From the Desk of the Editor

Dear Reader

I hope this TowerView finds you well and enjoying a rewarding and refreshing summer. Of course refreshing and rewarding mean different things to different people: Taking classes; advancing a career through an internship; reading on the beach; hanging out with friends from home; or even doing absolutely nothing but decompressing from a long year of school. Whatever your preference is, I hope you?re striving for it with abandon.

Implicit in these different notions of the ideal summer is diversity. It?s an important word for this summer, with the Supreme Court guaranteeing a place for diversity engineering in education with Grutter v. Bollinger. In our own way, we here at TowerView are working toward bringing our own notion of diversity to Duke?a diversity of ideas, opinions and interests.

This issue has given me the opportunity to learn, through the reporting of TowerView?s correspondents, about subjects I had previously tuned out during my first three years at Duke. I did my best to ignore the hurly-burly over the Mt. Olive pickle company and its labor practices, but Kelly Rohrs explores the underlying issues behind the boycott?what are the actual labor practices there like, was Duke right to end the boycott and is unionization the answer?in such depth that her story transcends Duke and pickles. Similarly, I largely ignored the Jésica Santillán tragedy and its coverage in the media, but in this issue former Chronicle health & science editor Michael Miller writes a fascinating retrospective on what it was like covering the story, how the media missed the point and why. TowerView brings the most important stories from diverse backgrounds and presents them in a way that even someone who had not previously cared can learn, and so that those who have been glued to a story still find something new.

This issue also has some excellent stories on topics that I know a little bit more about: Greg Veis does the metaphysics of Myrtle Beach; Alex Garinger writes up the test-animal existence of the Class of 2004; and Liana Wyler writes about child victims of Chernobyl receiving free care at the Medical Center. These stories are brought to you in Whitney Robinson?s breath-taking new layout and with Anthony Cross? dazzling photography.

There will be parts of TowerView that will be light, fun and perfect for reading on the elliptical machines, parts so eye-opening and informative that professors will assign them to their classes, and parts that you will skip over entirely?like this letter from the editor, which I expect will only be read by my family members, close friends who are afraid I?ll ask them how they liked it and readers trapped on transcontinental flights.

Through it all, I expect that TowerView will inspire, entertain and inform, as well as help develop dialogue on campus about certain issues. Therefore, I hope to never write another letter from the editor, and instead use this space for the response of the community: Your letters. So read, enjoy and write us back about how you agreed or disagreed with, loved or hated, or wish to add to one of our stories.

Thank you, and enjoy,

Tyler Rosen