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History

The writers of The Daily Illini changed numerously throughout its establishment. The newsletter started off as a student newspaper. When it was changed to The Illini, faculty took over the publication. Student-faculty regained contributions only a couple of years before it would be changed to The Daily Illini.

Before the newsletter was officially changed, it had gone through a couple of expansions. Not only was the number of publications per week increased, but the format was altered. The final form resulted in eight pages and five columns. An increase in enrollment propelled the success of the newsletter. After its advancement, the paper eventually included different sections, such as comics and news.

Staff

Around 1934, all the contributions made to the newsletter were from students. The paper explicitly stated that the opinions and ideas were entirely student-based and should not be acknowledged as the University's views. However, it was hard to find the specific names of all the contributors of the newsletter. Over time the journal has improved in giving credit to its writers within its publications.The Student kept the same writers from the journal's beginning to May 1872. The writers were as follows: the literary department: J. N. Matthews and J. Temple, natural science and agriculture: C. W. SIlver and M. B. Bubwash, history and social science: S. A Reynolds and A. M. Flagg, young ladies department: E. M. Baker and Alice Cheever, and engineering and agriculture: M. F Hatch and N. C Ricker. Other than that, no directory was provided to identify the writers of the newsletter.

Throughout the time of the journal, some publications included sections where it provided information on the newsletter's columnists. At the same time, other publications made no contribution in highlighting who worked on the paper. The publications of The Daily Illini from 1934 listed some of the faculty and students involved in the paper. The editor-in-chief was listed as Jay Benjamin Lieberman, who graduated in 1935. The paper's business manager was George Charles Zeller, a junior graduating in 1935. Other names in the article were John L. Strohm, EDW Usher Erenberg, Creston J. Foster, Elbert L. Herron, and John H. Schacht.

In a publication on August 5th 1934, the paper included a section expressing the growth of the newsletter over the past 63 years. It mentioned how the paper started to be treated seriously after some time of being viewed as something more frivolous. The section highlighted how the paper published "the canons" on the front page after being approved by the University. The acceptance of The Daily Illini by the University finally gave the paper confidence to be an established newsletter.

The Student

The Student was the original name of the now-called journal, The Daily Illini. The period of publication for The Student was from the beginning of the year 1871 to the end of 1873. However, the digitized version of the journal contains copies from November 1871 to December 1873. At the time, the University of Illinois was called the Industrial University. It wasn't only after 12 years of the end of The Student was the current university name established. The Student was a very different journal from what The Daily Illini is now. The journal highlighted more general and fewer topics and wasn't produced by a larger body of people as the university was much smaller than it is now. It included sections such as a "Student Directory" with names of prominent students on campus. As it progressed, the journal's format was tweaked throughout different publications. More specifically, a publishing on January 1st, 1873 shifted the original format of the journal as the first two pages were now entirely dedicated to the journal's sponsors. The Student was an experimental journal as it was constantly changing. In some ways, the paper started as unimaginative and unappealing. After a multitude of iterations, The Student's format eventually started to mirror some of the Daily Illini's beginning works.

At the time, the newsletter was formatted in six different categories. The categories consisted of: the literary department, natural science and agriculture, history and social science, locals, young ladies department, and engineering and agriculture. The category titled the "Literary Department" usually consisted of a short poem. This poem sometimes highlighted a topic mentioned in the newsletter but mainly was based on a random topic. The rest of the articles included in the category consisted of short stories on various topics. The "Natural Science and Agriculture" section regularly consisted of relevant topics to the school or the season. An example of an excerpt from the December 1st, 1871 newsletter was titled "Sprouting Trees". The work features facts and additional information on types of sprouting trees and advice from the columnists. "History and Social Science" focused on featuring updates in politics and news. It also included different topics on social sciences that were relevant at the time. The category "Locals" focused on reporting news about the university, such as committee meeting recaps. "Young Ladies Department" included topics presumed to be prevalent to the women on campus. The final category, "Engineering and Agriculture", featured various engineering and agriculture topics. An example of an article from the December 1st, 1871 newsletter is titled "Relative Value of Gold and Silver".

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