USF Tampa’s student newspaper traces its roots to the Campus Edition of the Tampa Daily Times. Replaced in 1966 by The Oracle, the newspaper has served as a crucial training ground for students of every academic discipline, who document the changing cultural landscape of college life at USF. Visit our contact page to learn how to get involved. 

Alumni have gone onto receive Pulitzer nominations and accomplished careers in newsrooms across the globe. Others went onto successful and influential careers in law, education, communications, advertising and marketing, and other fields. 

We’re training the future. Support us

Among our many notable alumni: 

• Thomas Simonetti, photo editor at New York Times and Washington Post
• Victoria Bekiempis, successful freelance writer who covered the Harvey Weinstein and Jay-Z trials for New York magazine
• Leda Alvim, Bloomberg; based in São Paulo, Brazil
• Sam Newlon, assistant prosecutor for the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office
• Joe Humphrey, assistant principal at Sickles High School
• Evan Perez, CNN’s senior justice correspondent who was part of a team of reporters nominated a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 2004 Florida hurricane season

Much of our alumni were and are Tampa Bay Times journalists, including former Oracle Editor in Chief Divya Kumar, who covers higher education for the newspaper. 

“My time as a student journalist at The Oracle was the best preparation I received for a career in journalism,” said Kumar, who worked for the student newspaper from 2010 until 2014. “The experience to learn while doing, and being held to the same professional standards of accuracy and fairness was one that helped prepare me for graduate school and my job.

She added: “More importantly, The Oracle helped me find my passion for journalism, showing me the impact storytelling and delivering accurate information can have. I was lucky to pick up some lifelong friends and mentors along the way as well in fellow student journalists, the advisor and others. Particularly in times like these where the need for accurate reporting is perhaps more needed than ever to cut through the noise, I could not think of a better training ground.”

If you would like to support our work, we highly encourage you to do so through a donation through the USF Foundation. To hear from student reporters and editors about how you can help us afford needed equipment and technology to publish the newspaper, click here.