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The Cornell Daily Sun
The newspaper's 6 November 2017 front page
TypeStudent newspaper
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)Independent
Editor-in-chiefGabriel Levin
142nd Editorial Board
FoundedSeptember 16, 1880
Headquarters139 W State St., Ithaca, New York, U.S.
Circulation3,000 (as of 2022)[1]
ISSN1095-8169
Websitecornellsun.com

The Cornell Daily Sun is an independent newspaper at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It is published twice weekly by Cornell University students and hired employees. Founded in 1880, The Sun is the oldest continuously independent college daily in the United States.[2]

The Sun features coverage of the university and its environs. It prints on Wednesdays when the university is open for academic instruction.[3] In addition to these regular issues, The Sun publishes a graduation issue, reunion 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 edits under its proprietary "Sun Style Guide," an amended version of AP Style.

Aside from a few full-time production positions, The Sun is staffed by Cornell students and is fully independent of the university. It operates out of its own building in downtown Ithaca. As of 2023, The Sun is ranked the third-best college student newspaper in the nation, behind Yale and Syracuse, according to College Choice's annual rankings.[4]

History

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Front pages of The Cornell Era and The Cornell Daily Sun on April 30, 1886

19th century

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The Cornell Daily Sun was founded in 1880 by William Ballard Hoyt to challenge Cornell's original and leading publication, the weekly Cornell Era, which was founded in 1868. In the newspaper's first edition, published on September 16, 1880, The Sun boasted in its opening paragraph: "We have no indulgence to ask, no favors to beg."

20th century

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The newspaper later 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."

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.

21st century

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The newspaper's common features include "Around the Sun," a weekly multimedia recap series, and a sex column that appears weekly on Thursdays.

The headquarters of The Cornell Daily Sun

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. The building also houses a kava bar in its basement.

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, Howard A. Rodman '71, S. Miller Harris '44, and Jeremy Schaap '91. The emcee was Stan Chess '69. A 130th anniversary dinner was held on September 25, 2010.

In 2016, the newspaper announced that it was reducing its publication rate from five days a week to three.[5] In 2020, it further cut back to twice a week as a cost-reducing measure. At the beginning of the 2024-2025 academic year, the paper further reduced publication to once per week, with 24/7 publishing online.

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.

Alumni

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See also: List of Cornell University alumni
E. B. White, editor-in-chief of The Sun in 1920–21, author of Charlotte's Web, and 1978 Pulitzer Prize winner
Kurt Vonnegut, associate editor in 1942–43, novelist and satirist
Harold O. Levy, columnist, New York City Schools Chancellor from 2000– 02 and executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
S.E. Cupp, arts and entertainment editor, CNN host, political commentator, and author
Farhad Manjoo, editor-in-chief in 1999–2000, author and technology writer and opinion columnist, The New York Times[6]
Svante Myrick, editorial board, former mayor of Ithaca, New York

The Cornell Daily Sun claims over a dozen Pulitzer Prize winners and boasts a number of prominent alumni, including:

Other prominent Cornellians have written letters to the editor, including former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who responded to an op-ed on wiretapping written by Cornell Law School students with a letter to the editor in 1953.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Cornell Daily Sun Media Kit 2022–2023" (PDF). 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  2. ^ "16 Sep: The First Student Newspaper", The Retro Spectors
  3. ^ "About The Sun – The Cornell Daily Sun". cornellsun.com. 30 November 2001. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
  4. ^ "Best College Newspapers", College Choice, January 19, 2023
  5. ^ Victor, Daniel (2016-05-10). "At Cornell, the College Daily Will No Longer Be Daily". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-03-31.
  6. ^ Bennet, James; Dao, Jim; Kingsbury, Katie (November 27, 2018). "Farhad Manjoo to Join Opinion as a Columnist". New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  7. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M. (2022-04-20). "New York Times Names Marc Lacey and Carolyn Ryan as Managing Editors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
  8. ^ Bennet, James; Dao, Jim; Kingsbury, Katie (November 27, 2018). "Farhad Manjoo to Join Opinion as a Columnist". New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  9. ^ Lowery, George (12 April 2007). "Kurt Vonnegut Jr., novelist, counterculture icon and Cornellian, dies at 84". Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2021. "I spent the whole time I was here working on the Cornell Sun, and that's how I got my liberal arts education," Vonnegut once said
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