When you notice a light fade from the horizon, you might assume that it’s the falling sun. This weekend, it was the passing of a torch. Much like its celestial namesake, The Cornell Daily Sun never fails to rise for every time it sets. Its staff gathered on Saturday for many rounds of competitive flattery and delicate criticism, ultimately leaving with a brand new team of elected leaders. Please join us in congratulating the members of our 143rd Editorial Board!
We believe that there is no better person to lead our board than your favorite editor’s favorite editor, Julia Senzon ’26. While we may trust our 143rd editor-in-chief to lead our paper up these slopes, we might be more hesitant about the other kind — she got stuck on a mountain last week. Thanks, ski patrol!
Her protégés leading the objective side of the paper will be managing editor Dorothy France-Miller ’27, who always brightens up the office with her glittery eyeshadow, and assistant managing editor Matthew Kiviat ’27. Matthew wants you to know that he’s an avid runner — he didn’t mention that he likes the occasional Rockstar-fueled midnight sprint from North campus to our office in the Commons.
All hailing from the same notorious high school (go Peglegs?) are our three additions to the Opinion department. Putting the Eric in esoteric, our new associate editor can’t help but philosophize on the job. Leading the subjective side, it’s me: Eric Han ’26. I’ll be joined by opinion editor Sophia Dasser ’28, who, like Julia, has been navigating all sorts of slippery slopes this semester — whether it’s skiing (poorly), deciding just how controversial an opinion piece can be (answer: very) or figuring out if she’s had too much matcha (she hasn’t). Meanwhile, you can find assistant opinion editor Ilana Livshits ’27 baking desserts at the most random hours. Go ask her what she’s cheffed up this week!
Because printer ink costs an arm and leg, the 143rd has enlisted coffee aficionado Audrey Im ’26 to balance the books as our business manager. Don’t think the business side is all work and no play, though, with advertising manager Vera Sun ’27 always planning her next travel destination. Maybe she should plan a trip to Venezuela, where marketing manager Sophia Torres ’26 grew up. And I’m glad our new human resources manager knows a thing or two about checking mates: Alex Liew ’27 is retired from professional chess.
A newspaper isn’t complete without news, so we’ve picked some impressive journalists to be our news editors. We’ve elected four to be precise, which happens to be the number of cats Isabella Hanson ’27 owns. Maybe Cereese Qusba ’27, who dabbles in carpentry, could build them a place to stay in the office (only cats could comfort us after staring at Adobe InDesign all night). Benjamin Leynse ’27 might take “hours” (more like days) to respond to texts, but don’t worry, he’ll respond to your Slack DMs in a pinch. And it looks like Varsha Bhargava ’27 has been busy reading the Sun Style Manual — she’s purportedly a big fan of em dashes.
Don’t worry, our four horsemen will have all the help they need to break the best stories. In fact, we have just as many assistant news editors! We’re hoping Jeremiah Jung ’28, for example, can bring some new life into the office with his advanced DJ skills. And maybe Kate Turk ’27 could be our new token environment & sustainability major, now that we’re losing our previous one (we’ll miss you Eric Reilly!). If you want to strike a conversation with Reem Nasrallah ’28, you might want to bring up Gilmore Girls — she’s currently on her 25th watch. Finally, try not to decompose around Angelina Tang ’28, because she has a serious love for turkey vultures. Don’t ask me what that entails.
The news team doesn’t stop there. Our city editor, Gabriel Muñoz ’26, can be found lingering inconspicuously around Zeus when he’s not chasing down Common Council members. Gabe may be a Sun veteran, but Jane Haviland ’28 is bringing some fresh perspective as our first-ever features editor. If you want to be her friend, I suggest you get her an iced caramel latte.
This board’s sole arts and culture editor (she’s glad to be rid of me) is the critic behind all of your favorite throwback album reviews — “Test Spins” writer Sydney Levinton ’27. She’s recruited a small village of assistant editors to join her, starting with the 143rd’s only redhead, Jenna Ledley ’27. Jenna knows not to bring up the Oxford comma around Melissa Moon ’28, who cries every time she has to remove it in edits. Sun Style is law. And while we’re giving advice, don’t ask Sophia Romanov Imber ’28 to explain a metaphor. She’ll overanalyze it (“it’s always that deep”) unless she’s too busy editing photos on Adobe Lightroom. Here’s an easy one for her: James Palm ’27 is taking Arts to new heights! Sorry Sophia, but this one’s literal — James has his pilot’s license.
We’re all looking forward to seeing what becomes of our youngest section, Lifestyle (RIP, Dining). Thankfully, lifestyle co-editor Maia Mehring ’27 is ready to put her video-producing skills to the test after her big splash on Netflix (she was an extra in Master of None). And I’m guessing her co-editor Kaitlyn Bell ’28 is just excited to be her department twin since she’s too used to being the only sister of triplets!
Words are great and all, but sometimes it’s hard to write more than 999 of them. That’s when we’re grateful to have our hardworking photo editor Karlie McGann ’27, who lives off of diet soda and caffeine. Hopefully, she can just stick to the soda now that we’ve elected two assistant photo editors to share some of the load. Despite being from San Diego, Matthew Korniczky ’28 claims that he’s already earned a “Northern Attitude” (and by that he means that he’s a Noah Kahan fan). I heard he’s trying to get his pilot’s license — maybe he’ll be the Goose to James’ Maverick. Stephan Menasche ’28, on the other hand, can be found doom-scrolling whenever he’s not catching intense flicks of political tension on campus.
But the visual content doesn’t end there! We have Mirella Berkowitz ’27 stepping into the role of multimedia editor, the Sun’s resident camera equipment manager. If you catch her speed-walking around campus with an iced latte (yes, even in winter), let me know what depressing music she’s listening to this time. She’ll be working closely with our veteran social media editor Jade Dubuche ’27, with a 10-hour daily average screen time. Would we trust our Instagram with anyone else?
They’ll certainly be a reliable resource of action shots for our new sports editor Alexis Rogers ’28, who claims to be the No. 1 consumer of Cornell Dairy ice cream. She’s supported by assistant sports editors Dylan Graff ’28, a big Knicks fan (go JB!), and Zeinab Faraj ’28, who’s been to about 13 different NFL stadiums. Now that’s the dream team.
Science editor Kaitlin Chung ’26, an impassioned advocate for the hazelnut latte at Mac’s, is returning to lead our most scholastic inquiries. Her new partner-in-crime studies philosophy and biology — science editor Marissa Gaut ’27 might be the new Aristotle, if Aristotle also liked going on 20-mile walks for fun. They’ll get their weather forecasts from resident meteorologist Simran LaBore ’27, our weather editor with a penchant for the banjo.
For those of you unsure if it’s possible to be a good visual artist and writer at the same time, we’d like you to meet graphics editor Hannia Arevalo ’27! When they aren't drawing some of our most crucial graphics, they're busy figuring out the political logistics of their science-fiction and fantasy worlds. Stay tuned for their upcoming Opinion debut!
Our beautiful print pages wouldn’t look so dazzling without the assistance of our highly sought layout editors, Hunter Petmecky ’28 and Rena Geula ’28. Rena, who plays soccer in her free time, is a proud froyo enthusiast.
If there’s one thing that can bring this editorial board together, it’s our appreciation for newsletter editor Allison Hecht ’26. She still (x2) may not be able to ride a bike, but we don’t mind (as long as she keeps our alumni reading).
Eric Han is a member of the Class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the associate editor of the 143rd Editorial Board and was an arts and culture co-editor of the 142nd Editorial Board. His monthly column, Campus Dialectic, reviews recent Sun op-eds to speculate on cultural and political issues. He can be reached at ehan@cornellsun.com.
