An Examination of Latent Threads and Themes in "The Catalyst" (1969-1971)

America has an over 200 year tradition of underground publications spanning a wide range of social and political expression. One notable period in this tradition was the era of the 1960s and early 1970s, and students' efforts to express themselves and challenge the status quo. Student attention was drawn to issues such as the Vietnam War, women's rights, and civil rights, while university administrators sought to maintain orderly campuses through increasingly restrictive regulations. Generally recognized as a time of changing social values, young people in the 1960s were disillusioned with the power structure and attacked the political, social, and economic institutions out of a motivation to become actively engaged in a growing counterculture that challenged perceived injustice and hypocrisy. Groups sometimes try to take their case to the public through the channels of mass communication when they become dissatisfied with the existing state of social and political events; however, many student groups found it difficult to express their views through sanctioned university publications and therefore chose the underground press in order to find their own voice. Underground newspapers became a popular medium among many counterculture groups. Students chose underground publications because of dissatisfaction with school-sponsored newspapers that were sometimes closely controlled by university authorities, or lack of critical social commentary in existing publications. This study examines the content of "The Catalyst" over the two year span of its existence from 1969-1971. Specifically, this study identifies what topics were of central importance in "The Catalyst," as well as the underlying meaning that was communicated through those topics. Perspectives on underground newspapers during the unrest era have examined them from a highly generalized perspective. (Contains 24 notes.)