What do Jane Fonda, Jesse Jackson, and Suge Knight have in common? They have all put their foot on campus and they are also featured in the Student Media Digital Archive.

Kate McLaughlin, journalism instructor, had been looking for past issues of War Whoop, specifically an issue when War Whoop changed its name to The Union in the 1990s. That was when she met the man who showed her the way.

Ed Martinez, former public access librarian, had kept and preserved issues of War Whoop, The Union, Warrior Life (the college’s magazine), pictures, and yearbooks.

McLaughlin snaked behind Martinez as he showed her the way to the back of the library where he had been gathering and preserving these items for years.

McLaughlin was so moved by Martinez’s work she felt like she needed all of it to be digitized and archived for everyone to see.

“I was totally inspired and amazed and blown away by what he had done. And I was especially interested in his historical archives as it pertained to student media here on campus,” McLaughlin said. “Seeing the old papers, yellowed, torn out at the edges, deteriorating, filled me with a sense of purpose.”

In early February 2012, McLaughlin applied for the Career and Technical Education Act, which provides money for vocational programs. From there, McLaughlin and Martinez were on a roll to get this project done.

Furthermore, Martinez emphasizes the significance of the archive to the current EC students.

“It’s important for current students to know about the ‘fabric’ of El Camino and who created history,” Martinez added.

Martinez also explained what kind of cool stories students can find.

“There’s fashion, cars, old yearbooks, students protesting about Vietnam, but I think it’s fun to look at the different styles back then,” Martinez said.

Another person who is excited about the archive is Carolyn Biedler, athletic specialist, who called McLaughlin to see if she had any past issues of the 1963 men’s state and metro conference champion golf team, who is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

“I could not believe how much information I got. I think it’s great and I think everyone should know about it,” Biedler said. “Anyone can get and look at what they want, especially since they had such great teams in the 50’s and 60’s.”

The archive is located on EC’s website under the Schauerman Library tab and it is an easy and cool way to look at past history of EC.

“I want people to start using the archive and I want students to make their own history,” Martinez said.