Griffith students have been publishing student specific material since our first year of teaching in 1975. The first ‘organised’ publication was ‘The Gryphon’ (published in January or February of 1975) which then became ‘Griffitti’ by the time the second publication was released in May of 1975. The early issues dealt with a variety of topics such as abortion, contraception and equal rights. More run-of-the-mill topics were also presented such as student accommodation, student loans and clubs/societies present on campus. So the ‘early years’ editions of Griffith student publications were a mixture of orientation guide, social commentary and political activism. For the most part, early Griffith student newspapers were  published firstly by GUUS (Griffith University Union of Students) and then subsequently by the GUSRC (Griffith University Student Representative Council).

The student representative body at Griffith (either as GUUS or GUSRC) had long been responsible for the gathering and presentation of content found in official student publications. By early 1993, the GUSRC  decided a major overhaul of our student newspaper/magazine was required. The GUSRC came to recgonise that not only had Griffitti grown stale – that in fact the publication had developed a reputation in some quarters as a poor quality student newspaper that did not represent the interests of students well.  This revamp included a name change from ‘Griffitti’ to ‘Gravity’. However, the name change was not just a simple substitution of title.  A vote by the GUSRC Board was required - with a two-thirds majority - for the name change to take place.

Gravity was a different publication from Griffitti in some ways. It tried to offer a broader range of content and eventually it moved from a newspaper layout to a magazine layout. Despite the change in physcial appearance - the release was still intended to provide guidance for students to successfully navigate their way through university life and also provide a platform for students to voice conerns or commentate on social and political issues. Gravity experienced some controversy during its run with claims of sexist content and questionable use of funding. With the Gravity brand damaged, the final year of publication for this rendition of our student newspaper was 2003. Despite some failings with both Griffitti and Gravity - both titles provide an invaluable social history account of Griffith students from 1975 through to 2003.

Nowadays, most student representative content has an online presence with our Gold Coast campus students having access to ‘Getamungstit’ and students at our other campuses currently accessing content via the Student Representative Council website.

*Copies of Griffitti/Gravity not presently available on this website may be in the process of being digitised. Please contact the Griffith Archive for further information.