 37 • Terry Lathrop 1957-1958 • vol. 38 • Jim Moore 1958-1959 • vol. 39 • Ray Lathrop 1959-1960 • vol. 40 • Jim Moore 1960-1961 • vol. 41 • Jay Brame 1961-1962 • vol. 42 • Mike Lea 1962-1963 • vol. 43 • Mike Lea 1963-1964 • vol. 44 • Grant Blair & Allen Lennon 1964-1965 • vol. 45 • Cora Kemp 1965-1966 • vol. 46 • Bill Fishburne & Bob Holmes 1966-1967 • vol. 47 • Jim Kear 1967-1968 • vol. 48 • Bob Harris 1968-1969 • vol. 49 • Pete Burkhimer 1969-1970 • vol. 50 • George Panton 1970-1971 • vol. 51 • Jack Cozort 1971-1972 • vol. 52 • Richard Curtis 1972-1973 • vol. 53 • John N. Walston 1973-1974 • vol. 54 • Beverly Privette 1974-1975 • vol. 55 • Bob Estes 1975-1976 • vol. 56 • Kevin Fisher 1876-1977 • vol. 57 • Howard Barnett 1977-1978 • vol. 58 • Lynne Griffin 1978-1979 • vol. 59 • David Pendered 1979-1980 • vol. 60 • John Flesher 1980-1981 • vol. 61 • Andrea Cole 1981-1982 • vol. 62 • Tucker Johnson 1982-1983 • vol. 63 • Tom Alter 1983-1984 • vol. 64 • Jeffrey Bender 1984-1985 • vol. 65 • Jeffrey Bender 1985-1986 • vol. 66 • Barry Bowden 1986-1987 • vol. 67 • John Austin 1987-1988 • vol. 68 • Joseph Galarneau 1988-1989 • vol. 69 • Michael Hughes 1989-1990 • vol. 70 • Dwuan June, editor 1990-1991 • vol. 71 • Wade Babcock 1991-1992 • vol. 72 • William Holmes 1992-1993 • vol. 73 • Joe Johnson 1993-1994 • vol. 74 • Mark Tosczak 1994-1995 • vol. 75 • Colin B. Boatwright 1995-1996 • vol. 76 • Ron Batcho & Jean Lorscheider 1996-1997 • vol. 77 • Chris Baysden 1997-1998 • vol. 78 • Terry H. Bennett 1998-1999 • vol. 79 • Phillip Reese 1999-2000 • vol. 80 • Ebonie Polite 2000-2001 • vol. 81 • Jack Daly & Mark McLawhorn 2001-2002 • vol. 82 • Mark McLawhorn & Jimmy Ryals 2002-2003 • vol. 83 • Jerry Moore & Mathew Pelland 2003-2004 • vol. 84 • Thushan Amarasiriwardena & Carie Windham 2004-2005 • vol. 85 • Matthew Middleton 2005-2006 • vol. 86 • Rebecca Heslin 2006-2007 • vol. 87 • M. Tyler Dukes 2007-2008 • vol. 88 • Joshua Harrell 2008-2009 • vol. 89 • Saja Hindi 2009-2010 • vol. 90 • Ty Johnson, fall editor; Lauren Blakely, Kate Shefte and Russell Witham, spring co-editors 2010-2011 • vol. 91 • Amanda Wilkins 2011-2012 • vol. 92 • Laura Wilkinson 2012-2013 • vol. 93 • Mark Herring 2013-2014 • vol. 94 • Sam DeGrave 2014-2015 • vol. 95 • Ravi K. Chittilla 2015-2016 • vol. 96 • Kaitlin Montgomery 2016-2017 • vol. 97 • Rachel Tanner Smith 2017-2018 • vol. 98 • Jonathan T. Carter 2018-2019 • vol. 99 • Jonathan T. Carter 2019-2020 • vol. 100 • Dan Gilliam 2020-2021 • vol. 101 • Rachael Davis 2021-2022 • vol. 102 • Jaylan Harrington 2022-2023 • vol. 103 • Shilpa Giri 2023-2024 • vol. 104 • Ethan Bakogiannis & Jameson Wolf 2024-2025 • vol. 105 • Kate Denning