The Daily Sundial: What’s in a Name?

February 08, 2022

The Daily Sundial, the student newspaper of California State University, Northridge, began its print publication in 1957, and switched to online publication in the fall of 2014. Print issues have been digitized and made available online as part of the University Library Digital Collections. Student newspapers play a vital role in presenting news about campus life and activities, as well as cultural, political, and social news about the local and national community. As such, student newspapers serve as a historical record about the university and community through time. A brief exploration of some issues of the Daily Sundial newspaper online reveals interesting facts about the name of the student newspaper and provides an insight into a student newspaper in search of a name.

The search for a newspaper name that reflects the school’s identity can be lengthy and involve some trial and error. Despite the Sundial editorial staff's holding a contest for a title, the initial search for a name to reflect the school’s identity did not garner the desired results. The first issue, published on February 1, 1957, represented the name of the newspaper as untitled with a question mark. At that time, the school’s name was San Fernando Valley Campus of Los Angeles State College. On that issue, a contest to name the newspaper was announced with a guideline to match the school’s emblem of a sunburst. The contest read:

"HELP! HELP! 
Yes, you guessed it. We have done everything but figure out a name so we decided 
to do it the easy way and be able to lay the blame on you poor people. 
Our diabolical plot is to run a contest. [...] 
The theme should have something to do with the San Fernando Valley and our emblem is the sunburst. [...]"
 

The following issue, published February 15, 1957, announced the entries submitted to name the newspaper. The masthead displayed the name chosen as San Fernando Valley Campus State Standard with the words "State Standard '' prominently capitalized and displayed as part of the layout of the newspaper title. Other name entries submitted included "Valley Gazette," "Recorder," "Sun," "Half-Times," and "Courier."

An article published on the issue on March 1, 1957 presented some objections to the name chosen. The Student Council did not think that the term "Standard" was a representative choice of the student body and voted to change the newspaper name to San Fernando Valley Campus State Sundial. Although the title of the newspaper had changed from State Standard to State Sundial, it was not until the issue published on September 23, 1957 that "State" was dropped, and the single word title "Sundial" appeared prominently in the layout of the newspaper masthead.

While Sundial can be considered the title of the student newspaper since 1957, there is more to the evolution of the naming of the newspaper. The title of the newspaper would undergo two more name changes. The first of these two changes occurred in the issue published on September 15, 1958, where the connection to the Los Angeles State College (LASC) was dropped from the title on the heels of the school’s separation from LASC on July 1, 1958.  An "Independence Day" was held on September 19 of that year to commemorate the university's name change.

In 1965, the title became Daily Sundial with the issue published on September 21, 1965. This issue includes an article explaining the rationale for adding "Daily" to the title. The added word, which is indicative of the frequency of the publication, was added because the newspaper would increase its publication from three to four days (not quite "daily"!) It was then that the award-winning student publication became known as the Daily Sundial, except for the issues published during the summer which were appropriately titled Summer Sundial.

From 1965 to 2014, every issue of the newspaper displayed the title Daily Sundial. However, beginning with the issue published on August 25, 2014, the single word Sundial title made a comeback, and has become the title displayed in the issues published since then. This is common behavior for newspapers, which often flip flop titles as illustrated in the title changes from Sundial to Daily Sundial and back to Sundial.

No matter the name, browse the Daily Sundial newspaper digital collection and explore some of the issues online to learn more about the history of the university and events that have shaped the campus and the community.

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Post tagged as: university archives, publications, los angeles