Students who major or minor in English at Dakota Wesleyan University are encouraged to work on the student newspaper the Phreno Cosmian or the campus literary magazine, Prairie Winds.

Phreno Cosmian
The Phreno Cosmian debuted as the official newspaper of the Dakota Wesleyan student body in November of 1890. In these early Phrenos, the front page would be devoted to a lengthy essay written by one of the student body. Such topics as the tariff, the recent visit of King William to the European countries, prohibition and failing crops were featured in its pages.

Over the years as the staff of the Phreno changed, so did its look. News stories began being printed on the front by 1909, and in 1916 the length of the pages increased, making room for “dirt columns and more frivolous items.” The Phreno has been printed in both a five-column and six-column format, as well as a tabloid size. At first, the Phreno did not contain advertising, but as the years passed, the ads increased in number and size. Today, the Phreno is an eight-page format published four or five times a semester.

According to a 1941 edition of the Phreno, the Phreno Comian took its name from the original literary society on campus. “Phreno and cosmian are two Greek words: ‘phreno’ meaning heart or mind; and ‘cosmian’ meaning, in a sense, the world.” So in essence “the mind of the world” has provided the student body of Dakota Wesleyan a voice for well over a century.

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Prairie Winds
Prairie Winds, a showcase publication, is the literary journal for Dakota Wesleyan University. Circulated nationally, listed in the International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses, and housed in the English department, the journal is managed entirely by student volunteers.

Prairie Winds began as a section of the yearbook, The Tumbleweed, to provide students with an outlet for their literary ambitions. Eventually, members of Sigma Tau Delta, the national English honor society, detached the Prairie Winds section from the yearbook in 1949 and published it separately.

Writers submit to its pages from every state in the union, and fiction and poetry often come winging in from overseas. Most importantly, Prairie Winds is the voice for students. Poets, fiction writers, photographers, artist and playwrights from among the DWU student body can submit their work. Because the number of pages the journal can publish is limited, the student volunteers can select only a fraction of the work submitted. This limitation is a good thing because it teaches student editors to read for quality.

Dr. Joseph Ditta, adviser to the Prairie Winds staff, can be contacted at joditta@dwu.edu.