The Community Editorial Board is made up of 12 undergraduate students from across the University. The Board’s members are independent, and do not speak for The Chronicle’s newsroom staff. They meet once a week to discuss issues and topics at Duke. A member of the Board will write the editorial, which is then edited by other members and the chairs before being reviewed by the opinion editor.
The Community Editorial Board would like to welcome everyone back to campus with a series of reflections from our winter hiatus. After reading through your Facebook comments and Stumble App Store reviews, we feel ready to offer some of our own thoughts on the previous semester and intentions for the second half of Vol. 115.
1. No think pieces on rush.
We gave it our best shot, but at this point, even we have to admit, the horse is dead! If you’re cruel enough to want it beaten yet again, you could click here, here, here or here. And those are just the ones the Board has published over the last few years. This new decade, we’ll leave it to the professional Opinion Columnists to remind us that community is important and friends shouldn’t be bought. In the meantime, we will sit back and watch troves of intoxicated young adult men—once condemned to Central but now among us—in jerseys inundate our common areas and young adult women frolic in mandatory outfits for the next week or so.
2. Many think pieces on politics.
Last year, we hoped the Democratic primary would turn into something more than a performative, career-advancing stunt dominated by Spartacus moment Cory Booker, Snoop-Dogg listening and weed smoking Kamala Harris, and van-driving Beto. Clearly, we were prophetic. For now, we are steering clear of whatever bloodbath might unfold between the whiter-than-a-picket-fence of a field of candidates that is left, but we make no long term promises.
At the very least, we promise to bring you well-reasoned, thoughtful endorsement pieces as the local (read: campus) politics scene kicks into high gear this semester. Believe it or not, Young Trustee season is right around the corner and DSG elections will follow soon after. Stay tuned for the Chronicle’s official endorsement rules—coming to an Opinion Page near you!
3. Increasing our audience engagement.
While we might not be on Twitter officially, if we’ve learned one thing this past decade, it’s that memes really boost our clicks times Googleplex. Though we’ll be laying “OK, Boomer” to rest for the new year, we hope our two favorite bots will continue to blow up the Facebook comment section. Reader feedback is very important to us—just not quite as important as our commitment to writing about capitalism.
4. More Marxism.
Speaking of which, the planet is burning and it’s profit’s fault! Nothing new here, and we might even ratchet it up a bit. For as long as corporate interest continues it’s outsized influence on our society, we’ll be writing weekly rebuttals. Collective action, unionization, denouncing meritocracy, forced labor, reparations, oppression and violence. It’s the anthem of us true bleeding hearts.
Next week we’ll be back with our regularly scheduled programming. Until then, Happy Spring Semester from the Board!
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