Finessing Duke on a dime

At Duke, I felt caught between prayer and pretending to be rich, so I kept my jobs and rationed my refund checks. I didn’t always have the cash, checks, credit, connections or concerned parents to keep up with my peers. But I did have the cornrows and the courage to put my best wig on and march through the Blue Devil circus, finessing my finances and cultivating my way out of debt. 

Wildlife flourishes on C1s

Without the disease of students, the C1 buses have quickly become the country’s fifth largest nature reserve.

Loving your body

Saying no more, she stood up then and danced with her twisted hip the rest of what her heart had to say while others opened their mouths and gave her the music. Long notes held until the four-part harmony was perfect enough for their deeply loved flesh.

Tearing it down

The moral arc of the Universe(ity) bends not towards justice, but rather towards profit at whatever cost. The University was never meant to be survivable. 

The impossible task of building community in Blue Light

As an RA, regardless of where I’m assigned, I’m tasked with fostering a community. But I’ve never felt as unequipped to do so as I do in Blue Light. 

I love char siu; I love you

Chinese food is so good that literal empires and dynasties have risen and crumbled, lost to the history books, while delicacies like the humble char siu bun (叉燒包) flourished and capture the hearts and stomachs of people the world over even today. 

How to perform a really cool trick

Well, screw you and your fake magic. Here at Duke, I’m learning what’s real. 

We are not content to be used freely. Duke women deserve better

It was incredibly inconsiderate that our video was used, very obviously, as the face of Duke’s racial equity initiative, without any notification of such actions or proper credit where credit was due. 

Get drunk and walk around

Never before has the Duke community so needed a social outlet for their internalized anxieties, and never before have our campus bars been so inaccessible to so many.

The GOP’s original sin, as told by Charlie Kirk

This is, in my opinion, the original sin of Kirk brand conservatism: beyond furiously opposing liberals, it is very flexible.

Sports are no longer a panacea for your tough times—why that’s okay

No matter how big of a basketball fan you are, basketball cannot and will not be the same if these social inequities persist.

Title IX changed, and everyone needs to know about it

This new Title IX policy fails students in extraordinary ways, a failure only compounded by Duke's utter lack of effort to facilitate an engaging, robust conversation with the student body.

The litany of the condemned

There is one litany that this nation knows all too well, a litany we often choose to ignore, only paying attention to it when forced. It is one that some may not even know exists, and one that others are all too familiar with.

Okay. Abolish Duke.

If there’s no Greek life, who’s gonna offer friendship and community? Y’know, other than friends and communities.

Introducing from 'fine' to finesse

We sacrifice our sleep schedules, meals, mental health, and more, to maintain the facade of being "fine." We keep faking it to achieve effortless perfection. But we are in effortless shambles. 

Abolishing Greek life means abolishing Duke

If it's possible to see the good and the bad in Duke, to acknowledge the university’s failings while appreciating its many incredible virtues and accomplishments, then it is possible to do the same for Greek life. 

Biden can win for progressives

Joe Biden was not my preferred nominee, and my sentiments are shared by many young people across the United States. But to see him talk in terms of fulfilling the demands of this moment—big, structural change—means that American progressivism might find a willing ally in the most unexpected of places. 

A virtual love letter to ProjectWild

'Zoom University' is now critical infrastructure for America’s economy—what’s next?

It’s time for Zoom (and others) to join the ranks of America’s critical infrastructure.

Duke needs a climate school

A top education must face the real world—and right now, that world is heating up fast.