Capturing Duke's Dynamism

Members of the Duke community from Durham to Beijing documented a day in the life of the university through photos, videos and messages, as part of the One Day at Duke project on Friday. [Much of the material is available on this website.]

Students and others contributed more than 800 tweets and nearly 300 Instagram photos, along with numerous posts to Facebook, Google+ and other channels.

They captured moments that were mundane ("C2 ridin'"), sentimental ("happiest place on earth") and serious ("the #duke team in #rwanda is doing great work through @rwandaHRH to train more healthcare workers").

Simultaneously, university photographers and videographers fanned out across the campus to record snippets of classes, lab work, events and socializing.

The materials they captured for One Day at Duke will be used to create Duke’s next TV commercial, which will air during football and basketball broadcasts during the coming academic year.

"Anyone who is connected to Duke knows what a vibrant place this is," said Denise Haviland, director of marketing and strategic communications for Duke's Office of Public Affairs and Government Relations. "This was a way to make that dynamism more visible to one another at the university, as well as the rest of the world."

After being postponed from April 5 because of rain, the campaign proceeded Friday despite a bomb threat, a tornado warning and thunderstorms. Campus activities during the day ranged from an Earth Day celebration to Blue Devil Days activities for prospective students, with Duke students and others also participating in classes, research and other activities at locations from Singapore to South Africa.

It's not too late to submit photos and videos that were taken on the 19th. The One Day at Duke website is still accepting submissions. 

Below: Video of One Day with Duke's Lemurs.