In 1916, Robert Brown, graduate student of the class of 1916, continuously pursued the idea of creating a school newspaper.

[2] In 1921, the Student Council began publishing a weekly, four-column newspaper that was priced at one dollar a year.

The students also work as editors, photographers, reporters, page designers, graphic artists, advertising sales representatives, production technicians, and circulation drivers.

Roughly 15,000 copies of The Daily Egyptian are freely distributed at nearly 200 locations across campus, throughout Carbondale, and other surrounding communities.

[7][8] In 2003 Jaimie Reynolds, a former student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, made up a story about a little girl named Kodee, whose mother was killed in a tragic car accident and whose father was fighting in Iraq.

[9] In 2005 The Daily Egyptian admitted that the letters were a hoax that was perpetuated by the woman pretending to be the girl's aunt.