The independent news organization of Duke University
Professors describe exhaustion, issues with personal connection during virtual learning.
Traditionally excluded from Duke’s predominantly white fraternities and sororities, it wasn’t until 11 years after being admitted on campus that Black students could find social outlets in the University’s Greek life scene. Now, 46 years later, Duke's NPHC is currently in a transition period.
Two Duke Kunshan University and two Duke students formed one of two winning teams in this year’s U.S.-China Student Challenge, a policy competition sponsored by the Georgetown University Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues.
Similar to Duke’s, policies at North Carolina Central University, a historically Black university in Durham, include a large reduction in the number of in-person classes and restrictions on capacity at all campus facilities. Students are also tested for COVID-19 twice upon arrival to campus and on a rolling basis throughout the semester. Temperature checks are conducted at entrances of various buildings.
After the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of in-person campus tours and events, the Karsh building could no longer fulfill its intended purpose. But devoid of students and alumni, Karsh gained a new role, becoming a multifunctional empty space. In the past few months, the building has morphed from an early voting center in the 2020 election to a vaccination site for the Durham community.
For students coming back to Duke this spring after spending the fall away from campus, the return has been a moment of joyous relief, but also of ambivalence and adjustment.
I walk on, my eyes and fingers tracing the walls, which feel warm compared to the frozen sky, my mind wandering and wondering what I will see next, but certainly not anticipating this image that reminds me of mangled flesh—a jagged, convulsing mural of New York Times pages.
Against the odds of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor shortages and extreme weather, the 22 buildings of the second phase of Duke Kunshan’s campus have steadily risen out of an empty field.
While many students hope to work for national corporations during summer internships or after graduation, a few have the opportunity to learn new skills and build their resumes by representing big-name brands all year round. Duke’s campus brand ambassadors have a variety of duties, from creating social media posts and hosting events to partnering with student organizations.
Much has changed in the East Campus dining hall. Indoor seating is closed for students. Most tables and chairs are wrapped in caution tape. Stickers line the floor, indicating the direction students should travel and the six-foot distance they should keep while standing in line. Workers praised Duke's overall efforts to keep the virus spreading, but said they have been tested infrequently and questioned the decision to put a testing location in the same building.
Service-learning classes in which students interact directly with community members have changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, even through a screen, the courses continue to connect Duke and Durham.
Facing a radically different semester in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Duke students chose to take a gap semester last fall.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all implicitly understand the clout involved with a big-name higher-education institution's degree.
In the news media we read about the economy, politics, and nowadays, a lot about COVID-19. On social media, we talk about protesting, voting and supporting one another. What we are not discussing enough is environmental issues.
Part 2 of our Discrimination episode presents discrimination as a nuanced problem, delving a bit further into the issue on campus and discussing potential solutions as outlined by the Duke community.
To be in the first class of Rubenstein scholars was to embrace contradiction.
On the morning of Nov. 4 in China, laptop screens on the Duke Kunshan campus glowed with the red-and-blue Electoral College map for the U.S. election. WeChat Moments—China’s equivalent of a Facebook feed—showed screenshots, words of encouragement and amateur commentary on the state of the race.
Hop off the C1 at West Campus, make your way across Abele Quad, and you may sense something’s missing. It’s the upperclassmen. Duke didn’t allow most juniors and seniors to live on campus in the fall, though some have found housing off campus in Durham. Those weathering the semester out of town face a knotted mix of challenges and nostalgia.
Bridging the Gap is a partnership between The Bridge and The Chronicle that explores race, gender and marginalization at Duke and beyond. Our first episode is titled “Diversity, Discomfort and Discrimination,” and Part 1 is an introduction to the psychological cause and emotional effect of prejudice at Duke.
Bridging the Gap is a partnership between The Bridge and The Chronicle that explores race, gender and marginalization at Duke and beyond. Our first episode is titled “Diversity, Discomfort and Discrimination,” and Part 1 is an introduction to the psychological cause and emotional effect of prejudice at Duke.
