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Finding Strengths in Our Differences

Seeking diversity aids problem solving and innovation

Susan Semonite Waters, center, chats with a collection of student interns about Blue Devil Days, an annual event for prospective students. Photo by Bryan Roth.
Susan Semonite Waters, center, chats with a collection of student interns about Blue Devil Days, an annual event for prospective students. Photo by Bryan Roth.

When it comes to attracting the best and brightest students to Duke, Susan Semonite Waters knows there is no one mold for what that might look like.

Every new class of students offers a variety of backgrounds, gender and life experiences, which is why when Waters and her coworkers in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions recruit students, they make sure to emphasize how Duke’s workforce can be just as diverse.

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“It’s certainly harder to get somebody to come to Duke from an area or experience if they think they’re the first one paving the way,” said Waters, senior assistant director of admissions. “Knowing there are faculty and staff here who have lots of different backgrounds makes it feel more comfortable.”

For Waters, resources like the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, Freeman Center for Jewish Life and the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture offer places and people to share with prospective students. She noted faculty and staff often meet with prospective students to highlight the broad personal and intellectual diversity of Duke.

Diversity is a benefit not only for Waters and visitors to campus, but for faculty and staff as well. In a 2014 study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, an independent business within The Economist Group providing forecasting and advisory services, 82 percent of human resources executives surveyed from around the world said emphasizing diversity among employees allows access to the richest talent pool possible. Similarly, a separate 2014 Gallup poll noted that gender-diverse workplaces provide greater depth of knowledge, resources, insights and allow for better interaction among employees.

“When you build a workplace that’s composed of people with different skills, competencies and perspectives, you create a foundation of broad excellence,” said Ben Reese, vice president for institutional equity. “We deal with complex issues every day at Duke and having many ways of analyzing and engaging problems contributes to creative solutions.”

race
Racial demographics of university and health system from Duke Human Resources, June 2014. Faculty and staff identifying as Hispanic ethnicity represent 3 percent of the employee population.

For 2015, Duke President Richard H. Brodhead has recognized diversity, one of Duke’s guiding principles, as one of his top institutional priorities. It includes supporting gender and ethnic diversity among senior leadership and Duke’s Board of Trustees.

At the start of this year, senior leadership for the university, which includes academic positions like provosts and deans, and administrative leaders who oversee finances and development, featured 15 of 38 members who were female or under-represented minority, including 11 females and five male or female minorities. Nineteen of 36 trustees were female or minority, including 14 females and seven trustees who were male or female minorities.

“The educational environment is one of the most important places we communicate the importance of learning about the world and learning from people from different backgrounds brings a richness to our campus,” said Nancy Allen, vice provost for faculty diversity and faculty development. “When students see faculty and staff across campus who represent their own backgrounds, it shows they have an opportunity to succeed no matter what they want their careers to look like.”

Allen noted that during the past 10 years, Duke has put several programs in place to encourage more diversity, like the Faculty Diversity Initiative, which led to a greater hiring rate of black faculty, and the Women’s Initiative, which enhanced work-life balance and professional development opportunities for women. Recently, Duke has increased efforts to add diversity among faculty in areas of science, mathematics and engineering.

gender
Gender demographics of university and health system from Duke Human Resources, June 2014.

“A work environment provides an opportunity to be among diversity and inclusivity in a very deliberate way,” Reese said. “Even from the perspective of professional development, we’re able to enrich the lives of our employees by providing a way to broaden skills and competencies from a variety of different people. We should view it as a workplace benefit.”

Ilene Farkas has seen that as administrative manager in the Department of Anesthesiology, where a special management group known as the “Business Office Leadership Team” meets weekly to address questions and concerns about budgeting, technology and operations within the department.

Farkas said the variety of backgrounds in the group make for an eclectic but valuable team – from her as a New Yorker who’s worked at Duke for six years to coworkers from West Virginia, Iran and other employees who’ve worked at Duke for more than 20 years.

“The group contains people who are extremely analytical, those who have deep personal relationships with employees, those with experiences from other institutions and those with years of Duke history and knowledge,” Farkas said. “All of this together makes us a dynamic and strong team and adds to our culture of collaboration. It’s reassuring personally and professionally.”

So far, the Anesthesiology Business Office Leadership Team has conceptualized projects like a “datamart” to capture clinical outcomes data to developing a robust faculty reporting system and an integrated education tool for the department.

“I feel it shows how special a place Duke can be when we know there’s an importance on diversity,” Farkas said. “Our ability to approach situations more openly has made us more considerate and understanding people and that’s a great goal.”

Similarly, the broader diversity of the university has helped Waters and the admissions staff. In 2014, Duke welcomed about 1,700 new members in the class of 2018, which includes students from 47 states and 47 countries.

“Students and families come from all over the country and all over the world, but we’re prepared for whatever comes in our door,” Waters said. “Drawing from resources across Duke, it makes us an attractive place for everybody.”