On April 24, The Sun’s Editorial Board endorsed Saad Razzak for executive vice president of the Student Assembly and chose to endorse nobody for president. Every spring, as campaign platforms circulate, elections for Cornell’s Student Assembly take center stage on campus. This process can be chaotic, at times dramatic, and truly significant. It provides a rare opportunity for students to learn about communication, organization, negotiation and leadership.
However, there is one presence in this campus political arena that commands more attention than any campaign social media account, debate performance or endorsement from a student organization — The Cornell Daily Sun Editorial Board.
The Editorial Board communicates with a unified, powerful voice. Its opinions are published in print, occupy a specific section on the website and carry a level of authority that few others at Cornell can match: There are no comparable publications with such extensive reach.
When the Editorial Board endorses candidates for student government, it does not simply add to the conversation; it shapes it. In a university setting where student elections aim to allow room for mistakes, experimentation and lessons learned without lasting repercussions, this influence is significant.
The Editorial Board ought to refrain from endorsing Student Assembly candidates, allowing students to let their actions speak for themselves. In an arena where the Student Assembly president and vice president roles are focused on the administration of student government, the Editorial Board is too obsessed with political party alignment.
Let Students Be Students
Universities must continue to be environments where students prepare to enter the workforce without fear that failure or misstep may cost them their careers. In this environment, students can hold viewpoints that change over at least four years, and they aren’t typically subject to national scrutiny.
We spoke to Ezra Galperin, who ran for Student Assembly executive vice president in Spring 2025 and was interviewed by the Editorial Board immediately after participating in a candidate forum facilitated by the Student Assembly Office of Elections.
According to Galperin, who is also a Sun columnist, while the Elections Committee primarily asked campus-focused questions during the forum, the Editorial Board focused on national political issues.
He recalls being asked about “the Trump administration’s threats against Cornell,” and later, “when I was called for the follow-up, very broadly speaking, I was asked about Palestine.”
Article III, Section 2 of the Student Assembly Bylaws outlines the responsibility of the Executive Vice President. Responding to national politics does not appear on that list. In fact, the word “national” does not appear in the document at all.
Fortunately, Galperin says he did not perceive any bias during the interview process: “I didn’t get any sense from the attitude of the interviewer … that they were out to get me by any means.”
“My politics are very different from those of the Editorial Board, so I didn’t expect the endorsement in the first place,” Galperin said, “as the whole process progressed, I definitely came to understand that national politics was going to be a big point of emphasis for them.”
When asked what he would’ve liked to talk about instead, Galperin said “how have you made students’ lives better,” and told us about a resolution he helped pass to bring Meals on the Move to Central Campus.
The Board wrote that Galperin “lacks a track record of unifying the Student Assembly to respond to national politics.” National politics certainly impact campus life, but candidates’ politics are not the focus of the Student Assembly’s own Office of Elections, which, according to Galperin, asked campus and role-focused questions.
Accountability
The Editorial Board may claim they are students practicing too. However, we have some issues with that notion.
First, you won’t find an endorsement opinion different from the Board’s. These are students with the unique and largely unchecked power of the press. The Cornell Daily Sun has a monopoly on campus reporting, which makes it seem like Cornell experiences uniformity in thought.
Second, in the case that an opinion writer disagrees with the opinion of the Editorial Board and is silenced by their colleagues, they have nowhere to go. Whereas New York Times writers facing censorship may publish in the Washington Post, Cornell Daily Sun writers could, we suppose, print their opinion on printer paper and leave it around campus?
Finally, while not many opinion writers are challenging it, the Editorial Board already claimed to speak on behalf of them. The title of last semester’s article reads “The Sun Endorses…” and whether we agree with the endorsement doesn’t matter; what matters is that we were never asked. There is no process by which the Editorial Board considers multiple viewpoints on this matter before presuming to speak with a unified voice.
The situation is so opaque that neither you nor we can meaningfully compare candidates because the Board doesn’t share the questions or answers. Readers are left without the information needed to draw their own conclusion.
Consistency
The very foundation of the Editorial Board’s Student Assembly endorsements implies the superiority of the Student Assembly over the other five assemblies of shared governance that preside across Cornell. Such organizations cover a wide range of areas equally important to the community, such as the Faculty Senate, the Employee Assembly and the constituent-elected trustees, yet the Sun chooses only to endorse presidential and EVP candidates in the undergraduate Student Assembly. This is convenience bias at best, favoritism bias at worst.
The Bottom Line
The Student Assembly is a body meant to not only represent the interests of the undergraduate student body, but also to uplift the students of the university. Why is it the Editorial Board’s job to do the opposite? The Editorial Board’s choice to superimpose a laundry list of ideal qualities for a candidate as a council with a near-monopoly on the direction of public discourse will do nothing but discourage students who are genuinely passionate about making a difference on the university level.
Leah Badawi '27 is an Opinion Columnist and a Government and English student in the College of Arts & Sciences. She also serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Rainy Day Literary Magazine. Her fortnightly column “Leah Down The Law” reflects on politics, history, and broader culture in an attempt to tell stories that are often left between the lines. She can be reached at lbadawi@cornellsun.com.
Paul Caruso is an Opinion Columnist and a second year MPA student in the Brooks School of Public Policy and the Founder of the Cornell Negotiation Student Society. His column, Caruso's Compass, focuses on politics, international affairs, and campus life. The column seeks to identify issues with the status quo and provide solutions to them. He can be reached at pcaruso@cornellsun.com.
Lali Tobin MPA '27 is an Opinion Columnist and a master's student at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. Her monthly column, The Tobin Times, explores public policy and politics through different lenses. She hopes to engage readers in hearing how politics is the most discussed topic in the media and why it is important to stay on top of current issues. She also hopes to tackle current social trends that can be connected through public policy. She can be reached at ltobin@cornellsun.com.
