# Columbia Daily Spectator

The Columbia Daily Spectator (known colloquially as Spec) is the student newspaper of Columbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the second-oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after The Harvard Crimson, and has been legally independent from the university since 1962. It is published at 120th Street and Claremont Avenue in New York City. During the academic term, it is published online Sunday through Thursday and printed weekly. In addition to serving as a campus newspaper, the Spectator also reports the latest news of the surrounding Morningside Heights community. The paper is delivered to over 150 locations throughout the Morningside Heights neighborhood.

## History

The Columbia Spectator was founded in 1877 by Frederick William Holls and H.G. Paine.$^{:179}$ Also serving on the paper's first editorial board was William Barclay Parsons. Several attempts at student journalism were made before the Spectator. The first student publication formed at Columbia was the short lived Philolexian Observer, founded in 1813.$^{:176}$ The Cap and Gown was founded in 1867 as both a student newspaper and literary publication. It was renamed to the Acta Columbiana in 1873, and was absorbed by the Spectator in 1885, which also took its motto, A Studentibus Studentibusque.$^{:178}$
The Spectator was first published as a fortnightly. In 1898 it became a weekly, and a year later began to be published semi-weekly, before finally becoming a daily paper in 1902.$^{:179–180}$
In April 2014, Spectator announced it would become the first Ivy League newspaper to cut its daily print for a weekly distribution to focus on digital content and increase revenue. The plan was approved shortly thereafter by the Board of Trustees, passing 7 to 4. John R. MacArthur, one of the members of the board, resigned in protest of the decision, but the paper did see the expected revenue increase.

## Organization

Spectator is published by Spectator Publishing Company Inc, an independent 501(c)(3) corporation. Spectator Publishing Company was formed in 1962 and has been independent of Columbia University since then. The president of the Spectator Publishing Company also serves as the editor in chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Spectator's writing departments, each headed by one or two editors, include university news, city news, sports, arts and culture, opinion, and lifestyle. The other non-writing departments, also headed by their own respective editors, include photography, illustrations, graphics, audio, video, and copy. The Business & Innovations departments, which oversee the newspaper's advertising, finances, software development, and alumni relations, are headed by the publisher. Spectator also runs The Eye which is a magazine focused on publishing long-form feature articles and essays.
The paper is currently run by the 147th managing board. First-time writers at Columbia begin their time at the paper with a 3 to 4 month trainee semester, during which they learn the basics of writing an article and publish their first articles. Each November and December, students run for positions at the paper, a process that takes nearly a month. They begin by shadowing, or sitting with the current editors or associate editors and learning the editing process. Next they write proposals for their desired position. The students then take editing tests created by their department editor that test them on fundamentals. Finally, they complete the Turkeyshoots process with an interview. The results of the process, including the new managing board, are announced in mid-December, the weekend before finals.

## Recent spinoffs

In 2005, Spec started printing La Página, a weekly flyer in Spanish with translations of some of the week's English content most relevant to neighborhood readers. It folded within the year.
The next year, in February 2006, the paper launched a series of blogs, SpecBlogs. It was the third Ivy League paper to do this, after The Harvard Crimson's Sports Blog (December 2005) and The Daily Pennsylvanian's TheBuzz (January 2006).
In September 2006, Spectator staff launched The Eye, a weekly magazine featuring investigative pieces and commentary on Columbia and New York City. The name of The Eye relates both to the fact that one "spectates" with it and urban theorist Jane Jacobs' notion that "eyes on the street" help keep neighborhoods safe.
In March 2010, Spec launched a new blog, Spectrum, which is updated several times a day with breaking news, columns, and features.
In January 2018, Spec launched a branded content studio, Spectator Brand Studios. It was the second Ivy League paper to do this, after the Harvard Crimson.

## Controversies

Spectator has been criticized publicly by staff members over the years for obscuring its election procedures. On October 16, 2009, Ryan Bubinski, then the online editor of Spec, shut down the website in protest of a constitutional violation. The website was restored on the 18th, and Bubinski left the staff of the newspaper. The lack of a constitution brought renewed protests in 2018 when concerns over potential prior misconduct of a staffer surfaced during the Turkeyshoots process. The Corporate Board of Spectator followed an internal policy to investigate the claims, which was not made public to staffers. Following the Turkeyshoots season, the majority of the newspaper's Sports section resigned in protest.
In 2018 and 2019, work by journalists at the paper played an important role in uncovering the plagiarism scandal around Charles K. Armstrong, a professor of history at Columbia University. It also, in 2019, found that a number of professors accused or found guilty of sexual misconduct remained on campus, breaking news that English professor Michael Golston had been found guilty of sexually assaulting a student.

## Recent leadership

| Year | Board | Editor in Chief | Publisher | Managing Editor |
| 2025 | 149th | Shea Vance | Albert Tsai | Heather Chen |
| 2024 | 148th | Isabella Ramírez | Katie Zhang | Esha Karam |
| 2023 | 147th | Irie Sentner | Tyler Shern | Andrew Park |
| 2022 | 146th | Clara Ence Morse | Vilanna Wang | Dia Gill |
| 2021 | 145th | Sarah Braka | Tamarah Wallace | Elizabeth Karpen |
| 2020 | 144th | Karen Xia | Isabel Jauregui | Shubham Saharan |
| 2019 | 143rd | Katherine Gerberich | Nima Mozhgani | Rahil Kamath |
| 2018 | 142nd | Jessica Spitz | Michael Tai | Aaron Holmes |
| 2017 | 141st | Catie Edmondson | Anurak Saelaow | J. Clara Chan |
| 2016 | 140th | Caroline Chiu | Rachit Mohan | Ben Libman |
| 2015 | 139th | Michael Ouimette | Daniel Friedman | Samantha Cooney |
| 2014 | 138th | Abby Abrams | Michael Ouimette | Steven Lau |
| 2013 | 137th | Sammy Roth | Alex Smyk | Finn Vigeland |
| 2012 | 136th | Sarah Darville | Alex Smyk | Maggie Alden |
| 2011 | 135th | Samuel Roth | Aditya Mukerjee | Michele Cleary |
| 2010 | 134th | Ben Cotton | Akhil Mehta | Thomas Rhiel |
| 2009 | 133rd | Melissa Repko | Julia Feldberg | Elizabeth Simins |
| 2008 | 132nd | Tom Faure | Manal Alam | Amanda Sebba |
| 2007 | 131st | John Davisson | John Mascari | Amanda Erickson |
| 2006 | 130th | Steve Moncada | Jacob Olson & John Mascari | Tim Shenk, succ. by Nick Klagge |
| 2005 | 129th | Megan Greenwell | Chase Behringer | Theo Orsher & Liz Fink |
| 2004 | 128th | Nick Summers | Lauren Appelbaum, succ. by Tanner Zucker | James Romoser |
| 2003 | 127th | Telis Demos | Amit Melwani | Juliana Castedo |
| 2002 | 126th | Alice Boone | Rob Bruce | Isolde Raftery |
| 2001 | 125th | Michael Mirer | Jeff Posnick | Nick Schifrin |
| 2000 | 124th | Dan Laidman | Jonathan Gordin | Miriam Haskell |
| 1999 | 123rd | Nathan Hale | Matthew Greer | Demetra Kasimis |
| 1998 | 122nd | Eli Sanders | David S. Karp | Leila Nesson |
| 1997 | 121st | Kim Van Duzer | Julie Yufe | Sandra P. Angulo |
| 1996 | 120th | Hans Chen | Graham Goodkin | Lauren Goodman |
| 1995 | 119th | Peter G. Freeman | Fredrik Stanton | Henry Tam, Jr. |
| 1994 | 118th | Ruth Halikman | Chris Conway | Michael Stanton |
| 1993 | 117th | Elizabeth Berke | Katherine Huibonhoa | Leyla Kokmen |
| 1992 | 116th | Kristina Nye | Ram Rao | Jessica Shaw |
| 1991 | 115th | Kirsten Danis | Andrew Rothschild | Catherine Thorpe |
| 1990 | 114th | Julie Zuckerman | Anna Compaglia | Robert Hardt, Jr. |
| 1989 | 113th | Josh Gillette | Erika Henik | Jonathan Earle |
| 1988 | 112th | Tracy Connor | Roger Rubin | Asha Badranith |
| 1987 | 111th | Sara Just | Alison Craiglow | John Oswald |
| 1986 | 110th | Jacqueline Shea Murphy | Toshihiko Saito | Elizabeth Schwartz |
| 1985 | 109th | Anne Kornhauser | Thomas Fitzsimmons | William Teichner |
| 1984 | 108th | Aaron J. Freiwald | Thomas Fitzsimmons | Robert Zeiger |
| 1983 | 107th | Steven Waldman | Peter Baltay | Kate Schaefer |
| 1982 | 106th | John Zimmerman | Robert Hughes | Todd Bressi |
| 1981 | 105th | Stuart Karle | Beverly Weintraub ("Business Manager") | Pete Brown |
| 1980 | 104th | Jon Elsen | Bonnie Spiro ("Business Manager") | Chris Wellisz |
| 1979 | 103rd | Jim Schachter | Carol Futernick ("Business Manager") | David Rosenberg |
| 1978 | 102nd | Joe Ferullo | Sheldon Nussbaum ("Business Manager") | Mitch Rollnick |
| 1977 | 101st | Richard Hart | David Margules ("Publisher"), Susan Wagner ("Business Manager") | (none) |
| 1976 | 100th | Gregg Bloche, succ. by Jonathan Steinberg | Jon Lukomnik ("Publisher"), Michelle Seltzer ("Business Manager") | Jonathan Steinberg, succ. by David Margules |
| 1975 | 99th | David Raab | Brian Dowd ("Business Manager") | Ted Green |
| 1974 | 98th | Eric Rieder | Jay Lisnow ("Business Manager") | David Smith |
| 1973 | 97th | Gail Robinson | Dan Dolgin ("Business Manager") | Richard Briffault |
| 1972 | 96th | John Brecher | L. Stanton Towne, succ. by Geoffrey Colvin ("Business Manager") | Maureen McGuirl |
| 1971 | 95th | Jon Groner | Jonathan Kandel ("Business Manager") | Lillian Ehrlich |
| 1970 | 94th | Martin Flumenbaum | Mitchell Gerber, succ. by Robert J. Hunt ("Business Manager") | Juris Kaža |
| 1969 | 93rd | Paul Starr | Lawrence D. Levin ("Business Manager") | Robert Hardman |
| 1968 | 92nd | Robert Friedman | Nicholas Garaufis ("Business Manager") | Charles L. Skoro |
| 1967 | 91st | Christopher Friedrichs | Leon Wyszewianski ("Business Manager") | David Heim |
| 1966 | 90th | Alan S. Lake | Stuart A. Schlang ("Business Manager") | Mark Minton |
| 1965 | 89th | Michael Drosnin | Jay S. Goldsamt ("Business Manager") | Daniel Epstein |
| 1964 | 88th | Donald H. Shapiro | L. Michael Krieger ("Business Manager") | Stanford N. Sesser |
| 1963 | 87th | Gary A. Schonwald | Burt H. Liebman ("Business Manager") | Norman A. Olch |
| 1962 | 86th | Dov M. Grunschlag | Jon M. Eckel ("Business Manager") | Doron Gopstein |
| 1961 | 85th | Allen Young | Paul A. Gitman ("Business Manager") | Eric Levine |
| 1960 | 84th | Martin B. Margulies | Andrew S. Levine ("Business Manager") | John D. Hack succ. by Arnold Abrams |
| 1959 | 83rd | William Robert Bishin | Carl A. Steinbaum ("Business Manager") | Nathan Gross |
| 1958 | 82nd | Robert M. Burd | Barry C. Cooper ("Business Manager") | Allan D. Gochman |
| 1957 | 81st | Bernard Nussbaum | Kenneth J. Stern ("Business Manager") | Howard J. Orlin |
| 1956 | 80th | H. Douglas Eldridge | George Leibowitz ("Business Manager") | Bruce R. Buckley |
| 1955 | 79th | Jonas Schultz | Grover H. Wald ("Business Manager") | Robert R. Siroty |
| 1954 | 78th | Lee Townsend | Sheldon M. Wolf ("Business Manager") | Gerald M. Pomper |
| 1953 | 77th | Charles E. Selinske | Lester Friedman ("Business Manager") | Judah L. Berger |
| 1952 | 76th | Jerry G. Landauer | H. Wallace Kava ("Business Manager") | Donald L. Hymes & Rolon W. Reed |
| 1951 | 75th | Max Frankel | Frank Walwer ("Business Manager") | Lawrence K. Grossman & Charles N. Jacobs |
| 1950 | 74th | David Wise | James A. Williams ("Business Manager") | Peter H. Schiff |
| 1949 | 73rd | Robert C. Frederiksen | Edward Wolfe ("Business Manager") | Gabriel Favoino (spring semester only; vacant in fall) |
| 1948 | 72nd | Robert Neil Butler | Vincent A. Carrozza ("Business Manager") | Gene R. Haves |
| 1947 | 71st | David L. Schraffenberger | Fred De Vries ("Business Manager") | (none) |
| 1946 | 70th | Edward B. Gold succ. by Alan S. Kuller | David H. Horowitz succ. by Daniel Schimmel ("Business Manager") | Gideon H. Oppenheimer succ. by George T. Vogel |
| 1945 | 69th | Arthur Lazarus succ. by Stanley Smith | Michael Lichtenstein succ. by Stuart Schwartz ("Business Manager") | (none) (spring semester), Fred M. Kleeberg (fall semester) |
| 1944 | 68th | Joseph Barata succ. by John Crossett | Norman Levy ("Business Manager") | Matthew T. Kenny succ. by Irwin Oder |
| 1943 | 67th | Elliott M. Sanger, Jr. succ. by Paul J. Sherman succ. by Walter D. Scott | William Gross succ. by Andrew Rohman ("Business Manager") | Paul J. Sherman succ. by Walter D. Scott succ. by Matthew T. Kenny |

## Notable Spec alumni

* Rohit Aggarwala, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection
* David Alpern, former senior writer and current contributing editor for Newsweek
* Lou Antonelli, Texas-based science fiction and fantasy author
* R.W. Apple, senior staff writer for The New York Times, serving as a foreign correspondent for over 30 years
* Roone Arledge, sportscaster and head of ABC News; created 20/20 and Nightline in addition to Monday Night Football
* Naftali Bendavid political reporter for The Wall Street Journal and author of The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution
* Arnold Beichman, conservative commentator
* Damien Bona, former Daily Spectator film critic, film historian and co-author of "Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards"
* Katherine Boo, writer for The New Yorker and winner of the Pulitzer Prize
* Marcus Brauchli, former executive editor of The Washington Post and former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal
* Robert Neil Butler, geriatrician
* Ben Casselman, economics reporter for The New York Times
* Bennett Cerf, co-founder of Random House
* Isadora Cerullo, Olympic rugby player
* Ariana Cha, The Washington Post
* Elizabeth Cohen, CNN reporter
* Matthew Cooper, Portfolio columnist
* Matthew Continetti, writer at The Weekly Standard
* David Denby, staff writer for The New Yorker
* I.A.L. Diamond, screenwriter
* Morris Dickstein, noted literary critic and professor at CUNY
* Joe Ferullo, Vice President of Programming and Development for CBS Paramount Domestic Television
* Max Frankel, former executive editor of The New York Times
* Ruth Franklin (née Ruth Halikman), senior literary editor at The New Republic
* Robert Friedman, editor-at-large at Bloomberg
* Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
* Robert Giroux, publisher
* Ralph J. Gleason, music critic
* Neil Gorsuch, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
* Alfred Harcourt, publisher
* Reed Harris, expelled for 20 days, author of King Football, journalist, civil servant, target of McCarthyism
* Frederick William Holls, lawyer, publicist, Secretary of the United States delegation to the Hague Peace Conference
* Langston Hughes, poet, novelist and playwright
* Dan Janison, reporter and columnist for New York Newsday
* David Kaczynski, younger brother of Ted Kaczynski
* Jack Kerouac, Beat Generation novelist
* Bob Klapisch, sportswriter for The Star-Ledger
* Vi Kyuin Wellington Koo, Chinese diplomat
* Adam B. Kushner, editor of the Outlook section at The Washington Post
* Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright; author of Angels in America
* Jerry Landauer, Worth Bingham Prize recipient, journalist at The Wall Street Journal
* Arthur Lazarus, Jr., attorney for Indian tribes
* Jonathan Lemire, host of MSNBC's Way Too Early and Politico's White House bureau chief
* Arthur M. Louis, former long-time writer with Fortune magazine, free-lance writer and author
* John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper's magazine
* Herman J. Mankiewicz, screenwriter
* Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Academy award-winning movie director
* Sam Marchiano, sportscaster, formerly of MLB.com
* Nekesa Mumbi Moody, editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter
* Graham Moore, Academy Award-winning screenwriter
* Michael Mukasey, former US Attorney General
* Pat Mullins, Chairman of Virginia Republican Party
* Michael Musto, New York City journalist and media gadfly
* Bernard W. Nussbaum, former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton
* Jim Ogle, longtime sportswriter for The Star-Ledger and chronicler of the New York Yankees
* Beto O'Rourke, U.S. Representative. Wrote for the Spectator under the name Robert O'Rourke.
* William Barclay Parsons, engineer, founder of Parsons Binckerhoff
* Jed Perl, author and art critic of The New Republic
* Joshua Prager, author and previous special senior projects reporter for The Wall Street Journal
* Robert Pollack (biologist), author and professor of biological sciences
* Gerald M. Pomper, political scientist at Rutgers University
* Ted Rall, political cartoonist
* Ian Rapoport, sportswriter and television analyst, NFL Network
* Cecilia Reyes, journalist who reported on Nutellagate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 2022
* Roger Rubin, sportswriter, New York Daily News
* Harriet Ryan, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
* Rob Saliterman, former spokesman for former President George W. Bush
* Nick Schifrin, correspondent for PBS NewsHour and former foreign correspondent for ABC News and Al Jazeera America
* Zach Sims, co-founder of Codecademy
* Warren St. John, The New York Times reporter and author
* Nick Summers, Bloomberg Businessweek editor and co-founder of IvyGate
* Lee C. Townsend, News Editor, CBS Evening News (Cronkite & Rather)
* Richard Wald, former president of NBC
* Steven Waldman, journalist and founder of Beliefnet.com
* Michael Waldman, speechwriter and advisor for President Bill Clinton
* Sharon Waxman, The New York Times reporter
* James Wechsler, chief editor of the New York Post
* Beverly Weintraub, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer
* Lis Wiehl, legal commentator for Fox News
* Mason Wiley, co-author of The Official Preppy Handbook
* Beau Willimon, creator, producer and writer of U.S. miniseries House of Cards
* Herman Wouk, author
* Paul Zimmerman, columnist for Sports Illustrated (as "Dr. Z")