On Campus

Dispatches from college students, professors and administrators on higher education and university life. You can reach the editors at oncampus@nytimes.com.

Highlights

The Future of Frats
Living in a house with friends, playing drinking games and dancing to overplayed pop songs are not incompatible with a just society.
By Kiley Roache
CreditSasha Brodsky/School of Visual Arts
The Soul-Crushing Student Essay
A freshman finally asks the clarifying question: “Do you mean we can write with the word ‘I’?”
By Scott Korb
CreditThomas Paterson
1. Finding Myself in Research
  A graduate student discovers the importance of humanizing data.
  By Mya Roberson
  CreditMaddy Price
2. Why Being a Foster Child Made Me a Conservative
  My experiences forced me to reflect on what environments are best for children. Certainly not the ones I came from.
  By Rob Henderson
  CreditArad Golan Coll/Falmouth University

It’s Hard to Be Hungry on Spring Break
As they admit more poor students, colleges need to do a better job of serving them.
By Anthony Abraham Jack
CreditAngelica Alzona

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Sweet Briar College Almost Closed. What Will It Take to Thrive?
“Women’s colleges are an American phenomenon”: An interview with Meredith Woo, president of Sweet Briar.
By Marguerite Joutz
Nature Is Risky. That’s Why Students Need It.
Some hate the jungle, but most find hidden strength and unanticipated freedom.
By Heather E. Heying
Back to School, at 64
I was afraid I wasn’t smart enough to be in a classroom filled with brilliant young people. But I realized I had some things to say.
By Anne Rudig
I Go to Duke. Do I Have to Care About Basketball?
I am handed a tip sheet with instructions: “Yell ‘Woo’ every time you jump,” and shout strategically mean things at the correct moments.
By Elizabeth Anne Brown
Ruth Simmons on Cultivating the Next Generation of College Students
A Q. & A. with the former president of Brown University and Smith College as she takes charge of a historically black university.
By Marguerite Joutz
You Up? College in the Age of Tinder
Some found love; others learned valuable lessons about time stamps.
By Phoebe Lett
The Student Loan Serenity Prayer
College was great, but no one mentioned how soul crushing my debt would be.
By Michael Arceneaux
A Conservative Case for Identity Politics
The best way to subvert dogmatic thinking is to engage with it.
By Jon A. Shields
It’s Hard to Study if You’re Hungry
Half of all college students struggle with food insecurity, which is closely linked to lower graduation rates.
By Sara Goldrick-Rab
No College Kid Needs a Water Park to Study
Trustees must rein in frivolous spending at public universities.
By James V. Koch