The Cornell Daily Sun, of Cornell University, is an independent daily newspaper published in Ithaca, New York, and one of the oldest college newspapers in the United States. It features original coverage of the university and its environs as well as stories from the wires, and is printed weekdays while the university is open for academic instruction as a tabloid-sized daily. Although its editorial staff is composed entirely of students, the Sun is incorporated and independent of the university, operating out of a downtown office.
The Cornell Sun was founded in 1880 to challenge Cornell's original and leading publication, the weekly Cornell Era (founded 1868). The Era shortly became a literary journal, and was eventually consigned to oblivion. The Sun incorporated and changed to daily frequency, earning its longstanding boast "Ithaca's Only Morning Paper." In 1912 it added a second, "first collegiate member of the Associated Press." Following the shift of the Sun's competitor the Ithaca Journal from evening to morning daily publication in 1996, the Sun changed its traditional front page slogan, and, after several iterations, the paper currently states "Independent Since 1880."
Prominent alumni of the Sun include
The paper is sometimes criticized for its intimacy with the university administration, and was frequently lampooned for taking itself too seriously by the now-defunct Cornell Widow.
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