The Daily Orange may relocate, but 744 Ostrom is legendary.

It’s where we first saw that orange door. “That’s the student newspaper,” the tour guide would say, with an air of, “magic happens in there.”

744 Ostrom is where, as freshmen, we’d timidly knock on the orange door. “Just come in,” the upper classmen heckled.

744 Ostrom is where the editors would set up camp for the night: desks littered with remnants of the past: stickies, photos, wedding invitations from staffers who fell in love over AP style.

Newspapermen are no strangers to hardship. But 744 Ostrom has protected us. It knows hardship. It’s worn. The floors creak. The walls need fresh paint.

The editors have a tradition at graduation. We line up in front of the orange door at 744 Ostrom. The photos look the same from afar: a handful of grads, clad in navy gowns and caps with a burgundy tassel, hugging.

Look closer. It’s the Editor in Chief, a copy editor, a designer, the sports desk. Their faces worn from nights spent at 744 Ostrom. But smiling.

Look closer. Relationships forged over a painstaking edit process and Orange Crush, on the worn couch on the first floor at 744 Ostrom.

The editors will leave Syracuse University. If they’re lucky, they’ve found work in the field that will eat them up and spit them back out. But they found solace at 744 Ostrom.

They’ll leave Syracuse, but they’ll come back. They’ll visit Chuck’s, the Dome. Everyone does. But D.O. alumni will make another stop.

They’ll swing by 744 Ostrom. On a weekday, the orange door will be unlocked. They’ll see a fresh crop of editors, hunched over their worn desks at their worn computers that have stood the test of time. Upstairs, the Editor in Chief pores over a budget on a worn couch looking out onto Ostrom.

Toward the back, toward Comstock, they’ll see the crowded news office. The sports TV. The copy porch.

On a weekend, 744 Ostrom will be locked. So they’ll touch the door, paying their respects to the house that taught them so much. They’ll peer into the windows. Who occupies their desk now?

They’ll head down the steps and turn around. Next to the orange door, a sign: “The Daily Orange.” They’re leaving but they’ll be back. And until then, 744 Ostrom will stand. The orange door open to anyone who dares enter it.

Heather Mayer Irvine
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University ’09

Published on August 14, 2016 at 3:15 pm