This Week in Tower History

Compiled by Jeremy Perillo

In this week’s Tower History column, we will collect relevant, historical, or humorous excerpts from any past editions of The Tower’s 99-year-existence. 

99 years of The Tower can be read here.

10 years ago; April 27, 2012; Vol. 89, Issue 25

• On this day 10 years ago, as Twitter’s popularity on college campuses continued to boom, various parody accounts were being created to make light of certain issues/topics with which the campus community was familiar. Accounts like OpusProblems, CUAgirlproblems, and Fake Tower were seen by students as entertaining, but also served as a way to demonstrate student frustrations to university administrators.

17 years ago; April 22, 2005; Vol. 83, Issue 21

• The Tower covered the introduction of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Benedict XVI, the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. In particular, the article highlighted Ratzinger’s role, as the head of the Church’s Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in removing Father Charles Curran from the School of Religion at Catholic U in 1987 for having dissenting views concerning moral issues like birth control. 

41 years ago; April 24, 1981; Vol. 59, Issue 24

• On this day 41 years ago, a spotlight article highlighted the relationship a Gladieux Food Service employee had with Catholic U students. Willie Joyner had been working in the Cardinal Dining Hall for seven years and had already struck a chord with students, becoming friendly with the hundreds of students she had to interact with on a daily basis. Miss Willie, still interacting with students as customer service ambassador in the Eatery restaurant at the Pryzbyla Center, was recently recognized by Food Management as one of 48 food service heroes who have made a difference in 2021.

73 years ago; April 29, 1949; Vol. 26, Issue 24

• One of the major front page articles covers the University’s first post-war general assembly, featuring Senator J. Howard McGrath (D-RI). With over 2,000 students jammed into the “gymnasium,” McGrath stressed the importance of active citizenship and party membership. He also emphasized the value of public life built upon principles of culture and morality taught at Catholic U. 

97 years ago; April 29, 1925; Vol. 3, Issue 19

• In this edition, it is reported that Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop of New York, laid the cornerstone of the Mullen Memorial Library with over 800 people in attendance at the ceremony. Bishop Thomas Shahan, the Rector of Catholic University at the time, made the introductory remarks to the ceremony. Shahan would eventually have a building named in his honor adjacent to Mullen library.