The ''Arizona Daily Wildcat'' is a

student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station Graduate student journal, produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related new ...

serving the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. It was founded in 1899 as the ''Sage Green and Silver.'' Previous names include ''Arizona Weekly Life'', ''University Life'', ''Arizona Life'' and ''Arizona Wildcat.'' Its distribution is within the university and the

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

metropolitan area. It has a distribution of 20,000. Its websit
dailywildcat.com
is updated regularly during the spring and fall semesters, while the print version is distributed Wednesday. During the summer months, it is published weekly as the ''Arizona Summer Wildcat''. The ''Arizona Daily Wildcat'' was named ''Best College Newspaper'' by Princeton Review's ''THE BEST 361 COLLEGES, 2006 EDITION''.

Awards

2010 Associated Collegiate Press Online Pacemaker award winner.
2010 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker finalist.
2010

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, lette ...

Mark of Excellence Award National Finalist for online sports reporting at a four-year college or university.
2010 College Media Advisers Apple Award winner for best four-year broadsheet newspaper.
2015 Associated Collegiate Press 2015 National College Media Convention Best of Show

Controversy

The Tuesday October 16, 2012 issue featured a four-panel cartoon by cartoonist D. C. Parsons, deemed offensive by some 8,000 signatories to a petition to have the Cartoonist and Editor-in-Chief and Copy-Editor fired. The editor-in-chief did not step down despite the number of signatories asking for her resignation; however, the cartoonist was promptly fired after the publication. The paper did issue an apology for the matter.

The May Day mystery

The May Day mystery is a series of cryptic advertisements taken out annually on May 1 (

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

) in the ''Arizona Daily Wildcat'' since 1981. The ads are described as a "mess of equations, historical figures, artwork and symbols", and are signed with a "smiley face" figure. The first known ad appeared on May 1, 1981, featuring the quote "Long live Chairman Mao" written in

simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

. Over the years, the ads grew in complexity. The ads usually appear on the most expensive advertising areas of the newspaper. They share a theme of revolution and social unrest, and featured about 14 languages including forms of Chinese,

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. In 1997, UA alumni and web designer Bryan Hance started a website to document the ads. Hance claimed he has since been contacted by an organization known as the "Orphanage" who provided him with more clues and cryptic messages. In 1998, following an ad featuring many cryptic messages in Hebrew, a group of students accused the ads of

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and demanded to know the source of the ads. The ads were, for several years, placed by Robert Truman Hungerford, a

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

-based lawyer and a UA alumni. He is a "self-described anti-social hermit" with an interest in philosophy, theology, cryptography, languages and medicine. In a 2003 interview, Hungerford claimed to be the legal counsel for an organization who placed the ads, and refused to name the organization. Hungerford also claimed to be a member of the "Orphanage".

Notable alumni

''Daily Wildcat'' alumni have been successful in fields other than journalism, from higher education to thoroughbred race horse training. Alumni in the journalism and media fields include: * Dan Hicks, NBC sportscaster * Kate Longworth, reporter for Fox Sports Arizona' * Lynne Olson ('' Freedom's Daughters'', '' Citizens of London'') * Dorothy Parvaz, ''

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

'' reporter * Merl Reagle, syndicated crossword puzzle creator * Mort Rosenblum, author and foreign correspondent * Frank Sotomayor, retired journalist with the ''LA Times'' and winner of the 1984

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

* Bill Walsh, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' copy chief, creator of theslot.com and author of books on copyediting

References

External links

*
''Arizona Daily Wildcat'' – Online PDF version
{{University of Arizona University of Arizona Newspapers established in 1899 Student newspapers published in Arizona 1899 establishments in Arizona Territory Mass media in Tucson, Arizona