Join The Chronicle—Duke's student-run independent daily newspaper with a staff of more than 100 writers, photographers, online and print designers and more.
If you want to be part of an organization relevant to every Duke student, parent, faculty, employee, graduate or anyone with even the slightest interest and stake in this community, then The Chronicle is for you.
If you want to be part of the largest, oldest student organization on this campus, then The Chronicle is for you.
We are a diverse organization composed of students of all sorts of backgrounds, majors and interests. You don’t have to be an aspiring journalist, or an aspiring anything for that matter.
Just be curious, because curiosity about our community drives our work at The Chronicle. And your curiosity doesn’t have to satisfied through writing an article, though that is without a doubt one of the best ways to do it. Review an album, take photos of a basketball game, design a eye-catching graphic on the front page, code a special web page that get thousands of hits. All these endeavors can satisfy your curiosity about what drives your audience and, equally important, what drives you.
So join The Chronicle, and satisfy that curiosity.
Across every Chronicle department, no experience is necessary, and the time commitment is whatever you want it to be. Chronicle staffers are pre-med, athletes, globetrotters, double majors and generally busy people all around.
Working as a team to produce a daily paper fosters technical and leadership skills as well as friendships.
—Yeshwanth Kandimalla, editor
—Lauren Carroll, managing editor
Schedule of recruitment events
Wednesday, Aug. 22: Bryan Center Meeting Room B, 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Informal session, come and go as you please, ask questions and sign up for the listserv.
Thursday, Aug. 23: Belltower 110, 2:00 p.m. Come by and hear section heads explain their departments, ask questions and see how to get involved.
Friday, Aug. 24: Perkins 217,1:00 p.m. Come by and hear section heads explain their departments, ask questions and see how to get involved.
Sunday, Aug. 26: Flowers building, following Maya Angelou's talk Get a tour of The Chronicle's office and see what it's like to put together the paper.
Chronicle Departments
News
How would you like to deal in information? Here at News, that is our job. We report on the latest developments on campus, in Durham, in North Carolina. We sit down with and interview movers and shakers in fields ranging from campus politics to chimpanzee conservation. We drive campus discourse through breaking news stories and analyzing ongoing storylines. We work hard and have fun in the office, producing a paper every weekday. If you want to test your skills as an intrepid young sleuth, to follow the money and make big discoveries, to have a finger on the pulse of the campus, the News Department is the place for you. For more information, email News Editor Julian Spector.
Photo
The Chronicle Photo department is looking for creative individuals aspiring to document unique events at Duke. Photographers in our department are exposed to high-profile events and have a unique opportunity to learn about the inner workings of the university. As a photographer, you’ll be able to photograph a variety of events, from campus meetings to sports to speeches from esteemed individuals, such as Condoleezza Rice. You can commit to whichever events you would like, allowing you to work around your busy schedule. Come out to our meetings in 301 Flowers, which we have every Sunday at 8:30. For more information, contact photo editor Chris Dall.
Recess
“And all the kids, all the kids that want to make the scene/ Here in North America”
—LCD Soundsystem
We are those kids, and you are those kids—especially if we change “America” to “Carolina”—and we want you to join Recess, The Chronicle’s weekly arts and culture section. This year, Recess will continue to assert its increasingly important role as a reflection of Duke, Durham and the Triangle’s onward-and-upward arts culture with a lively investigative and critical eye. Recess has three sub-sections: Arts (including visual art, dance, theater, literature and food), Film and Music, as well as an online multimedia component.
If you’ve spent the past few years organizing late-night Criterion Collection film screenings for your friends, we want you. If you stream podcasts analyzing your (perhaps unhealthy) love of Taylor Swift, we want you. If you’ve already memorized the fall schedule for Duke Performances, we want you. If you like to write, photograph, design, tweet, invent, we want you; if you’ve got—as Bob Dylan says—a “head full of ideas that are drivin’ [you] insane,” we want you. If you’ve ever read a book, seen a play, stared at a splotch of black paint on a white canvas, alternately guffawing and pondering, “Why is that art?” we want you.
Feel free to contact Recess Editor Michaela Dwyer for more information.
Sports
If you have even the slightest interest in sports—and any sport—The Chronicle’s sports section is a perfect fit. Beyond affording you the opportunity to sit courtside at Duke basketball games, talk to the basketball players and Coach K, there are countless ways to get involved with the section, no matter how much time you can commit. We have a widely read sports blog (if you want a hint at how much, one of our sports Twitter accounts has 42,000 followers), so if you’re interested in online media, this is the place. Duke regularly trots out some of the best teams in the country in soccer, lacrosse (and of course basketball), so if you want an opportunity to write about sports, this is a unique opportunity to learn how and get involved. Email Sports Editor Andrew Beaton for more information.
Opinion
Do you have strong opinions on current events? Do you love to read the news and love even more to talk about reading the news? Is the Editorial page the first one you turn to when opening any paper? If any or all of these describe you, you might consider getting involved with the Edit pages. The edit pages publish three columns—including our regular weekly and biweekly columnists, our anonymous humor column “Monday, Monday” and guest columns submitted by students, faculty, and alumni--as well as a letter to the editor or comic each day. Columnists for the fall semester have already been selected, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get involved. Submit a letter or guest column and keep an eye out for the Spring 2013 columnist application later on in the semester. For more information, feel free to contact Opinion Pages Editor Maggie LaFalce.
Design
The Chronicle is always looking for people interested in designing the daily paper. Thousands of people pick up The Chronicle every day, so it is important to maintain a consistently high-quality visual product to display our content. We are always trying to improve the paper’s graphics and design, and the more creative input we have, the better. Chronicle designers can learn how to build newspapers and other publications using InDesign and Photoshop while contributing valuable work to an important campus organization, with flexible time commitments. For more information, email Design Editors Phoebe Long and Eliza Strong.
Online Development
At The Chronicle, students have the rare opportunity to work on a website that gets hundreds of thousands of views every month. Chronicle Online is a small, agile team of programmers and designers who build a unique online experience that keeps the entire Duke community informed and involved. We use the newest and most powerful technology available, including Node.js, CouchDB, Solr, and more. If you are interested in getting real experience with web design and development, simply fill out our interest form.
Editorial Board
Editorial Board is comprised of about a dozen undergraduates, plus the editor-in-chief and editorial page editor, who are non-voting. We meet twice a week—Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon—to discuss a wide range of campus issues. Our editorials run daily at the upper-left of the Chronicle editorial pages. Because of their influential position at the Chronicle, members should have a breadth and depth of perspectives about the University. Board members should be prepared to attend all meetings and write editorials every one or two weeks.
Editorial Board members will have the satisfaction of contributing to campus dialogue in a direct and impactful way. Other benefits include the opportunity to regularly interview campus figureheads, including President Brodhead; learning more about Duke through in-depth research and discussion; and befriending a group of sharp and accomplished peers. Previous and current Board members have found the experience invaluable as Young Trustees, DSG representatives, varsity captains, and more. Contact Katherine Zhang for more information.
