by Olivia Gleason '26 and Sarah McCall '26 on November 20, 2025
News
Sunday, Nov. 16 marked 90 years of Providence College’s student-run newspaper, The Cowl. Since 1935, students have come together to provide campus, local, and global news to the PC community. The Cowl plays an integral part in understanding the College’s history as it has documented important milestones and events ranging from the opening of the Ben Mondor Center for Nursing and Health Sciences, to the admission of women at PC, to coverage of the Friars’ football team. While social media and the internet have drastically altered the way college students consume news and media, The Cowl has remained a fundamental part of campus life. Whether it be through submissions of Letters to the Editor, picking up a copy of the most recent edition at any corner of campus, or even posts related to the newspaper on YikYak, the PC community still sees The Cowl’s impact and purpose as it strives to provide a platform for student voices and a space for its members to delve into the dynamic world of journalism.
As we reflected on The Cowl’s history in preparation for this week’s anniversary edition, we knew that the discussion of its history and significance would be greatly enriched by insights from its first-ever female editor-in-chief, Kendra Bogosian-Marasco ’87. Currently a Title IX advocate and formerly the director of field education at PC, Bogosian-Marasco made Cowl history in the ’86–’87 academic year when she challenged the status quo of the male-dominated publication to become its leader. Her experience in this position provides a glimpse into both how The Cowl has changed and, in many ways, how it has stayed the same in its general mission. We asked Bogosian-Marasco what it was like to come onto the scene as The Cowl’s first female EIC, to which she revealed that it “was the first time in my life that I experienced what being a woman in our society (at the time) meant in an institution that had only had women as part of its student community for 25 years.” Bogosian-Marasco had to jump hurdles of past social norms at the College, including having to “go through multiple ‘interviews’ with administrators” that her predecessors—male EICs—did not. Her perseverance, despite pushback and doubt, allowed her to pave the way for future women of The Cowl, forever changing its power and richness. To get a sense of what marked her time at The Cowl—and to also highlight historic moments for both the publication and PC—we asked Bogosian-Marasco if there was a pivotal moment that stood out to her during her tenure as EIC. Without hesitation, Bogosian-Marasco said, “This is an easy one. . . I was editor-in-chief for the 1986–1987 academic year. Our basketball team had a tremendous season that year and went to the Final Four; Billy Donovan ’87 became a household name.”
Coverage of such success for Friars basketball was undoubtedly thrilling for The Cowl. Its documentation of this historic season continues to serve as a reminder of the power student journalism has to define the collective memory of the College, and the great responsibility the publication carries as the storyteller of such monumental moments.
As we have all seen, technology has altered the way we interact with both the world and media. The same is true in media and news production. Our writing, editing, and publishing practices now are much different than they were throughout The Cowl’s history. For example, Bogosian-Marasco reflected on a major technological advancement during her career with The Cowl: “During my four-year involvement with The Cowl, we acquired word processors and were thrilled to be able to electronically type our articles. They’d be printed out, pasted onto mark-up boards for layout, and then we’d take those layouts off-site (to a local newspaper in Warwick) to be printed.” This 90-year anniversary calls for the recognition of all of the changes and people who have made The Cowl what it is today. It is not just the late nights on Wednesdays or the tireless work by the editorial board that keep The Cowl running. It is also 90 years of adaptation to keep up with technological advancements and a rapidly changing world.
In many ways, the archives of The Cowl serve as a collective PC time capsule, providing direct insight into student voices of the past and their reactions to the defining moments of their time. This history, however, is more often than not overshadowed, simply by the nature of the fact that our newspaper has stayed true to its original mission of covering current events. As such, for this 90th anniversary edition of The Cowl, we have decided to feature pieces of past editions (as well as publish our usual articles covering issues of today) to give glimpses into this history and to commemorate the work of every member of The Cowl, both past and present, that has shaped our student publication into what it is today. We hope you enjoy this step back in time as we seek to uphold the strong legacy of The Cowl. As Bogosian-Marasco told us, “Please continue to write—and to consume—newspapers throughout your lives. Never compromise integrity in your coverage and always seek out Veritas,” and it is our hope that this issue, and every issue after, does just that.