Make your Mark on Radford
The Beehive strives to showcase the excellence of Radford University students and serve as a chronicle of the events which shape and build our campus community. The Beehive is the oldest student media publication in the university’s history. Since its inception, the Beehive has taken many different forms but stayed true to its roots. Currently, it is a free annual magazine created for students and by students.
2022, The Editor-in-Chief, Bailey Newton and Assistant Editor-in-Chief, Nicole Hankins
History of The Beehive
As the official yearbook publication of Radford University, the Beehive has an extensive history on campus. As the oldest publication, the Beehive has been around to serve students for over 100 years now. The Beehive was first published in 1914 as The Radnor and gained a new name, The Beehive, in 1925 after the University’s school seal.
During the years surrounding 1926, the school took on a new name, The State Teachers College. And so, as the school was undergoing many changes, it seemed just as appropriate for the yearbook to take on a new face. Thus, the Beehive was created both as the yearbook title and the school’s new seal. The superior printing of this new book did not change its fate. Once again, the yearbook was short-lived. 1930 marked the end of the book and established The State Teachers College as the only current college without a yearbook.
Given the care of Clara Mergler and Alice Wimmer in 1938, the Beehive began its most successful years. The yearbook shared its successes with the newly formed newspaper ‘Gurapachat’ (named after the school’s colors), and finally became recognized with its first award. The second-place award was issued to the Beehive from the statewide competition held by the Virginia Inter-Collegiate Press Association. The Beehive was finally receiving its well-deserved recognition at the college.
The school continued to go through many changes. The college became a university, and in 1972, the first class of men was admitted. The Beehive also continued to change. In the years 1941-1943, the Beehive was not printed, and in the following years, the book was published with lower quality paper, and the length was shortened. Despite the changes and the lower price, the yearbook was still hard for students to afford.
2006 marked the change from Radford’s Yearbook, to Radford’s Year Movie. With new technology available to the University, the Beehive was quick to embrace the modern approach. Similarly to the yearbook in prior years, each Year Movie strived to preserve the memories of all students at Radford University.
The Year Movie was discontinued after the 2007-2008 academic year.
Starting with 2008-2009, the Beehive returned to its publication roots.