The time has come again for the countless student groups of Stanford to begin petitioning for special fees funding. As such, it is likely that most students by now have received at least a handful of e-mails imploring them to vote for the special fees funding of certain groups. We, the Editorial Board, would like to take a more public approach by asking you here and now to sign the petition for Stanford Daily special fees.

Whatever your personal opinion about The Daily may be, one fact simply cannot be contested, and this is that The Daily continues to serve a vital need here on campus. As the University’s only daily news publication that is entirely student-run, The Daily is the average student’s best source for perspective on what is going on around campus. More than that, it also serves as one of the few open forums for discourse about campus affairs, continually publishing op-eds and commentary by diverse members of the Stanford community, from regular students and alumni to ASSU Senators and University administrators.

Today, as the individual contribution of special fees funding per student continues to rise, many have grown to resent the special fees process entirely, asking why, in these economic times, they should lend their financial support to groups they are not part of and from which they do not directly benefit. The Editorial Board cannot speak for other special fees groups. But one thing we do know is that the vast majority of students have benefited and continued to benefit from The Daily. Whether you read The Daily religiously or just glance at it occasionally, most students still appreciate having this kind of regular campus news coverage available to them. Now, all The Daily is asking is for students to help continue to provide daily reporting of what is going on at Stanford.

That is why we, the Editorial Board, ask you to take the time to go to http://petitions.stanford.edu/petitions/daily and lend your support to help The Daily keep this service going. Some special fees groups may be questionable, but the Editorial Board really thinks this one should be a no-brainer. As one of our members rightly put it, if you can’t fund your student newspaper, then what can you fund?