Last Saturday, the staff of The Cornell Daily Sun met to elect its 136th Editorial Board. As it was with the thousands of editors whose names graced this page before us, our mission is to provide the most comprehensive coverage, detailed analysis, and thoughtful commentary on the events and issues that matter most to Cornell and her community. It is an honor to play a small role in continuing this tradition of journalistic excellence, and I am elated to do so with the amazing group that is the 136th board.
In 1981, at the dawn of The Sun’s second century, Editor in Chief Steven Billmyer ’83 wrote that the yearly changing of the boards was “The Sun’s most powerful asset allowing the editors a flexibility — one commercial papers cannot match — to produce a paper that better reflects this dynamic community.”
As The Sun continues to confront the challenges of 21st century journalism, Billmyer’s words ring more true than ever. Each successive generation of editors reinvigorates The Sun, ensuring that we always remain intimately connected to our audience and our environment. The creation of the projects editor position, the continued growth of our web team, the expansion of our design department and a pipeline full of digital developments (stay tuned) are testaments to that continual growth.
The coming year will see obstacles both expected and surprising, and we intend to meet them with the same guiding principles as in 1880: “liberty of thought, liberty of speech and liberty of action.” The Sun continues to serve as the paper of record for Cornell and for Ithaca, and even though we may let an errant Oxford comma slip through from time to time (The Sun regrets those errors), we hope you remain with us on our ongoing journey. Thank you, reader, for being The Sun’s most invaluable partner.
—Jacob Rubashkin ’19, Editor in Chief