OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Just a coffee isn’t breakfast: Freshmen need better meal equivalency

By Kate-Yeonjae Jeong | September 19, 2024

With the current equivalency rate, students cannot buy a sandwich or even a cup of fruit without going over the price limit. If you want to add coffee or even water to a breakfast pastry, you're way out of the equivalency range, and will have to pay out of pocket with food points. At that rate, it’s not too difficult to quickly run through your food points, making it an unsustainable design for students. 

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Democracy as competitive cooperation

By Michael Tomasello | September 19, 2024

Democracy often seems like unfriendly competition, with all its arguing, partisanship and mean-spirited attack ads. But underneath the rancor, democracy actually depends on a basic infrastructure of human cooperation.

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

The kangaroo or the eagle: How independence, networking and the college experience differ across continents

By Annie Ming Kowalik | September 18, 2024

As a visiting international student from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, Duke has been the adventure of a lifetime. Yet, I’ve become acutely aware that while all universities aim to educate and mentor capable, confident students, they approach this goal with very different ideologies.

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Why law abiding young people should cherish the rule of law

By David Schanzer | September 17, 2024

At its most fundamental, the rule of law is a core restraint on the exercise of governmental power. The rule of law requires that when the government affects the citizenry, it must act consistent with a set of preexisting rules put in place by democratically elected bodies accountable to the people.

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Failure is the only option

By Aaron Siegle | September 16, 2024

If failure is both cataclysmic and ubiquitous, then how can any gains ever be realized?

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Drag science and the slaying of nerd aesthetic

By Nik Narain | September 14, 2024

If the goal of SciComm is not just to improve the dissemination of scientific information, but to promote excitement and engagement for science itself, what better way to do that than through drag, which enables performers to celebrate science on such a personal level?

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

The new social contract that permeates Duke student life

By Zubin Rekhi | September 13, 2024

As the university went from being a neutral facilitator, taking a hands-off approach to all student actions clearing the low bar of safety, to an active participant with veto power over student choices, it also used its expanded powers — in ways intentional or not — to extend benefits to students. But college students are adults and we should make our choices, even in the midst of an evolving and enlarging university apparatus.

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Why you should read below your reading level

By Anna Garziera | September 13, 2024

Few of us have kept up the daily 30 minutes of independent reading since middle school. And no wonder. There’s no surefire way of letting go of the habit of reading than forcibly plowing through a book you don’t like. 

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Staying back: On first semester junior year

By Advikaa Anand | September 11, 2024

I searched the multitude of people scattered around the quad on the first day of class, hoping for a glimpse of recognition. All I saw, however, was a sea of strangers, and a hollow emptiness developed in the pit of my stomach. Where was I? Who were these people? What had happened to the place I’d called home for the last two years?

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Your first learning assignment: College roommates

By Sarah Gaither | September 10, 2024

I walked into my room and my roommate wasn’t there, but her things were all moved in — an organized desk, a neatly made bed with monogrammed blankets, a full-sized Texas state flag hung on the wall and a framed family photo of her with former President George Bush.

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OPINION

Racism, fatphobia and child labor: Duke welcomes Lululemon with open arms

By Felix Jones | September 9, 2024

If Duke was aware of these glaring issues, I am mortified that a deeply ingrained culture of exclusion, misogyny and unethical labor practices is less important than profit margins. It is morally reprehensible that increased revenue at the University Store warrants welcoming this company onto campus in the face of such clear affronts to Duke’s values.

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

The courage to be curious

By Luke A. Powery | September 9, 2024

Engaging in research at a major university like Duke is a key mechanism for discovery. Having to do research implies that one doesn’t have all of the information but desires to learn more. The practice of research in any field is a way of saying, “I don’t know, but I want to know.” 

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OPINION

Duke must do more to protect student voting rights

By Amaia Clayton , Olivia Schramkowski and Gunther Peck | September 5, 2024

If the DukeCard office printed the new DukeCards preemptively, there would be no delays in getting the key ID students need to prove their residency and to vote in Durham, and less likelihood that they will end up casting provisional ballots. 

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OPINION

Wrong about me and wrongheaded about Duke

By Doriane Coleman | September 4, 2024

Disagreement should be informed, accurate and respectful — and the suppression of different viewpoints on the important issues of the day has no place in a thriving university.

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Have the news media learned to cover a female presidential candidate? Democracy’s future may depend on the answer

By Philip M. Napoli and Talia Goodman | September 3, 2024

As Kamala Harris takes her next steps as the Democratic nominee, the news media's ability to provide unbiased coverage will be a litmus test for how far we've come — or how far we have yet to go — in achieving gender equality in politics. 

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Listening to flat-earthers

By Nik Narain | August 31, 2024

Why, from such a young age, was I indoctrinated into the ideology that claimed the Earth was round, rather than the true geomorphic tortilla (or tortilloid) on which civilization has flourished for centuries?

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OPINION

Hillel is a welcoming place for all Jewish students

By Zachary Patterson | August 30, 2024

While some may say it is not possible to serve all Jewish students and be a Zionist organization, it is essential to understand why Hillels function with these guidelines and how they manage to achieve both of these goals.

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

What’s so great about democracy?

By Walter Sinnott-Armstrong | August 29, 2024

Plato ranked democracy as the lowest form of ordered government. Hitler gained power through democratic processes. The majority of voters in the United States at one time supported slavery. With this tainted history, why do so many people fear what they call undemocratic? 

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OPINION

A note to international students

By Alistar Erickson-Ludwig | August 28, 2024

Do not pretend everyone has their lives together and that imposter syndrome is not here. Instead, acknowledge it and try hard not to perpetuate it. 

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OPINION | CAMPUS VOICES

Virtues of democracy: An introductory column

By Brian Hare | August 27, 2024

Will democracy survive? Can it thrive? Will it get better on its own? As a citizen, why should we care and what role can we all play?