Following six weeks of blood, sweat and tears — otherwise known as editorial compet — The Sun elected its 131st Editorial Board in arguably the shortest and most amicable election in Sun history. Seriously, this year it took eight hours, instead of nine. As the first female-dominated board in recent memory, the 131st will undoubtedly face unique challenges, including, but not limited to, coinciding menstrual cycles. Nonetheless, the board hopes to uphold the traditions of its predecessors in the next year: sending bleary-eyed editors to campus to (occasionally) attend class between breaking news.
With that said, we could not be more proud to present to you the editors of The Sun’s 131st Editorial Board:
The staff elected Rebecca Harris ’14 as our Editor-in-Chief. Though now our fearless leader, Rebecca almost did not run for Editor-in-Chief in order to pursue a career in psychiatry. But after trying to console a crying staff member by waving her hands in the air and exclaiming “Ah! Feelings!”, we all decided she was more suited for running a daily paper.
Our new business manager, Hank Bao ’14, has the best job at the paper: shelling out money to many beautiful women. Though he has already rejected all of our pleas to spend Sun funds on shoes and appletinis, we’re confident that Hank will eventually come around … or at least let us buy functioning computers for the office.
Arguably the furriest, cutest and shortest member of the 131st, Managing Editor Akane Otani ’14 uses her wet, rubbery tongue to put the final seal on The Sun’s news pages. Wait, sorry, that’s just her dog, Mowgli. We still think she’s the best at sniffing out stories.
Our new Associate Editor, Liz Camuti ’14, is two parts editor, one part farmer. Some problems have arisen when she edits with columnists, who typically have to sit at least two feet away from her to avoid getting dusted with dirt. We advise all columnists to bring a change of clothes to meetings.
Advertising Manager Austin Kang ’15 is a gentle giant from southern California. His laid-back personality is best exemplified by his sandals — his footwear of choice for Ithaca’s frozen winters. Don’t be fooled though, his inner businessman comes out when negotiating the two most important things in his life: advertisements and hummus.
For his first action as Web Editor, Andy Levine ’14 took it upon himself to design new uniforms for the Web Department. We are happy to formally announce that from now on, all webbies will be required to wear t-shirts and pajama pants to all meetings requiring “business casual” attire.
Our new Multimedia Editor, Alex Rehberg ’16, gained all of his video experience filming beach scenes and beautiful women in his hometown of Boca Raton, Fla. He now battles snow, wind and ice to watch Ithacans clamour for beer and cornbread at the annual Chilifest. Can’t win ‘em all, Alex. Associate Multimedia Editor Bryan Chan ’15 never smiles. Never.
If it were up to Design Editor Rebecca Coombes ’14, The Sun would look more like piece in the Johnson than a newspaper. We’re not complaining. With Assistant Design Editors Hannah Kim ’14 and Megan Zhou ’15 putting their pica skills to use each night, the paper is bound to look better than ever.
The vivacious Rachel Ellicott ’15 will serve as The Sun’s second-ever blogs editor. She has already pitched us a variety of ideas for new blogs about the things in life we know you will really care about. We are especially excited for the one devoted solely to analyzing font options and the one that will inform you of every food option not available at Okenshields.
When Sports Editor Haley Velasco ’15 is not fighting with Assistant Sports Editor Scott Chiusano ’15, she’s bringing a bit of sass to every team in Cornell Athletics. Scott, on the other hand, only responds to the name “Scooter.” We do not know why. Assistant Sports Editor Ariel Cooper ’15 is The Sun’s resident Shakespeare expert, while Assistant Sports Editor Emily Berman’s ’16 first words weren’t “Mommy” or “Daddy,” but some sports terminology.
Our new Tech Editor, David Marten ’14, was an ideal candidate for the position. In fact, we are almost certain he conceived of and pitched the idea for the tech campus to President David Skorton all by himself. He also plans on commuting to New York City every weekend to oversee construction on Roosevelt Island. What a guy.
Though he will always be an Arts Editor in our minds, Zach Zahos ’15 seems to be accomplishing a lot in his new position as Associate Managing Editor. Though we are still not quite sure what his job actually is, we hope he will have time to single-handedly put out the Arts, Science and Dining sections in between completing his real duties: fetching coffee and cookies for the Managing Editor.
The 131st News Editor team is all estrogen and all business. The stern Lianne Bornfeld ’15 cracks the whip in the newsroom. When she is not making our news writers cry, she’s making our Arts Editors feel bad about their taste in music. Emma Court ’15 has been a news editor since birth. When we told her she was elected News Editor, she responded with “duh.” Caroline Flax ’15 is the chattiest of the bunch. We’re convinced our neighbors at the Ithaca Journal have started putting the paper to bed at 9 p.m. to get some peace and quiet. Jinjoo Lee ’14 is the oldest and most laid-back of our high-energy news team. When editing stories, the other editors often have to check her pulse to make sure she is still kicking.
In their spare time, Arts and Entertainment Editors Sam Bromer ’16 and Arielle Cruz ’15 moonlight as a two-person interpretative dance ensemble. If you’ve never see Sam recite haikus while Arielle sways to the beat, you’re missing a transformative artistic experience for the ages. We are hoping they will eventually partner with Multimedia to create a regular feature for the website.
Our incoming Science Editor, Sarah Cohen ’15, has kept up the tradition of trying to educate our literary-minded staff on scientific matters. This week her section will feature something about brains … or space … or something.
Our Photography Editor, Shailee Shah ’14 is an experienced nature photographer. We’re still working on trying to convince her that pictures of birds and insects do not belong in our news section.
After succesfully not gaining a pound during her previous tenure as Dining Editor, Sydney Ramsden ’14 decided to milk The Sun for one more year of free food for the sake of “journalism.”
We still don’t know how our new Online Advertising Manager, Sid Shekhar ’15, ended up here. He always talks about surfing in Israel and skydiving in Jordan. Maybe he just wanted a less exciting life, or maybe he just made all of this up to impress his new associates.
Human Resources Manager Leo Ding ’14 will use his unexpectedly charismatic Canadian charm to recruit innocent freshmen to The Sun. Hint: If you bribe him with food, you might be rewarded with a second round interview.
Anna Tsenter ’14, our newest Marketing Manager, is the sweetest girl in the Business Department. She’ll also be the most cultured of all the invest
ment bankers she will join this summer on Wall Street.
Our Social Media Manager, Erika Whitestone ’15, asked us to keep her bio to under 140 characters. We think this sums it up.
Our innovative Outreach Coordinator, Lizzie Potolsky ’14, does the job the rest of us can’t: have normal conversations with people outside The Sun.
Original Author: Liz Camuti