The Cornell Daily Sun


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.
Aside from a few full-time production and business 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. The Sun is currently the number one college newspaper in the United States, according to The Princeton Review.

History

The Cornell Sun was founded in 1880 by William Ballard Hoyt to challenge Cornell's original and leading publication, the weekly Cornell Era.
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.
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 Suns 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 Journals 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 over one dozen Pulitzer Prize winners and boasts a number of other prominent alumni, including: