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Duke Launches $3.25 Billion Campaign

Duke embarks on a university-wide campaign that will help shape new solutions and prepare the leaders and problem-solvers our future requires.

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Duke Trustee Chair G. Richard Wagoner Jr. discusses the new $3.25 billion Duke Forward campaign. Photo by Chris Hildreth/Duke University Photography

Duke University officials on Saturday announced the launch of a $3.25 billion fundraising campaign whose strategic goals include enriching the Duke experience, activating Duke's power for the world and sustaining the university's momentum.

The comprehensive campaign, "Duke Forward: Partnering for the Future," will support priorities across Duke's 10 schools, Duke Medicine and a range of university programs.

"The generosity and vision of our supporters have propelled our rise to the very top tier of universities," said Duke President Richard H. Brodhead. "Through Duke Forward, we will capitalize on our university's spirit of innovation and partnership to help shape new solutions and train the leaders and problem-solvers our world requires."

"Duke continues to grow and change in many exciting ways, but at the core is a commitment to creating the best possible learning experience for our students and to making a positive contribution in key issues in our society and around the world," said G. Richard Wagoner Jr., chairman of Duke's Board of Trustees. "This campaign will strengthen and sustain the things that make Duke one of the world's exceptional universities, and advance the ideas and programs that will define our future."

The campaign, co-chaired by trustees Anne Bass, Bruce Karsh and David Rubenstein, is expected to run until June 30, 2017. It is the first university-wide campaign since the Campaign for Duke, which ended in 2003 and raised $2.36 billion.

Duke is kicking off the campaign this weekend with a series of events for donors and volunteers. A new website, dukeforward.duke.edu, will illustrate the priorities of the campaign, feature campaign news and highlight opportunities for university supporters to become involved.

The Duke Forward campaign evolved through a comprehensive strategic planning effort that included deans, faculty leaders and other administrators. Some priorities are familiar: financial aid, faculty development, research and patient care, athletics and annual giving. But a significant part of the campaign will be focused on Duke's unique strengths, including interdisciplinary efforts in basic and translational medical science, innovation and entrepreneurship, the arts, energy, global health and the environment.

Provost Peter Lange, the university's chief academic officer, calls the campaign "strategically and thematically based."

"This work has become integrated into the fabric of the university and is now part of Duke's identity," Lange said. "We are interested in building a distinctive type of 21st-century university, with education rooted in a combination of the classroom and engagement beyond the classroom."

Duke Medicine, including the Duke University Health System, School of Medicine and School of Nursing, is a significant part of the overall campaign, with a $1.2 billion goal focused on improving human health through innovative research, rapid translation of discovery, forward-thinking education, evidence-based practice and eliminating health disparities locally and globally.

"Duke Medicine is excited to join with alumni and friends across Duke University in this historic campaign," said Victor J. Dzau, M.D., chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of the Duke University Health System. "We believe this is our time to lead in scientific discovery, excellent clinical care and innovative education as we seek to deliver on our promise of medicine that changes the world."

Campaign priorities are based in three principal areas and include:

ENRICHING THE DUKE EXPERIENCE

-- Experiential learning. Support from the campaign will be used to strengthen curricular and co-curricular programs; foster team-based learning for health care professionals in Durham and beyond; provide innovative spaces for hands-on education and expand research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students throughout Duke's 10 schools. It also will continue to provide opportunities for civic engagement through programs such as DukeEngage, which has provided opportunities for more than 2,000 undergraduates to pursue service experiences in the United States and in nearly 70 other countries since its inception in 2007.

-- Innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2010, Duke announced a campus-wide initiative in innovation and entrepreneurship to help transform great ideas into commercial and social enterprises. Through the campaign, Duke plans to expand educational opportunities that encourage innovative thinking, add new teachers and mentors for students and assist researchers in moving new ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace. In early 2013, Duke Medicine plans to launch an institute for health innovations, designed to transform health and medicine through innovation.

-- The residential experience. In recent years, Duke has been working on ways to connect students' intellectual, social and residential lives, and to encourage every student to identify with and be a part of a community. Through the campaign, Duke plans to create new spaces for dining and interaction in the West Union and surrounding area, and will seek support for a new residence hall on East Campus and another on West Campus.

-- The arts. In recent years, Duke has added new majors in dance and visual studies, and launched its first master of fine arts degree. It now has about 70 student organizations focused on arts and media. To continue to advance the arts as an integral part of the Duke experience, the university seeks to create new learning opportunities for undergraduates and fellowships for graduate students, and to recruit faculty with expertise in both traditional and new artistic media.

-- Duke athletics. Through the campaign, Duke seeks to sustain its commitment to being a top-notch athletics program. Campaign plans call for significant endowment fundraising and major renovations to key facilities, such as Wallace Wade Stadium and Cameron Indoor Stadium. ACTIVATING DUKE'S POWER FOR THE WORLD

-- Medical discovery and patient care. The campaign will enable the university and medical center to radically improve health through innovative research, rapid translation of discovery, evidence-based practice and the elimination of barriers to excellent care in our community and the world. Through its transformed medical campus, Duke Medicine is dedicated to patient-centered, compassionate care.  

-- Community and global health. In 2006, Duke established the Duke Global Health Institute to train future global health leaders and to reduce health disparities in underserved populations locally and around the world through research and policy engagement. Through the campaign, Duke seeks to extend its capacity to address global health challenges by adding global health faculty across the university and Duke Medicine, increasing its number of international partners and global health sites, bolstering its cross-campus research collaborations and expanding educational opportunities for students and medical residents.

-- Energy. To address the growing global demand for energy and related pressures on political systems and the environment, Duke recently launched a campus-wide energy initiative. It will draw upon existing strengths in policy, business, law, environment, engineering and the physical and life sciences to address energy problems, offer solutions to decision-makers and educate future energy leaders. Through the campaign, Duke seeks to fund new faculty positions, create multi-school research teams and expand engagement opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, among other measures.

-- The environment. Over the past two decades, Duke has established international leadership in environmental research and education, including in environmental policy, health and the environment, energy education, engineering, the sciences, corporate sustainability and environmental law. Through the campaign, Duke will seek support to extend its commitment for environmental education and research activities across the campus. 

-- Interdisciplinary research. In addition to the interdisciplinary initiatives described above, the university seeks support for important faculty-led research efforts across Duke's 10 schools and seven interdisciplinary institutes, in topics ranging from education and human development to the brain sciences.

-- Durham and the region. Through the campaign, Duke seeks to broaden its role as an advocate and partner for economic development, education and quality health care in Durham and the region. Duke will continue providing its students with opportunities to make a difference in Durham schools and the community, and providing Durham students with opportunities to learn about science and health care at Duke.

SUSTAINING DUKE'S MOMENTUM

-- Financial aid. Duke is one of a small number of universities that admits U.S. undergraduates without regard for financial circumstances and then meets 100 percent of their demon­strated need. It also provides financial support to virtually all doctoral students, assists many other graduate and professional students and provides need-based aid to top international undergraduates. Duke's Financial Aid Initiative, from 2005 to 2008, was dedicated exclusively to financial aid and raised more than $308 million. As the cost of sustaining financial aid obligations continues to rise, Duke seeks to further expand its endowed support for the next generation of students.

-- Faculty excellence. Through the campaign, Duke will create new endowed faculty chairs to help it support and retain top senior scholars and compete for the most sought-after young scholars. It also looks to support the directors of academic and research centers throughout its 10 schools and within its libraries.

-- Duke Annual Fund. Gifts to the Annual Fund and other unrestricted contributions will be a vital part of the Duke Forward campaign. These contributions give the university the flexibility to seed new ideas while continuing to meet its most strategic goals.

During the planning phase of the Duke Forward campaign, which began in 2010, the university received commitments totaling about $1.325 billion. Those gifts include:

-- an $80 million gift from The Duke Endowment of Charlotte, N.C., to renovate Duke's student union and other landmark buildings on campus, a $35 million gift from The Duke Endowment to construct the Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Center for Health Education and a $15 million gift from The Duke Endowment to improve the amenities and facilities for children’s services;

-- a $50 million gift from trustee Bruce Karsh and his wife Martha to support need-based financial aid for undergraduate students from the U.S. and abroad;

-- a $15 million gift from trustee David Rubenstein to boost the university's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, and a second $13.6 million gift from Rubenstein to the library system to support the newly renamed David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Special Collections Library;

-- a $10 million gift from trustee Jeff Vinik and his wife Penny to support Duke faculty who engage with engineering challenges;

-- a planned bequest of $25 million from trustee Jack O. Bovender Jr. and his wife Barbara to support programs within Duke's Fuqua School of Business, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and School of Nursing;

--a $15 million gift from Christine Siegler Pearson and her husband J. Michael Pearson to name the School of Nursing building in Christine's honor;

--a $12 million gift from Durham-based LC Industries, the largest employer of visually impaired people in the country, toward a new clinical facility for the Duke Eye Center;

--a $10.2 million gift from the Robertson Foundation for a translational cell therapy center to pioneer new treatments for children and adults with cancer, cerebral palsy, stroke and brain injuries suffered at birth.

For more information about the Duke Forward campaign, go to http://dukeforward.duke.edu.