Meet Us at the Sundial

Reviving an old publication to spread new ideas

The first dedication of the sundial in 1910, Wikimedia

Dear Reader,

When Barack Obama was a student at Columbia, he wrote an article for a school magazine detailing campus groups’ advocacy for “a nuclear free world.” Published in 1983 around the height of the Cold War, Obama praised anti-militarist organizations for bringing “the words of that formidable roster on the face of Butler Library, names like Thoreau, Jefferson, and Whitman, to bear on the twisted logic of which today we are a part.”

That magazine was called Sundial. We now find ourselves in a similar time of conflict and tension on campus and in the world. Amidst new wars abroad and increasing polarization at home, we Columbia students are preparing to enter a brave new world order, expedited by dizzying technological progress. Yet, we look to much of the same Core Curriculum from Obama’s era and before for moral and historical guidance, intensely debating what it means to (and whether we should) bring the “formidable roster” of Butler to bear on today’s society. It is in that spirit of debate and discourse that we revive the Sundial name today.

The inaugural 1976 magazine sought to “serve both as a much needed source of information about the College and, more important, as a force to bring together the diverse and fragmentary elements that compose this quite unique community.” Since then, Columbia has undergone profound change. Today, our community is more demographically unique than ever, but within each fragment ideological conformity is pervasive. To many, individual thought and peer-to-peer discourse is alarmingly absent.

“It's hard to write much about a College community which just doesn't have the energy to question things anymore. The era of ambivalence is upon us and it has hit our campus this fall with a vengeance,” the editors of a 1977 issue wrote. In our era, everything from every side is questioned—every institution is ripe for dismantlement, every politician is corrupt, and every speaker should be disinvited. But, much of the Columbia community and every faction thereof refuses to interrogate their own beliefs.

Obama's 1983 Sundial Article, New York Times

Our mission is to catalyze a cross-pollination of ideas throughout the community, overcome echo chambers, and encourage healthy competition of ideas to strengthen campus discourse. Otherwise, we will succumb to the devastating effects of groupthink and progress toward intellectual mediocrity. You will not agree with everything (or perhaps anything) we run, and that’s the point. Sundial challenges you to see how the ideas of others are not useless to yourself.

We refuse to believe that Columbia can no longer become a haven for discourse of the highest caliber. Our commitment to the art of opinionated but principled discussion stems from a firm belief that our school should be both a passionate and open-minded community. Today, however, we must ask: ​Where are our bustling centers of debate? Where is our capacity to not just disagree but to truly understand and disagree, with both decorum and fervor?

Sundial will have values and principles, but not an ideological line. We will root our journalism and commentary on the belief that the American college exists not to coddle or indoctrinate us, but to challenge our views in and out of the classroom, even those that we hold dear to our identities. In the process, we become intellectually vigorous, emotionally resilient, and morally stronger. We will put forth ideas rationally and logically, valuing good-faith discussion over emotional pleas and personal attacks. And, we will always be at the service of the Columbia community, holding administration, faculty, and students of authority accountable for the bad and the good.

Positioned at the center of the Morningside campus since 1910, our sundial has witnessed more than perhaps any other campus fixture. The sundial has long served as a meeting point and place for discussion, debate, and protest. Within our namesake magazine, we hope to do the same.

Throw your ideas and hottest takes into the crucible of the comments section or send them to our email. Let us serve as a center of the confrontative debate you’ve been yearning for—your virtual agora. If successful, we will be both Columbia’s greatest critic and its greatest ally.

Jonas Du
Nick Chimicles
Jackson Cheramie

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Mr. Du is the editor-in-chief of Sundial. Mr. Chimicles is a senior editor and the director of operations for Sundial. Mr. Cheramie is the managing editor of Sundial. The authors are juniors at Columbia College.