Take a look back at the summer happenings on campus by browsing the Summer Sundial! CSUN’s student newspaper, The Daily Sundial, has been around since CSUN’s beginnings when the University was known as the San Fernando Valley Campus of Los Angeles State College. The first publication of the paper was released on February 1, 1957 and ran under a few different names including a question mark on the inaugural issue. Special Collections & Archives holds a full run of the paper including its summer edition known as the Summer Sundial.
The paper began publishing their summer issues using the title Summer Sundial in 1960. In 1961 there was no mention of Summer in the title, and then, in 1962 and 1963 they published summer editions under the banner Valley State Sundial Summer Edition. After taking long hiatus between 1964 and 1967 the June 28th, 1967 publication appeared with the original Summer Sundial banner, but they mistakenly printed “We’re Back: Today’s issue of the Summer Sundial is the first time that the newspaper has published during the summer since 1962,” accidently leaving out a few of the Summer Sundials from 1963.
In addition to reporting on the daily happenings on campus and in the surrounding community such as budget cuts, hiring of professors, crime and more, the Summer Sundial highlighted the occasional leisure activity.
The campus hosted a Carnival in both 1962 and 1963. There were even a few hot summers when people were caught cooling down and splashing around in the "reflection pond near the administration building.” The campus also hosted fireworks in 1993, a free summer concert in 1973 featuring Nickel Plate Toad and That’s It, “two recently-formed rock bands”, and a Summer Solstice Festival in 1988. The Summer Solstice Festival hosted live Bluegrass and Appalachian music that supported a dance party at the University Student Union. It was a free event to introduce the Summer Solstice Dulcimer and Traditional Music Festival that would occur over the following weekend. The author of the article was surprised to find “no one between the ages of 12 and 30” were among the dancers.
The Summer Editions of the Sundial covered an eclectic range of activities that filled the campus over the years during the summer breaks. This summer make sure to check out the Summer Movie Fest Thursday nights on the University Library lawn. Have a great summer! We will check in monthly over the summer and will be back to our usual weekly blog posts in the fall.
