from the editor

Often the most damaging and inspiring identities we are given are the ones we claim for ourselves. When I entered my position as Publications Team Leader at the Women's Center this fall, I found myself both extremely excited and undoubtedly terrified. Like many of you all, I was confused about my identity as a woman on Duke's campus. As a campus we students were in the midst of a self-identification crisis, searching for where we fit as individuals at Duke and where we fit as a community within Durham.

From the national media coverage to the seemingly endless hours of intra-campus debate, we faced the tough questions young people often try so hard to ignore: How do my current actions reflect on my belief system? What is the image I portray of myself? The vastness of the campus's collective identity crisis was evident in the amount of submissions the VOICES editorial board received critiquing campus culture. It seems that as concerned members of the Duke community, it becomes vital for us to decide as individuals whether or not we embrace the "day Duke"/ "night Duke" dichotomy, or whether we, as a Baldwin Scholar project named it, "mind the gap."

It is the sincere hope of the editorial board that you read the opinions expressed in our "hot new centerfold" with an open mind and that this issues forces us to consider the power of "The Images We Make."

The entire editorial board hopes this magazine will act as a forum for the development of our respective personal identities as Duke men and women. Read it closely; speak up; start a useful dialogue among your peers. Let us use our VOICES to speak passionately about our own truths and to create an identity for ourselves that we can embrace and be inspired by.

Enjoy!
Allie Hauser
Publications Team Leader
Duke University Women's Center

submissions

VOICES is currently accepting submissions for our next issue, Spring 2008! For more information and to submit your work to VOICES, visit our submissions page!