Just as the editors of the first issue of The Sun realized, “there are many obstacles in the path of a college daily.” We understand this sentiment now more than ever. After weathering a global pandemic alongside the general decline of print media, our predecessors of the 140th editorial board laid a solid foundation for The Sun to grow by revitalizing the community while continuing to report on important matters. Throughout my nearly three years at The Sun, I have witnessed the strength of independent, student-run journalism, and as the new editorial board emerges, that strength will continue to build.
This past Saturday, The Sun ended six weeks of training by electing a new cohort of editors. The 140th board, full of energy and excitement, now embraces the time-honored commitment to band together and make The Sun shine. My talented peers have demonstrated boundless curiosity, persistent optimism and a dedication to quality journalism throughout training, and I firmly believe that we’ve placed The Sun into good hands. It has been my greatest honor to learn from them and work alongside them these past few weeks, and I’m grateful for a coming year of fruitful collaboration. As we navigate the lasting effects of the pandemic, we push forward with courage and hope for a better-informed, reconnected community.
If you ever want to realize some of your greatest capacities, work for a student newspaper. Here, you’ll solve crises and uncover opportunities and see how much you can accomplish, even on the least amount of sleep.
Why would anyone work for a newspaper? A great question (and one any Sunnie has asked at least once while up late fighting with InDesign) — with its constant challenges and the constant insistence on the death of the journalism industry. I can offer you my reason: hope.
I’m in a class this semester with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Molly O’Toole ’09, this year’s Distinguished Visiting Journalist at Cornell (and, I should mention, a former news editor of The Sun), and she asked us what we loved about journalism. My own answer hinged on telling the stories of the people around me, of my classmates and neighbors — it is a public service, this hope.
In our 141 years, this has always been the case. We, as we always have, ask hard questions and work tirelessly to uncover the truth; we interview, research, argue, photograph, design, report and write to highlight the lives of the people here on the Hill.
The quads and streets and buildings (old and new) are filled with the energy of the new year and of new faces. The constant crowds of bleary-eyed families and bright-eyed first-years have reminded this old senior of the excitement and hope that comes with the new — including this new year for all of us.
We are here to work for you, as we have been since 1880. Still, we ask big questions and imagine new possibilities. Still, we uncover messy and complicated truths and tell the stories that emerge.
The Cornell Daily Sun will be on hiatus for the upcoming winter break to provide our editors, writers and hard-working staff with an opportunity to bring balance to their title of “student journalist.”
I’m appreciative of my peers, who I’ve watched embrace the hurdles of this semester with open arms. They’ve worked through the regular challenges of a paper — difficult deadlines, impossible business conditions and ever-changing news cycles. They’ve persevered across the new challenges of our paper — staggered hours, solitary working conditions, long days of screen time, differing time zones and internet flubs. And most starkly, they’ve confronted intangible difficulty — COVID-19 itself, loneliness and the loss of their own loved ones. But still, night after night, they’ve tried their hardest to bring the campus happenings to you.
I can’t thank them enough.
When we return after the break, The Sun will be in the hands of the 139th editorial compets, a group of candidates for our 35 or so leadership positions. During these first weeks, they’ll be trained in the work of the nation’s oldest continuously independent college daily; I know that they’ll rise gracefully to the challenge.
Until then, stay safe, wear a mask — we’ll be back before you know it.
Today is the final day of print publication in 2020 for The Cornell Daily Sun. A departure from our normal schedule, we will publish regularly after Thanksgiving break online only. For the rest of the semester, the sturdy doors at 139 W State Street won’t see the normal influx of editors rushing in and out to make a paper, as our staff returns to their homes and bunkers down until the spring.
We adore the comfort and cadence of our print paper, and — not unlike the sunshine in Ithaca — the print edition of The Cornell Daily Sun will return in February.
In the meantime, we’ll continue our steady reporting at cornellsun.com; if you have comments, compliments, concerns or qualms, do reach out to [email protected] — we’d love to hear from you.
As deadlines creep and finals loom, The Sun will begin a brief pause in publication today. For the next two weeks, our staff will set down their reporting hats to — hopefully — rub sleep from their eyes, pass exams, polish up final papers and take a well-deserved break from the whirlwind that this semester has been. These past few months, The Sun and its peers again demonstrated the need for quality, independent journalism on college campuses. As countless voices sought outlets, The Sun created a forum for students, faculty, alumni and prospective Cornellians to hear each other in a time when our voices are farther apart than ever. With the loss of pre-lecture grumblings and coffee-counter conversations, the importance of a space to share information and insight is clear.
