Readers,
No one is talking about sandbars anymore. Nothing used to be as exciting as a sandbar. Waiting till low tide, running out onto an island, then getting thrillingly, intentionally stuck as the tide returns. Those were the days. Marooned, away from your parents—totally free. What to do? Draw maps in the sand of impossible worlds. Organize the seaweed by its length and shade of green. Stand on the far end and watch a seagull hop. Wave back to shore, triumphant and only a little frightened. You stood upon a sandbox, bound not by little wooden walls but by the wide mystery of the ocean.
The Herald has just sprinted across, and stands on the beautiful island again. Every year for the last forty, the tide has ebbed, then flowed. And by “tide,” we mean money.
Long funded solely by advertisements and sheer wits, the Herald is unique amongst Yale student organizations in lacking any endowed funding. The Yale Daily News has a whole building, Yale Literary Magazine pays its writers, The New Journal has a board of professional reporters. Hell, even Rumpus has a thick wallet, supplied by some rich alumnus. But true to our roots—having been founded as the free alternative to the YDN—we remain scrappy as ever, finding money wherever we can. Haggling, selling jewelry, participating in trendy scams of gambling companies. You know the like. The tide was low, so we did our best, digging random cool shit out of the mud.
Then the tide changed. Yale’s third annual Y-SOAR campaign ended this week, on Tuesday, February 10, after having run for seven days. A program developed to help student organizations crowdfund from students, alumni, and general fans, SOAR was a smashing, massive success this year, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from over one-thousand donors. When we tossed our name into the hat, we did not anticipate 4,650 new dollars from twenty-eight individual donors. Water flooded around our little sandbar, and we rejoiced, stranded once more in the beautiful freedom of economic flexibility. Thank you.
Come celebrate with us. Pick up a copy of the Sex Issue, read the upcoming 40th Anniversary Issue (out next week), and, first, click around this issue. Jaxon Havens is back making fun of how dumb politicians dress; this time, Karoline Leavitt’s in the line of fire. Angelica Peruzzi watches the Super Bowl and tries to feel American. Sophia Torres works, briefly, at Shah’s Halal. And Will Sussbauer watches College Play and finds it ambitious and irksome. Look at what we can do on the sandbar!
Come on! Grab a paddleboard and join us.
Most daringly,
Will and Oscar