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Duke Officials Welcome Top Ranking, Vow To Continue Progress In Racial Integration

Duke officials welcomed the news that the university, in a survey of the nation's top universities conducted by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, earned the top ranking for its success in integrating African-American students and faculty.

"I believe we've made significant progress in terms of creating as well as sustaining the university's aggressive commitment to issues of diversity," said Karla FC Holloway, dean of humanities and social sciences. "Our success here is absolutely indebted to a senior leadership that has made this initiative matter for the entire community."

Officials said they remain committed to building on past progress by continuing to attract, enroll and graduate African-American students and to hire African-American professors. The university recently announced that a committee chaired by former Fuqua School of Business dean Rex Adams is planning the next iteration of the university's plan to attract minority professors.

"There are challenges that remain, but I believe we are fully capable of addressing these," Holloway said. "Issues of campus climate surface daily that remind us all we have work to do here that affirms our ethic of inclusiveness and respect."

The rankings were based on 13 factors, including the number of African-American students and faculty, progress in increasing those numbers and the success of the students.

Among the nation's 26 "most selective and academically prestigious universities," Duke was No. 1 because it consistently ranked near the top in each category and did not rank at the bottom in any category, the journal said. The journal noted particular success in the five-year gain in the number of black students in the freshman class. In the 2001-02 academic year, blacks made up 11.2 percent of the freshman class, up from 7.8 percent five years ago.

The university's lowest performing category was in the percentage of black tenured faculty -- 2.7 percent -- but was rated higher in this category than 17 of the other 26 universities.

The journal praises President Nannerl O. Keohane, saying, "Clearly one explanation for the strong performance of Duke in so many categories is the sincere commitment of President Nan Keohane to racial diversity."

John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, said that "while one can always question the methodology used in college and university rankings, it is clear that our collective commitment to make Duke an attractive and welcoming place for African-American students and faculty is increasingly being recognized."

Holloway said she was confident that the committee reviewing the Black Faculty Strategic Initiative (BFSI), launched in 1993 to increase the number of black faculty, would continue to provide a way to address this issue.

Provost Peter Lange said the BFSI has been a success due to the establishment of clear methods and targets and the commitment of faculty and administrators throughout the university.

"It is a true achievement, but there is much that remains to be done," he said. "First we need to assure that we consolidate the gains we have achieved and make them truly meaningful for the educational goals to which they are directed. Then we must move forward to further advance those goals through the building of an even more diverse faculty in the coming decade."

Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta noted that some of the efforts to make Duke more attractive and welcoming to minority students had not gone into effect when the rankings were compiled.

For example, a new policy that places all sophomores on West Campus was created, in part, to increase diversity and interaction across races. The Cultural Group Fund, set up by Keohane last year, also increases funding for multicultural groups, he said.

The top five institutions in the journal's ratings after Duke were Emory University, Princeton University, Washington University in St. Louis, Vanderbilt and UNC-Chapel Hill.

The full text of the article may be found at http://www.jbhe.com/features/36_leading_universities.html.