Founded by juniors Ray Li and Jacob Zionce, The Duke Political Review is the first student-run publication focusing on political opinions for undergraduates. The goal of the online forum is to more fully engage the student body in political thought.
"There wasn’t a great avenue for people who were enjoying politics or want to talk about politics to really go about doing that with like-minded individuals," Zionce said. "You’d have class discussions, but once [those] ended, that’s where the conversation ended too. We thought there needs to be a way to continue that involvement [and] that intellectual engagement.”
Zionce and Li drafted the initial plans for the organization while studying for their political science exam last Fall. After Winter Break, they got in contact with political review publications at other universities such as Brown University, Columbia University and Harvard College for inspiration and advice.
Li noted that a number of campus leaders joined the organization in its early stages as writers and editors, making for a strong foundation.
“We couldn’t imagine having so many talented writers so fast,” Li said.
The DPR staff wrote articles and developed the website over the summer and was officially launched July 14 with 10 uploaded articles.
Webmaster Rajan Patel, a sophomore, was in Jordan for DukeEngage and launched the online platform from an internet café in Amman, Jordan over the course of a week.
Within 48 hours of the initial launch, the website received over 8,000 views, Li said. Since then, the group has received over 290 likes on Facebook and has 37 members.
The organization also has the potential to expand. At the activities fair, 66 freshmen signed up for the listserv and 30 applied for writer positions, Zionce said.
“It would be a fantastic opportunity to learn from a student-run organization,” first year Leighton Durham said.
Zionce said the publication plans to expand its work beyond the Internet. DPR plans to eventually release three paper editions each academic school year.
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