CHESTERFIELD – During his time as The University Newspaper’s associate editor, Timothy “Tim” Hogan and fellow UNews journalists organized rallies and marches on campus to protest student aid budget cuts and tuition increases in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They brought together students from Washington University, University of Missouri St. Louis and Fontbonne University to make change.
Today, Hogan, now 69 and on hospice, urges the SLU community to acknowledge the contributions of student journalists and offers words of wisdom. He shares his experiences working with the student newspaper decades ago, connects the past to current events and the necessity of good journalism.
“I like to express myself sometimes, but at the core of it all was the desire to see about making a difference,” Hogan said. “Yes, that’s what I learned when I was down at Saint Louis University, that making a difference is where you have the opportunity to truly learn.”
Hogan said his job was not just to report the news, but to cover the areas that were particularly important to students, even if he received pushback from the administration. Being a part of the UNews was not about appeasing the administration, he said, but about being committed to pursuing stories no matter the consequences.
The administration, under the leadership of Reverend Thomas R. Fitzgerald S.J., decided to cut the student aid budget. Hogan believed that the budget cut risked weakening students’ ability to think for themselves.
“[SLU’s administration] thought that they shouldn’t subsidize intellectual curiosity. I call it unilateral intellectual disarmament. What you’re trying to do is make up a generation of people who are followers. They’re not leaders,” Hogan said.
“You’re not going to have the critical listening skills, abilities to see what’s going on around them and respond to in a fashion that they can make a critical difference,” Hogan said.
The administration dismissed the UNews as putting out “wrong” information at the time, Hogan said. Despite this, the UNews’s mission always remained to publish honest stories aimed at keeping the public and students informed. Hogan said that by exposing the truth, students were protected from potential decisions the university wanted to make without students’ knowledge or input.
“At the core of what we’re up to here is trying to find out what’s so, in search of the truth,” Hogan said.
Fitzgerald wanted to meet with UNews staff daily and discuss their coverage.
“Sometimes he didn’t think it was fair. [Fitzgerald felt] we needed more input from the university about some things,” Hogan said.
Frustrated with the administration’s dismissive treatment, Hogan wished SLU had made a simple acknowledgment of the contributions he and his fellow student journalists were making in the UNews and that it was not so “antagonistic.”
“I felt too often we were treated like children. [Fitzgerald] treated us in a very condescending way,” said Hogan.
The administration wanted the UNews to be broader in their perspective, covering how the administration’s decisions affected the university at large, rather than the individual student.
“I got the impression [the president] wanted us to be more of a PR paper. They got a whole PR department for that. My job [was] to report,” Hogan said.
For Hogan, being a part of the UNews was not about appeasing the administration.
“I was passionate. … I did try to see how much I could get away with. I call bullshit bullshit,” Hogan said.
Emphasizing the importance of accuracy in journalism, Hogan said that writers, then and now, have to be constantly sharp and meticulous.
“Do it right, you lose your credibility when you don’t get it right. You lose your voice. You have to be that good, not sometimes, all the time,” Hogan said.
The UNews created the Assistant Editor position to recognize all of Hogan’s contributions to the organization. Hogan expressed his gratitude for the UNews team.
“I really enjoyed working for the paper. The people there were fantastic, I was so lucky,” Hogan said. “No assholes, no incompetents.”
Professor Emeritus Avis Meyer, who holds a doctorate in English and literature and was the UNews’ faculty advisor from 1974 to 2016, described Hogan as “tenacious and fairminded.” He spoke on Hogan’s presence and contributions to the organization during his time.
“He was like the big brother on the staff. He had a big head of red hair and he was gonna be a lawyer, he already moved like a lawyer. He was a little bit older, a little bit wiser, he was on top of his game,” Meyer said.
Before retiring 10 years ago, Meyer also worked for the St. Louis Post Dispatch and taught copy editing, editorial writing and basic journalism courses at SLU.
“The best and the brightest kids were [and still] are on the school’s paper. I got to work with brilliant kids every year for 42 years,” Meyer said.
During his time as an undergraduate student, Hogan was not only part of the UNews, but also part of the Beta Chapter of Alpha Delta Gamma at SLU. After finishing his undergraduate degree in 1983, he went to SLU Law, graduated law school in 1985 and became an injury attorney.
John Parker, fellow ADG brother, SLU alum and good friend of Hogan’s, said that Hogan pushed him intellectually and helped him consider new perspectives.
“[Hogan] certainly makes me a better person. He opens up my thinking [and] will point out things that maybe I didn’t see,” said Parker. “I always thought ‘man if I was president, [Hogan] would be on my staff,’… the guy’s brilliant. I mean, he’s really smart.”
Parker and Hogan met in the fall of 1981 when Hogan finally decided to join ADG after making friends with many members. Fellow ADG brothers were lightheartedly suspicious of Hogan since he was a student journalist; they thought he might write an expose of their fraternity. Parker expressed how he will miss their exchanges.
“One thing I’m gonna miss about him is that I just can’t call him and have arguments about politics and stuff,” Parker said.
Parker also commented on Hogan’s selflessness.
“He would give you the shirt off his back,” Parker said. “When he goes, the world will be a darker place.”
Hogan expressed gratitude toward the life he’s lived.
“The way I live my life is to see if I have the opportunity to be a critical difference in things. And to be perfectly frank, I have had a blast. I’ve had an amazing life of adventure and wonder. I’ve gotten to go places I never thought I would go to and do things I never thought I’d get to do, and it was fun,” Hogan said, smiling and looking out his window. “Life should be about adventure and fun.”
