Dear reader:

Reporters for USF’s award-winning student newspaper, The Oracle, have recently navigated through a pandemic, a rapidly evolving political climate and a change in university president – all with the goal of sharing important news and stories.

Though The Oracle has been an integral part in keeping the USF community informed since 1966, we can’t thrive without your support.

Budget cuts, tight staff pay and limited access to updated technology have plagued The Oracle despite strong student interest and an eager-to-learn team of journalists.

Amid these challenges, the importance of student journalism cannot be understated. 

Student-run papers like The Oracle do outstanding work to keep universities accountable, give students the tools to succeed in the professional world and truly make a difference.

Past Oracle journalists have gone on to become international correspondents for Bloomberg, sports reporters for ESPN and social media staffers in the Tampa Bay Times newsroom.

In order to continue these achievements, we can’t do it alone.

This is where you come in.

The Oracle has established a fund through the USF Foundation to help us survive the transition to a fully-digital paper.

Support student journalism

Your donation, however big or small, will help guide us in leading the next generation of journalists to do impactful work, both locally and globally. It will allow better educational opportunities for our reporters, such as attending conferences hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists or taking classes from highly-respected journalism institutes.

It will also help us at a foundational level. Our office only has two outdated computers for both reporters and the advertising team to do work on, a broken T.V. that we used to project workshops onto and minimal multimedia equipment.

With your support, we’d like to invest in our technology amid our transition to thriving as a fully-digital paper. This would include updating our in-office technology, implementing new software such as social media scheduling platforms, and much more.

Offering support can be more than a donation. Sharing this page, telling a friend or simply reading our daily content can go a long way in showing you care for our newsroom. The Oracle is no longer in print, so signing up for our digital newsletters and following us on social media is another great way to show support.

To Oracle alumni: we encourage you to submit guest columns about your time at The Oracle, or talk about your experiences at the paper to anyone who will listen. Letting people know how valuable your time was here is a priceless opportunity to show the importance of The Oracle.

No matter how you decide to support The Oracle, we thank you. Your continued support isn’t just helping us – it’s advocating for your community’s right to stay informed. 

Thank you,

The Oracle editorial team

Donate here