Sophomore Audrey Wang was elected Friday as the editor-in-chief of The Chronicle’s 119th volume.
In a staff-wide election, members of the student newspaper chose Wang to succeed junior Milla Surjadi as editor-in-chief of The Chronicle and president of the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., the publisher of the independent, student-run daily newspaper.
Wang, who is from Orange County, Calif., is double majoring in Economics and Classical Languages. She is currently a university news editor and is also a staff writer for the sports and recess departments. She will begin her one-year term as editor-in-chief on April 26.
“The Chronicle has really taught me to just sit down, listen to people, learn what Duke culture is,” Wang said. “[It’s taught me] this is somewhere where I want to be and I want to grow and I want to see grow.”
Wang aims to look critically at what The Chronicle has covered well in the past and expand its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to develop more personable relationships with the Duke community. These will factor into Wang’s overall goal of delving more into the “human side” of Duke.
“Because we’re students and journalists, we have an advantage in getting that level of access to the day-to-day because we know what’s relevant to people’s lives because we’re so close to our audience,” Wang said.
Wang also has plans for larger coverage, such as working with section heads on ways to cover under-produced stories as well as covering the upcoming Centennial Celebration.
As editor, Wang will prioritize bringing Duke’s intellectual and demographic diversity into the newsroom. She aims to expand The Chronicle’s interdepartmental work by creating shared beats between sections that highlight and combine their strengths. She also intends to create innovative content that leverages The Chronicle’s digital presence.
Surjadi called Wang a “feat” to work with, citing the sheer amount of articles as a testament to that. But watching Audrey grow into a leader by taking on bigger stories and mentoring younger writers all while keeping empathy at the forefront is what struck Surjadi the most.
“If I’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that empathy is truly so important to any leadership role, but especially one that is so centered around people in every aspect,” Surjadi said.
News Editor and junior Kathryn Thomas went to Raleigh with Wang last summer to cover a protest in the wake of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Thomas remembers how Wang was “always talking to someone new, going up and making sure she was getting all of the voices and all of the stakeholders at play that day.”
“It could have been a really intimidating moment, but I think she handled it with a lot of grace,” Thomas said. “And that was kind of the point for me where I really saw the potential in her and was excited for her future with The Chronicle.”
Vishal Jammulapati is a sophomore and was associate news editor in the fall. He and Wang both covered Duke unions and worked closely covering the Duke Graduate Student Union’s efforts to gain recognition and bargaining power with the University.
“[Wang is] really focused on having people and writers and content producers from different departments work with each other,” Jammulapati said.“And I think that her platform, which has a very interdepartmental focus, means that content across all departments will become better because each department has something to learn from the others.”
Surjadi is excited to see Wang’s approaches to DEI, especially the initiative to expand The Chronicle’s DEI Coordinator positions to include at least one non-Chronicle member involved with on-campus affinity groups.
At the end of the day, Wang said that the mission of student journalism is all about love and service.
“It’s all about serving The Chronicle community, serving the Duke community through the coverage,” she said.
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Katie Tan is a Trinity senior and digital strategy director of The Chronicle's 119th volume. She was previously managing editor for Volume 118.