Founding and name

The Cavalier Daily printed its first issue under the name College Topics on January 15, 1890. In 1924, the newspaper increased its publication schedule from twice a week to six times a week, making the paper a daily. However, the following year, the paper's off-campus printer suffered a catastrophic fire, and the newspaper alternated between two and three publication days a week until 1940.

During World War II College Topics struggled for survival as the University of Virginia student population was greatly reduced due to the war effort. By 1943, the paper had become a four-page weekly that featured only bulletins. After the war, the paper increased its circulation and content, and was renamed The Cavalier Daily on May 4, 1948.

The admission of women and African-American students to the University of Virginia beginning in the early 1970s changed the face of the paper as well as the university community. The increased diversity of the community challenged what is often characterized as the preexisting "good old boy" attitude at both the school and The Cavalier Daily, resulting in a staff that became more motivated and ambitious. The first woman member of the Managing Board, Mary Love, was elected business manager in 1973, and the first woman editor-in-chief, Marjorie Leedy, followed in 1976. During this time, Managing Board races became highly competitive, and the paper adopted more professional journalistic standards. In 1973, a staff split resulted in several unsuccessful candidates for the Managing Board leaving to form The Declaration, a weekly tabloid-format publication that continues to publish. In 1976, The Cavalier Daily became the first college publication to receive a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.

Media Board crisis

The University's Media Board, a body composed of students and supervised by the University's Board of Visitors, was founded in 1976 to regulate on-Grounds media, but The Cavalier Daily ignored it as a matter of practice. In April 1979, the confrontation came to a head when University President Frank Hereford presented the paper with the ultimatum of accepting the Media Board and the Board of Visitors' authority or being forced to leave its offices. The newspaper refused to acknowledge administrative supervision, and The Cavalier Daily was evicted from its offices on April 4, 1979, continuing to publish from rented space in the offices of Charlottesville's Daily Progress.

On April 5, a student protest of the eviction, including a 1,500-student demonstration in front of Hereford's office on the Lawn and condemnation from Student Council, encouraged both sides to end the impasse, and the newspaper agreed to a compromise on April 6. The Cavalier Daily's movement toward complete independence emerged from the Media Board crisis.

The fallout of the Media Board crisis led to the 1983 formation of the Cavalier Daily Alumni Association, with the stated purpose to support the newspaper and aid it in times of need.

Competition

In 1979, the University saw the creation of another student-run newspaper, the University Journal, which originally formed in opposition to what many saw as the left-wing editorial stances of The Cavalier Daily. An intense rivalry between the two newspapers for news and advertising grew as the University Journal published three times weekly in the 1980s and then four times weekly beginning in 1991. Amid significant debt, the University Journal cut back production starting in 1996 and ceased to exist by 1998. Since that time, The Cavalier Daily has been one of two physical newspapers at the University of Virginia, alongside The Declaration, a bi-weekly tabloid-format newsmagazine.

Web edition

In 1995, The Cavalier Daily Online Edition was launched, and in 1998, The Cavalier Daily began to pay rent for its offices in Newcomb Hall, the last step in the path toward complete independence from the University that began in earlier decades. The Digitization Project, completed in 2001, made all aspects of production computer-based. In May 2020, The Cavalier Daily launched a redesigned website.

University governance crisis

In the media firestorm surrounding the forced resignation of Teresa Sullivan, the University of Virginia president, The Cavalier Daily obtained a series of emails using the Freedom of Information Act that shone a light on the actions of the University's Board of Visitors.

Cartoon controversy

In September 2007, The Cavalier Daily received backlash for publishing a cartoon that depicted nine Black men in loincloths throwing ordinary items such as a shoe and a chair at each other, with the caption: "Ethiopian Food Fight." The newspaper later retracted the cartoon and fired the cartoonist. The editor in chief at the time told The Washington Post that he knew the cartoon was offensive, but approved it anyways because "we print a lot of offensive things."^[2] The previous week, the same cartoonist made a strip that depicted Thomas Jefferson with a whip, standing before a Black woman sitting on the bed, who says, "Thomas, could we try role-playing for a change?"^[3] The string of cartoons frayed The Cavalier Daily's relationship with the Black community on Grounds, and a Facebook group titled "THE CAV DAILY IS ABOUT TO BE FINISHED" soon emerged. The page claimed "the Cav Daily has crossed the boundary, but this time will not go unnoticed. We need to organize and end this racism once and for all."^[3]

Media/journalism

• Nancy Andrews (Managing Editor, 1985): photojournalist and author, 1999 White House Photographer of the Year

• Nancy Barnes (Editor-in-Chief, 1981): senior vice president for news and editorial director, National Public Radio; former executive editor, The Houston Chronicle^[9]
• Kate Bedingfield (Sports Writer, 2000–02): White House Communications Director in the Biden administration
• Jamelle Bouie (Arts Writer, 2006): opinion columnist, The New York Times; political analyst, CBS News; former chief political correspondent, Slate magazine^[10]
• Katie Couric (Associate News Editor, 1975-1978): broadcast journalist and managing editor; correspondent for 60 Minutes and reporter for ABC, CBS, and NBC; first solo female anchor of a major network evening news program.
• Robert Cullen: former international correspondent for Newsweek and author
• Lane DeGregory (Editor-in-Chief, 1988–89): features writer for St. Petersburg Times, Pulitzer Prize winner
• Marty Kady (News Editor, 1993): editor, Politico Pro
• Meredith Kopit Levien (Associate Opinion Editor, 1991-93): chief executive officer, The New York Times ^[11]
• George P. Rodrigue III (Editor-in-Chief, 1977–78): former editor-in-chief of The Plain Dealer, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
• Sheryl Gay Stolberg (Executive Editor, 1982–83): Washington correspondent, The New York Times
• Jia Tolentino (Opinion Columnist, 2007): staff writer, The New Yorker; author^[12]
• Michael Vitez (Editor-in-Chief, 1978–79): journalist with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pulitzer Prize winner

Other areas

• Alfred Berkeley, III, former president, NASDAQ stock exchange
• Robert W. Daniel, Jr., former U.S. congressman from Virginia, 1973–1983
• William Stamps Farish III, former U.S. ambassador to the UK, 2001–2004
• John T. Casteen III, president, University of Virginia, 1990–2010