The Cornell Daily Sun

The Cornell Daily Sun

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	Independent
Editor	Sofia Hu 134th Editorial Board
Founded	September 16, 1880
Headquarters	Ithaca, New York
ISSN	1095-8169
Website	www.cornellsun.com

The Cornell Daily Sun is an independent daily newspaper published in Ithaca, New York by students at Cornell University and hired employees.

The Sun features coverage of the university and its environs as well as stories from the Associated Press and UWIRE. It prints on weekdays when the university is open for academic instruction as a tabloid-sized daily. In addition to these regular issues, The Sun publishes a graduation issue and a freshman issue, which is mailed to incoming Cornell freshmen before their first semester. The paper is free on campus and online.

The Sun is staffed entirely by Cornell students, aside from a few full-time production and business positions, and is fully independent of the university. It operates out of its own building in downtown Ithaca. The Sun is currently the number one college newspaper in the United States, according to The Princeton Review.^[1]

History

Building of The Sun in Ithaca, New York

The Cornell Sun was founded in 1880 by William Ballard Hoyt to challenge Cornell's original and leading publication, the weekly Cornell Era (founded 1868).

The Sun boasted in its opening paragraph: "We have no indulgence to ask, no favors to beg." The paper incorporated and changed to daily frequency, earning its longstanding boast "Ithaca's Only Morning Newspaper." In 1912 it added a second, "first collegiate member of the Associated Press."

Throughout its history, the publication has faced competition from The Cornell Review and the Ithaca Journal in the market for Cornell news and analysis.^[2]

Common features include "Cornell's 161 Faces," which highlights a diverse group of Cornell students and a Sex Column that appears every Thursday.

Following the shift of its main competitor, the Ithaca Journal, from evening to morning daily publication in 1996, The Sun changed its traditional front page slogan which, after several iterations, now states "Independent Since 1880." This period also marked a shift in The Sun's content from national to local and university-related stories.

In January 2003, the Cornell Daily Sun Alumni Association purchased the former Elks Lodge in downtown Ithaca, erected 1916. Led by Stanley Chess, the founding president of the Association, John Schroeder '74, and Gary L. Rubin '72, the alumni completely renovated the building over the next several months. Now called the Cornell Daily Sun Building, it has housed the paper's offices since June 2003 and is coincidentally located next door to the Ithaca Journal's offices.

In the fall semester of 2004, The Sun turned free and started featuring full-color front and back pages as part of a redesign in its layout. These moves were partially effected to boost circulation in response to Cornell's Student Assembly's decision to provide The New York Times and USA Today on campus for free to all undergraduate Cornell students.

On September 17, 2005, more than 370 Sun alumni and guests gathered in Manhattan to celebrate The Sun's 125th anniversary. Speakers included Kurt Vonnegut '43, Carl Leubsdorf '59, Sam Roberts '68, Jay Branegan '73, S. Miller Harris '44, and Jeremy Schaap '91. The emcee was Stan Chess '69. A 130th anniversary dinner was held on September 25, 2010.

Alumni

The Cornell Daily Sun Alumni Association, comprising former editors, managers and staff of the Cornell Daily Sun, exists to further journalism by Cornell University students.

The Sun claims at least nine Pulitzer Prize winners and boasts a number of other prominent alumni, including:

• Tom Allon, Sports Editor – publisher; Manhattan Media owner
• Stephen Asprinio, Food & Wine Columnist – restaurateur, sommelier, chef, and former Top Chef contestant
• Jim Axelrod, Sports Department – CBS News national correspondent and reporter
• Whitney Balliett, Film Critic - New Yorker jazz critic
• Jay Branegan, Senior Editor (1971–72) – 1976 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with The Chicago Tribune
• Dick Brass, Associate Editor (1971–72) – technology investor, executive, and pioneer; developed first electronic dictionary and thesaurus; responsible for development of ClearType and Open eBook
• Gordon G. Chang, Editorial Board – lawyer, author, and television pundit
• Stanley Chess, Editor-in-Chief (1968–69) – legal commentator and former bar review course executive
• S. E. Cupp, Arts & Entertainment Editor – political commentator and author
• Allison Danzig – The New York Times sportswriter (1923–1968); author
• Charles Divine – poet and playwright
• Edward D. Eddy, Editor-in-Chief (1943–44) – president of Chatham College and the University of Rhode Island
• Bob Filner, Business Board – Mayor of San Diego; former Congressman
• Rob Fishman, Columnist - entrepreneur and writer
• David Folkenflik, Editor-in-Chief (1990–91) – NPR reporter
• Frank E. Gannett – media mogul and founder of the Gannett Company, Inc.
• Jeffrey Gettleman, Photographer – 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; The New York Times East Africa Bureau Chief
• Davidson Goldin, Editor-in-Chief (1992-1993); PR firm owner, formerly: MSNBC executive, NY1 anchor, New York Times contributor ^[3]
• Joey Green, Political Cartoonist – humor author known as "The Pantry Professor"
• John Hassell, Managing Editor (1990–91) – 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with The Star-Ledger
• Lewis Henry, Editor-in-Chief (1908–09) – U.S. Congressman from New York
• Robert Kessler, Editor-in-Chief (1964–65) – 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with Newsday
• Andrew Kopkind, Editor-in-Chief (1956–57) – noted journalist with Washington Post, The New Republic, and others
• Marc Lacey, Editor-in-Chief (1986–87) – The New York Times deputy foreign editor; 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with The Los Angeles Times
• Carl P. Leubsdorf, Associate Editor (1958–59) – The Dallas Morning News columnist; political journalist
• Eric Lichtblau, News Reporter – 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; The New York Times Washington bureau reporter
• Stuart Loory, Editor-in-Chief (1953–54) – journalist and academic; Chicago Sun-Times managing editor
• Farhad Manjoo, Editor-in-Chief (1999–00) – journalist and author; New York Times technology writer
• Oscar G. Mayer, Jr., Business Manager (1933–34) – executive of the Oscar Mayer meat company
• Philip Merrill, Managing Editor (1954–55) – diplomat, banker, and philanthropist; Export-Import Bank of the United States chairman
• Phil Mazo, Cartoonist – stand-up comedian
• Svante Myrick, Editorial Board – Mayor of Ithaca, New York
• George Jean Nathan, Editorial Board – drama critic and editor, The American Mercury co-founder and editor
• Scot J. Paltrow – financial journalist
• Jon Ralston, Sports Department – American journalist, political commentator, and talk show host
• Henry S. Reuss, Editor-in-Chief (1932–33) – U.S. Congressman from Wisconsin
• Sam Roberts, Managing Editor (1967–68) – The New York Times columnist, reporter, and editor; inaugural author of the "Metro Matters" column; author; biographer of David Greenglass and Nelson Rockefeller
• Howard A. Rodman, Editor-in-Chief (1970–71) – screenwriter and professor
• Wallace A. Ross, News Board – advertising executive and founder of the Clio Awards
• Kirkpatrick Sale, Editor-in-Chief (1957–58) – environmental and technology scholar and author; leader of secessionist movement
• Dick Schaap, Editor-in-Chief (1954–55) – noted sports writer and broadcaster
• Jeremy Schaap, Sports Editor (1990–91) – ESPN contributor and son of Dick Schaap
• Danny Schechter – television producer, filmmaker, and media critic
• Alan Sisitsky - Massachusetts House of Representatives member and Massachusetts Senate Judiciary Committee chairman
• Deborah Solomon – The New York Times magazine columnist; art critic; biographer
• Barry S. Strauss, Feature Editor (1973–74) – professor of history and classics at Cornell University; ancient military history author and expert
• Elmer E. Studley, Editorial Board – U.S. Congressman from New York
• Jacob Sullum – syndicated newspaper columnist
• Elbert Tuttle, Editor-in-Chief (1917–18) – Chief Judge of United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; member of Fifth Circuit Four
• Kurt Vonnegut, Associate Editor (1942–43) – novelist and satirist
• E. B. White, Editor-in-Chief (1920–21) – columnist and author; 1978 Pulitzer Prize special award
• Ed Zuckerman, Editor-in-Chief (1969–70) – Emmy Award-winning producer and writer for Law & Order, as well as episodes of Miami Vice, Star Trek: The Next Generation, JAG, and others

See also

• List of college newspapers
• The Cornell Review
• Cornell University

References

1. "Cornell University". The Princeton Review.
2. http://cornellsun.com/node/56328
3. http://www.goldin.com

• "From the Hill: Housing News: A Home for the Sun," Cornell Magazine, Vol. 105 No. 5, March/April 2003.
• Bishop, Morris. A History of Cornell. New York, New York: Cornell University Press, 1962. ISBN 0-8014-0036-8
• Margulis, Daniel ed. A Century at Cornell: Published to Commemorate the Hundredth Anniversary of the Cornell Daily Sun. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Daily Sun, 1980. ISBN 0-938304-00-3

External links

• Cornell Daily Sun official site
• Cornell Daily Sun Alumni Association
• Cornell University Library, Cornell Daily Sun Digitization Project
• Sun Editorial Board