Dear Duke Alumni Around the Globe:
I write this, my first official communication to you, as Cindy and I are still basking in the glow of my recent inauguration as Duke's ninth president in the magnificent Duke Chapel. The welcome we've been accorded on campus and in the city of Durham has been overwhelmingly warm and we're most grateful. Those of you who were in Durham or watching the ceremony on our Web site http://www.duke.edu/inauguration/ will know that I told a story about a student at my former school who, dismayed by my decision to head South, said, "It was like Dean Brodhead was married to Yale, and now we learn he is leaving us for someone younger and more athletic." To this I could only reply, "Well, these things happen!" I consider myself immensely fortunate to be at Duke. I love my new school and will do everything in my power on its behalf.
Each year the arrival of our newest students provides a wonderful reminder of our purpose. On paper, the Class of 2008 is as strong as any in Duke's history, having been selected from a record-high applicant pool of 16,747. And, in person, they're absolutely great. As Cindy and I hosted the freshmen for dessert at the President's House in the first weeks of school, we had first-hand experience of their intelligence, energy, enthusiasm and love of this place. I'm confident they will challenge each other and our faculty in many positive and unforeseen ways. We'll give them plenty of challenges as well, knowing they will rise to meet them as their predecessors have.
President Keohane left me a marvelous cadre of administrative colleagues with whom to work, but my arrival also coincided with the departure of a number of talented, long-time leaders of Duke. I am pleased to report that the vacancies have been filled by extraordinarily able people who have fit right in with the Duke team. They include Victor Dzau, M.D., chancellor for health affairs and president of the Duke University Health System, who joins us from the Harvard Medical School; George McLendon, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, who was chair of the chemistry department at Princeton; Duke alumna Catherine Lynch Gilliss, dean of the School of Nursing, who followed me from Yale; and Kimerly Rorschach, director of the splendid Nasher Museum of Art that will open next year, from the University of Chicago. Duke's own talent has allowed us to fill key posts with internal promotions. Katharine Bartlett has agreed to serve another term as dean of the law school. Robert Shepard has succeeded John Piva as vice president for alumni affairs and development, and Ellen Medearis succeeds Bob as executive director of university development. Sterly Wilder, who has spent her entire life at Duke, is our new executive director of alumni affairs, succeeding Laney Funderburk who retires on December 30 after more than two decades of service to Duke and to our alumni. Gratified as I am by the exceptional quality of people we have appointed to senior leader position in recent months, I admit to some relief that we will not be searching for a new basketball coach.
Thanks to the generosity of alumni and others in the recently completed $2.36 billion Campaign for Duke, our campus continues to bustle with construction. Some $600 million in capital projects is underway, nearing completion or recently finished. These include the Nasher Museum of Art, the French Sciences Research Center, extensive renovations and additions to the Law School, Perkins Library, the Divinity School and the Washington Duke Inn. We have also recently begun construction of the new Albert Eye Center and a new residence hall on East Campus.
One week before the school year began, we opened the $97 million Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences, creating a new engineering quadrangle and more than doubling the teaching and research space for the Pratt School of Engineering. CIEMAS is the physical embodiment of Duke's interdisciplinary approach to technology, engineering and bioscience. The goal of CIEMAS, of course, wasn't to build another set of laboratories, but the enable the ascent to a higher level of creativity in technology and biomedical engineering key tools for our time. With the help of this and our other new facilities, we continue to build the excellence of our faculty and students, and to make Duke ever stronger in reputation and service to the world.
My new presidency has faced a number of early challenges, from the Los Angeles Lakers' efforts to seduce Coach K to the university's decision to permit a Duke student group, Hiwar, to host the Fourth National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement on campus on October 15-17. They tell us they expect as many as 500 participants, with attendance open to anyone who wishes to register. Hiwar has identified the purposes of the event as supporting Palestine solidarity and convincing others to divest their stock in companies doing business in Israel. In regards to the latter, I have publicly reaffirmed that the university is not willing to consider divestiture from Israel.
The decision to hold the conference at Duke has required of me that I balance my sympathy for those who would be deeply troubled by it and the fundamental commitment to free speech that any university must uphold. Past and current horrors arising from terrible hatreds have made many concerned with the issues of the Palestine-Israel conflict profoundly sensitive to any actions that might be construed as even remotely endangering the state of Israel or that might be seen as failing to understand the plight of the Palestinians. I fully understood, therefore, in deciding that the University must uphold its commitment to free speech, that I was entering into an area of the deepest emotions and likely controversy. Indeed, my expectations have been realized. We have received many phone calls, letters and e-mails supporting Duke's decision to allow the conference. But these have been overwhelmed by communications condemning us, based largely on information, much of it inaccurate, in a petition circulating on the Internet.
We have seen claims from people who insist that this group is anti-Semitic or connected to terrorists, including specific instances of things that supposedly were said or done at previous conferences. However, when we check out these claims with our colleagues at other universities and with police authorities, the first-hand accounts we hear are often quite different. Thus, although we are proceeding cautiously, we are wary of the worst predictions we've heard about the upcoming conference here at Duke, predictions that are at odds with our experience to date with the student organizers here. You can learn more about this issue at our Web site http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/psc.html, which contains my statement on Israeli divestment and a list of frequently asked questions (and answers to them) regarding the conference and our policies.
Our decision to allow the conference to be held was in no way an endorsement of the sponsors' views. At its core, this decision tested the university's commitment to academic freedom. All ideas are not equal, but it is a foundational principle of American life that all ideas should have an equal opportunity to be expressed. Universities, in particular, must give wide latitude to free speech and free debate because the pursuit of truth through the encounter of divergent points of view is the very stuff of education. When universities get in the business of suppressing speech, however vile, it lends credence to the notion that it is a legitimate function of the university to suppress speech. A notion is thereby validated that then can be activated on another occasion perhaps to suppress our own dissent or unpopular expression. The day we start making it easy to shut down others' opinions is the day we license a curtailment of freedom from which we could each suffer in our turn.
I spoke to the evils of terrorism at this year's 9-11 memorial program on campus. Violence is the antithesis of reason. I deplore the violence in the Middle East and the historic inability of the Israelis and Palestinians to find a workable solution to their long-standing and awful conflict. It is my profound belief that the long-term solution to the issues will come more from open and honest discussion and the education it produces than from squelching discussion.
I have been gratified by the general recognition that Duke's hosting a speaker or conference does not imply endorsement of the views expressed. The Graduate and Professional Student Council has issued a strong statement on academic freedom and free speech, as has The Chronicle in an editorial. A number of local papers have written supportive editorials as well. I have sought opportunities to meet with concerned groups both on campus and in the community, including leaders of major Jewish federations in North Carolina. The response of the Duke community and local groups has been encouraging. While many are concerned about points of view that might be expressed, most people have appreciated the even greater importance of free speech. For example, rather than condemning the conference, students working with Duke's Freeman Center for Jewish Life and others are identifying ways to bring additional information to the public to enhance understanding of Israel and the complex issues that have make this conflict so difficult to resolve. A house course on Israel and Palestine has been developed, and a number of faculty are exploring the issue in their classes.
Student groups have planned a Concert Against Terrorism on the night before the conference. Several nationally prominent speakers will be coming to Duke during the year to help all of us gain a deeper understanding of the history, cultural issues, political challenges and potential solutions to the conflict. In sum, this community is working to make this controversy part of a broad year-long educational discussion of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Naturally our Student Affairs staff is working with the Duke student sponsors of the conference and with Duke Police to provide a safe and secure environment for members of the campus community, the participants in the conference and those who wish to protest the event.
Of course, we have a thousand other things going on in addition to the conference. The fall sports season has begun and several of our teams are experiencing strong years, including Men's Soccer, Women's Field Hockey, Women's Volleyball and Women's Cross Country. Coach Ted Roof's football team has lost its first three games, all on the road, and suffered injuries to a number of experienced players. The team, which includes many freshmen and sophomores, has played well. We look forward to having them play before friendly crowds in Wallace Wade during Homecoming and Parents Weekend. And seven new members are being enshrined in the Duke Sports Hall of Fame: basketball All-America and National Player of the year Danny Ferry, legendary wrestling coach Bill Harvey, football All-America Cedric Jones, men's soccer National Player of the Year John Kerr, and women's tennis standouts and sisters Christine, Patricia and Theresa O'Reilly.
This month I start a series of initial visits with Duke alumni and friends in the Triangle, the Triad, Charlotte, Boston, New York and Atlanta, with many others to follow. With Homecoming looming, I look forward to opportunities to visit with you as part of my own Duke education. I rejoice in your loyalty to this great school, which I find more inspiring every day. With your continued love and support, I am confident we will build a better Duke together.
With all best wishes,
Richard H. Brodhead