Hinman Halitosis

Fourteen years ago, on 19 January 2007, I received a call from an industrious, engaging and curious Binghamton University senior, Brent Gotsch. For his senior thesis, he was writing a history of Hinman (residential) College for it's first forty years, 1967-2007, the residence hall complex where I lived for five years, from September 1969 to summer 1974.

One theme for his study was the creation of a weekly newspaper/letter for the residents of the five halls. distributed each week in the dining hall at dinner time on Wednesday. The first Halitosis issues were written by the head resident, Bob Giomi. By 1972, Bob passed on the editorial control to me, based partially on the fact that was employed as a student assistant in the college office and was responsible for typing each issue on those inky, smelly printing machines used for copies rather than the more expensive copiers starting to take hold in offices.

The following is a passage from that thesis, looking at the early days of Halitosis.

"For the first few years of its existence, Bob Giomi essentially wrote the entire newspaper himself with a little help from Hinman’s secretary, Helen Rogers. He would work late into the evenings to make sure that all the columns were aligned and that all the articles advertising

Hinman programming and campus events were clear. They articles would have to be typed onto the paper using a good old-fashioned typewriter and then copies were made using a mimeograph machine. Although its distribution was wide, it was still a fairly simple operation. The newsletter was typically only about three to five pages in length and was on colored paper to give it some pizzazz. Bob would perform this difficult and laborious task every Wednesday night so that the newsletter would be available on Thursday by dinner time. Bob would do all of this work himself until he realized that there was a great opportunity for students interested in journalism to get involved and gain experience in journalism and newspaper publishing. Bob would soon recruit Pete Lorenzi, who would rise to the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Hinman Halitosis, though Bob himself would continue to hold the title of Publisher and Managing Editor.

With the introduction of Pete Lorenzi as the Editor-in-Chief of the paper and of other student contributors, the Hinman Halitosis quickly grew in size. During his time in Hinman, Pete Lorenzi was very involved in Hinman life. However, he had gotten the reputation of being something of a “bad boy” and as a result he did not get accepted as an RA. By the time he was a junior in 1972, Pete wanted a job doing something for Hinman. The Coordinator of Hinman at the time was a man named Ed O’Connor who would later go on to become the head of all of Residential Life at Binghamton. Ed offered Pete the job of administrative assistant in the Hinman Office on the condition that he pass a typing test, which was very important for stenographers back in those days before word processors. Pete was a very diligent typist and passed the test and became Hinman’s new administrative assistant. One of his tasks as administrative assistant was to help out with publishing the Hinman Halitosis.

One of Pete’s tasks as part of the editorial staff was to draw the Halitosis masthead for every issue. Unlike the rest of the paper which was typed, the masthead was hand drawn by Pete

himself. He also drew the lips and tongue that appear on many of the early issues of the Hinman Halitosis. Pete decided to add in the lips and tongue for a number of reasons. The first reason was that it fit with the name Halitosis, and the second reason was that the band, The Rolling Stones, were very popular at the time and their symbol was exactly like that. Pete and the rest of the editorial staff (which included two other work-study students) typed Halitosis on Wednesday nights on an IBM electric typewriter. It usually took between two and three hours to type and mimeograph the five hundred copies of the paper that were printed. There were typically fourteen issues a semester. Pete remembers there being almost no supervision for the students. Once Bob showed them all how to put the paper together, he left them to their own devices, forcing them to sink or swim. Even with this apparent lack of supervision, the dedicated students who worked on the newsletter continually put it out week after week, keeping the students of Hinman informed about what was going on in their community.

The beauty of Halitosis, Pete remembers, was that any student could submit an article for publication. It could have been a review of an HLT play, the highlights of an HCC meeting, coverage of a Co-Rec game, personals, opinion pieces, short stories, anything would be accepted and printed for the rest of the community to see. It was a very informal process and there was usually nothing too political printed in the paper. The purpose of the Hinman Halitosis was not to create controversy; it was to keep Hinmanites informed of what was happening in their community. But more than that, the Hinman Halitosis was all about having fun. It was about entertaining and informing the reader and, for those who worked on the paper, it was one of the best experiences of their college careers. Pete really enjoyed his college experience, and especially his time working on the Hinman Halitosis. He would even stay a fifth year mostly because he just loved being in Hinman so much.

In the first issue of the Hinman Halitosis for the 1973-1974 academic year, Pete, as editor-in-chief wrote this about the purpose behind Halitosis:

...Of all the many unexpected things you’ll find each week in Hinman, after this first issue, the Hinman Halitosis will be a regular sight in the dining hall on Thursday nights. No matter what happens, we always seem to manage to put out some new Halitosis each week.

The Halitosis is the local newsletter (though despite its form I prefer to call it a ‘paper,’ if not a newspaper [emphasis in original]) put out by students in Hinman College. Started by our present publisher, Robert F. Giomi, in November of 1970, the Halitosis has grown from very austere beginnings, when it was two simple pages, when it was written and edited by Bob himself and Helen Rogers, to a student-run operation usually running six to eight pages in length. With all the news we can muster for the benefit of Hinman students without getting too high schoolish (like our Newing counterpart), we try our best each week to let you know what has happened, what will happen and what he hope will happen in Hinman, along with a collection of editorials and semi-regular columns. Above all, we encourage all students to participate in writing and adding opinions to our paper. We gladly accept poems, opinions, letters to the editor, etc., and we are always happy to add to our regular staff.

Each week we also publish our personals section, containing just that: personal items, including messages, lost and found, ride requests and so on. It’s the want ads of Hinman. And to help you plan your weekend, we publish a capsule edition of popular events both on and off campus for the coming weekend. You’ll find this section extremely useful for getting involved with the social aspects of Hinman, SUNY- Binghamton and the local community.

Anything you want printed in the Halitosis (within reason, of course) can be easily left in the Hinman College Office (which your counselor [RA] will point out to you if you can’t locate it yet) and if you’re interested in staff work, see Bob Giomi in the same office or contact me. The office is open 3:30 a.m. [sic] to5:00 p.m. and the Halitosis deadline is Wednesday at NOON [emphasis in original] although we will accept very special articles any time before we go to print that night.

Halitosis is your paper and it will be as good or as useful as you make it. I invite your participation and comments—at any time. And good luck in the coming year (even if you don’t read us).

The Hinman Halitosis was a paper with a mission, and the dedicated staff who worked tirelessly on it intended to fulfill that mission.

Following Bob Giomi, Pete Lorenzi was perhaps the most influential of the editorial staff in the history of the Hinman Halitosis. Under his guidance, the readership of Halitosis grew, and it became known as the paper that everyone who lived in Hinman had to read. Although Pete had been a Hinman mainstay for many years, even he too had to graduate and move on. Pete Lorenzi, the “bad boy” of Hinman College, eventually went to get his PhD from Penn State and currently teaches business at Loyola College in Maryland."