Letter from the Editors

Dear readers,

It’s summertime. Around the world, some Duke students have come home to relax with family and friends, go to weddings, camp, lie on the beach (if you’re lucky), work and savor some home-cooked food. Others have moved to big cities for summer jobs and internships, or traveled to far-off countries to conduct research or immerse themselves in real-world issues through DukeEngage. In Durham, N.C., a small contingent of Duke students, faculty and staff keep campus bustling and alive for summer session. 

Our summer migrations, whether at home or on the road, are key to the Duke experience. In the Fall, we’ll all reunite in Durham to begin a new school year. Each of us will carry our summer experiences with us. Our perspectives will have shifted, and our new insights will surface in unexpected places—a classroom debate, a conversation with a friend over lunch on the plaza, a decision to join a new club or attend events you wouldn’t have considered before. These summer endeavors are the product of our eagerness to learn and explore; they also fuel our intellect, passions, opinions and curiosities, thus shaping our Duke experience. 

As Towerview’s new co-editors in chief, we think of this magazine as a chalkboard of sorts, where our collective experiences, out of the mouths of Devils, are written down. Towerview is The Chronicle’s news and culture magazine, and an independent student publication; thus, we also see it as a venue for investigations of the University. In this issue, we seek to capture a few of the myriad voices which comprise the Duke community, showcase different aspects of the Duke experience and explore the University’s history in “Beneath West Union,” “The Chronicle: a History” and “Presidential Living.”

To our incoming freshmen, you may use Towerview, along with the Duke Blue Book and the hundreds of Duke webpages, to try to understand what it means to be a Blue Devil. But one sweating, hot August afternoon, as you lug a lifetime worth of your belongings into a single, cramped dorm room, your preconceptions will change as your Duke experience begins. No matter how much you prepare, how many Blue Devil Days sessions you attend or people you’ve stalked on Facebook, the only certainty is that your Duke experience will take you in unforeseen directions.

Nobody can tell you what the Duke experience is because it’s different for everyone. But we hope that in reading Towerview, you will discover the vastness of what being a Dukie entails, and maybe even find your own experience on the chalkboard of these pages.