I’ve clearly been bad at updating this website since I joined The Assembly as a staff reporter covering higher ed in September 2024, so I’m going to take the easy way out and include some of my favorite pieces here.
I guess I should also note that in those two years I was part of the team that won the 2025 and 2026 Duke University/Green-Rossiter Awards for Distinguished Newspaper Work in Higher Education Reporting from the North Carolina Press Association. The newsletter I coatuhor, The Quad, also won the 2026 award for best digital newsletter in the southeast from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Green Eyeshade Awards. (You can sign up at our website.) I also added second- and third-place awards in sports enterprise reporting.
“Dukes in Trump’s Court”
July 23, 2026
Duke University alumni have played high-profile and controversial roles in the rise of Trumpism. A turn-of-the-millennium culture clash on campus helps explain why.
The Faculty’s Numbers Man
July 9, 2026 | Coauthored with Megan Zahneis and copublished with The Chronicle of Higher Education
When professors want to dispute cuts, they turn to Howard Bunsis. Is he just telling them what they want to hear?
How Two Duke Alumni Helped Conservatives Take Over the NEH
May 7, 2026 | Copublished with The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Trump administration fired most of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ advisory board last year. Two Duke-trained political theorists are key figures now running the agency.
How Much Could Trump’s Cuts Cost Your College?
February 12, 2026 | Coauthored with Grace McFadden
We crunched the numbers on five significant higher ed cuts from the Trump administration’s first year to find out how they affect every college in North Carolina.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Lessons in Civics
October 9, 2025
The School of Civic Life and Leadership’s hiring battle spilled into the public and prompted a university investigation. It’s part of a long-running rupture about the mission of civics schools around the country.
In North Carolina, It’s Do or DEI
June 26, 2026 | Coauthored with Erin Gretzinger and reporters from five student newspapers
Federal and state officials have declared war on DEI at North Carolina’s colleges and universities. But what their orders mean is sometimes far from clear.
Guilford College Debates How ‘Quakerly’ It Should Be
May 15, 2025
Amid its second financial crisis in five years, Guilford College faculty hatched a radical plan to run the school by Quaker-inspired councils. Some alumni say the college needs to make tough business decisions first.
A Chapel Hill Lab Faces New Threats Five Years After Covid-19
March 27, 2025
Public health leaders looked to UNC-Chapel Hill virologist Ralph Baric to end the pandemic. Their critics blamed it on him. Now, the White House wants to slash funding for research like his.
UNC’s Risky Belichick Math
March 13, 2025 | Coauthored with Zachery Eanes and copublished with Axios Raleigh
UNC-Chapel Hill transferred $21 million from other funds to the athletic department last year–and that was before it agreed to spend millions of dollars more on coach Bill Belichick and his football staff.
The ‘Did Duke Win?’ Guy Didn’t Mean to Dunk on Duke
January 30, 2025
The untold story of how a Duke student accidentally made UNC-Chapel Hill basketball fans’ favorite website.
A Professor Walks Into a Storm
October 24, 2024
Jed Atkins, the dean of UNC-Chapel Hill’s controversial new School of Civic Life and Leadership, is a well-respected professor who believes in the power of civil discourse. His early decisions have only fueled criticism about the school’s conservative roots.
You can find everything I’ve written for The Assembly at our website.