If you have ever walked into the Temple of Zeus past 9 p.m., you have seen our editors hunched over laptops, refining the stories you will read in our newsletter the next day. If you have ever passed our office at 139 W. State St. on a Monday night, you have seen us flatting the pages you will hold in your hands by Wednesday. If you have ever sat behind one of our writers in lecture, you have watched them emailing the sources whose names you will see quoted in print. If you have ever wandered through Goldwin Smith Hall on a Thursday evening, you have heard us, the laughs, the debates and the occasional heated moments over the pieces you will later share with your friends. And if you have ever found yourself at a concert, at a game, at a protest, at an assembly meeting, on a foggy morning or a bright afternoon, you have seen our photographers with cameras hanging from their necks capturing the moments you will remember Cornell by.
We have always been there. The question is whether we can stay.
None of this work is paid and none of it required. Every single person at The Sun is here because of you, because they believe this community deserves to see itself clearly. But belief alone does not keep a newsroom running and clarity is not something that sustains itself.
In my inaugural letter, I wrote that the greatest threat facing our University is not hostility to the press but the dimming: the slow erosion of rigor, curiosity and depth that makes a campus actually worth belonging to. The Sun burns to resist that dimming. But burning takes fuel, and that fuel has always come from the same place: from you.
The Cornell Daily Sun has been independent since 1880. We hold no financial or editorial ties to the University. We answer to nobody but our readers. That independence is rare and invaluable, but it is not free. Every dollar you give flows directly back into the community you are a part of. Whether you are a Cornell student, a Cornell parent, a Cornell alum or member of the greater Ithaca community, you are just as part of The Sun as any writer who has ever walked into our newsroom. Your contributions keep our newsroom running. They fund the cameras and equipment our teams depend on. They keep every piece of coverage free and accessible to the entire Cornell and Ithaca community. When you give to The Sun, you are not donating to a newspaper. You are investing in your own story, so it gets told and it stays told.
There are two ways to support our Thursday, March 12 Giving Day campaign. You can donate or you can carry The Sun with you by purchasing merch from our store. Either way, you are making the same statement: Independent, student-driven journalism matters, and it belongs to you.
The 144th Editorial Board made you a promise: we will not be dimmed. So long as The Sun remains in your hands, we will continue shining.
— Sophia Dasser
Signal/Cell: +1.321.203.6550
Sophia Dasser '28 is the Editor in Chief of the 144th Editorial Board and was the Opinion Editor of the 143rd Editorial Board. She is a Computer Science and Philosophy student in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her column Dass(er) The Point explores the intersection of technology, ethics and social justice, with a focus on the overlooked and underrepresented. She can be reached at sdasser@cornellsun.com or at 321-203-6550.
