Today is the final day of print publication this semester for The Cornell Daily Sun. Though we will continue to publish occasional stories online over the next month and half, the good folks at 139 W State Street have begun to shift their focus away from hard-hitting journalism and toward — God willing — passing their finals. But fear not, reader. On January 21, The Sun will rise once more from its winter slumber, replenished by latkes, Christmas hams, and various other winter foods of choice, and ready to shine its light on Ithaca again.
This semester, The Sun proved again the need for quality, independent journalism on college campuses. Just yesterday, the City of Ithaca announced it is exploring the creation of a commission to “ holistically assess long-standing issues of housing affordability and quality” in Collegetown. The decision comes on the heels of Sun reporting on a particularly meshugganah housing situation involving two Cornell students and their decaying house. Earlier in the year, the Arts and Sciences Faculty rejected misguided curriculum changes and cited a Sun editorial in the process. I could go on, but as you can see, we’ve got a lot to fit on this page.
We also continued our steady march into the future with the launch of our iPhone app. Entirely student-designed and developed, the app makes it easier than ever to get all the Cornell news you need. The world and the journalism industry may be changing, but we’re changing with it — we might have been born during the Rutherford B. Hayes administration, but we’ve still got a few tricks up our sleeve. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made, and excited for new developments to come.
This is the last issue of The Sun that will be made by the editors of the 136th Editorial Board. Starting January 21, and continuing for the following six weeks, The Sun will be in the hands the 137th editorial compets, a group of wide-eyed candidates for our 35 or so leadership positions. During these six weeks, they’ll be trained in the intricate arts of the nation’s oldest continuously independent college daily. They may even get three or four hours of sleep a night while they’re at it.
So goodbye, for now, and good luck on your finals. Don’t worry — like Hunter Rawlings III, we’ll be back before you know it.
—J.S.K.R.