A look at 'The Lookout,' then and now

By Jacob Zokvic
Staff Writer

This story is a look back to exactly 20 years ago, into the archives to the Feb. 4, 2002 edition of The Lookout.

20 years may fall within the memory of some of our students, but for many it will literally be more than a lifetime ago. Those young students may be surprised to find that a lot has stayed the same in that time, and this edition of The Lookout doesn’t feel too different from one we would publish today. I was personally shocked by just how similar it all seemed.

The front-page story is about the introduction of the Helping Other People Excel (HOPE) scholarship at LCC. The story described the program.

“The H.O.P.E. Scholarship program involves selecting at-risk children in the sixth grade, and if they graduate from high school, earning their diploma, they are eligible to attend Lansing Community College free of charge for two years.”

The program is still providing assistance to students today.

The HOPE scholarship program was merged with the Lansing Promise scholarship program in 2018 for the high school graduating class of 2024. Together, these programs will continue to offer Lansing children a chance to attend college.

It is nice to see that such a wonderful program continues to find success to this day.

Also included on the front page of the 2002 newspaper is a small section boasting of our paper receiving awards.

“Lansing Community College’s student newspaper, The Lookout, won 19 awards in the Michigan Press Association College Newspaper Contest. The Lookout received more awards than any other community college newspaper.”

Our publication continues to win awards. The Lookout was awarded “Newspaper of the Year” for Division 3 in the 2020 Michigan Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.

In the 2002 sports section there is a story titled, “Big three by White, Mike Ingram Proud.” The Stars had won three games in a row with a close 82-78 win over The Jayhawks of Muskegon Community College.

The story can serve as a reminder to any of Coach Mike Ingram’s players that he has been leading LCC’s basketball team to victory since before they were born.

The sports section also included a story about LCC basketball games being broadcast on television for the first time. The broadcast team included both professionals and LCC students.

In 2021, the college reintroduced broadcasting the games with students. This story is a neat ancestor of the story that appeared in the December 2021 print edition of The Lookout.

The 2002 story comes with an excellent picture of a student holding a behemoth of a camera on his shoulder. The cameras the broadcast team use today are mercifully much smaller.

On a personal note, I found it very bizarre to discover that a 2002 staff writer for The Lookout, Josh Hakala, was also working on the team broadcasting the basketball games. I also am a staff writer for The Lookout who is also working on the team broadcasting the basketball games. It really gives me a sense of being part of the history that is repeating itself.

Finally, this 2002 edition contained an opinion piece by Managing Editor Melissa Bates that discussed the high cost of being a student.

“Everybody knows that being a college student, especially a full-time college student, is trying on the checkbook,” Bates wrote. “I myself have struggled with watching my budget as I have been plummeted into the abyss of poverty.”

Bates lamented over the gouging of prices on textbooks and gasoline, which continue to be prohibitively expensive to many today.

The financial struggle drove Bates to look for a second job. I hear many of my own classmates complaining of the need to get a second job just to afford school. It is rather unfortunate that this problem seems to have only gotten worse.

While it contained plenty of strange relics of the past, like all of the ads listing a phone number instead of a website, I was personally surprised at just how familiar this edition of The Lookout felt. A lot has changed in the last 20 years, but many of the concerns of college students remain the same.