If you got a print edition of Saturday’s New York Times, you saw a cover story about scavengers taking advantage of the fact that college students abandon their goods as they leave for the summer. 

The premise may sound familiar to avid readers of the Assembly network because the inspiration and centerpiece of the article was a story our colleague Lena Geller wrote for INDY Week detailing her experience salvaging $6,000 of luxury goods from her apartment building, which is largely populated by Duke University students.

I highly recommend taking a minute to read Lena’s delightful story—after you read this delightful newsletter, of course.

— Matt Hartman […]

Matt Hartman is a higher education reporter for The Assembly and co-anchor of our weekly higher education newsletter, The Quad. He was previously a longtime freelance journalist and spent nearly a decade working in higher ed communications before joining The Assembly in 2024.