College Publications Collection

Though the need for faculty and staff communications have always been vital to college operations, the need for communication to, from, and between the students was just as important during the early years of Central Piedmont. English instructor, Arnie Propst established the first student newspaper, The Prospector, in 1965, which published irregularly until 1971. In 1972, it was briefly renamed The Little Prospector. After six issues with this new name, it ceased publication on December 13, 1972. The second student newsletter, the CPCC Weekly Newsletter was published between the years 1965 and 1983. Throughout its two decades of existence, the CPCC Weekly Newsletter changed to CPCC Newsletter between 1972 or 1973, and then finally to CPCC Student Newsletter in 1975 until 1983. The third and final student publication, The Spark, became the student newspaper in 1976. Since a contest was held to name the new publication after the first issue went out, the first issue was unnamed. With the Fall 2000 issue, it dropped the definite article and was published as Spark for the rest of its run.

Throughout the run of this paper, the numbering was irregular and often incorrect. It ceased physical publication in 2005 with an issue bearing no volume number or title designation. By 2007, The Spark was revitalized in a born-digital format and continued sharing information with students until 2009; it was at this point in 2009 when The Spark became known as CPCC Today. This publication is written in a blog-format and is delivered to student inboxes daily.

With the exponential growth of the College’s population by 1970, Dr. Hagemeyer recognized the need for enhanced channels of internal and external communications. As a result, he hired a man by the name of Walter A. “Wally” McCullock in 1972 to oversee the operations of the newly created Public Relations department. As a former employee of the State Department of Public Instruction’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, McCullock had a knack for wordsmithing publications that bordered the fine line of hilarity and seriousness; in short, he had a great way of creating and disseminating the important internal and external messages the College needed shared. McCullock continued to serve CPCC as the Director of Information until 1982; a time in which the needs of the department outgrew one person.

Between the years of 1984-1996, the Public Relations department was given various new titles including Community Relations and Special Projects, Community Relations, and Marketing Services. Today, this department is officially known as Communications, Marketing, and Public Relations (CMPR) and they are responsible for distributing all internal and external communications to staff, students, and the public on behalf of the College.