Dear reader:

In April, we told you of The Oracle’s challenges as we transition to a fully-digital paper – from budget cuts to a lack of updated technology.

We asked for your help and you stepped up. Through your contributions, we raised over $800 just one month after announcing our new fund with the USF Foundation.

Thank you for your donations, for helping us spread the word and for reading our work.

All of your contributions will ensure the paper remains editorially-independent while empowering budding reporters, photographers and creators.

With your help, we hope to raise $5,000 by the end of the year.

Related: The Oracle needs your help

Your contributions will make a difference, both inside and outside the newsroom.

We’ll be able to invest in a newsletter subscription service, social media scheduling platforms, computers and other resources. Your gifts will allow us to guide and train future generations of journalists.

Amid the many challenges we’re facing, the importance of student journalism can’t be understated. 

The Oracle has been a pillar of the USF community since 1966 – its reporters work to keep the university accountable and give students the hands-on knowledge they need for a successful career outside of college.

Most recently, our paper has kept readers informed about laws affecting higher education in the state, an on-campus hunger strike, and protests which led to more than a dozen arrests and drew national attention to our campus.

Our students have gone on to become international correspondents for Bloomberg, sports reporters for ESPN, and writers and editors in the Tampa Bay Times newsroom.

And this summer, two Oracle writers were selected as finalists in the 2024 Society of Professional Journalists Sunshine State Awards college contest – Florida’s oldest and largest journalism competition. 

Related: USF Oracle writers are finalists for state journalism awards

But in order to continue our work, we will need all the help we can get.

Through your donations, reporters will be able to occasionally attend journalism conferences, as well as increase tools and technology for all of our sections. 

Your support will play a role in shaping the next generation of journalists who will continue to ask questions on the community’s behalf.

If you can’t contribute, another way to help the newsroom is signing up for our weekly newsletters – The Weekly Roundup and The Huddle – and following us on social media.

However you choose to help The Oracle, we thank you. 

By supporting us, you are also advocating for your community’s right to stay informed.

Thank you,

The Oracle editorial team.