Duke University Receives Nearly $15 Million from the Duke Endowment

Enhancements to Duke University students' undergraduate experience and support for a number of priority programs and new facilities will be made possible by nearly $15 million in grant awards from The Duke Endowment, university President Richard H. Brodhead announced Wednesday.

Brodhead said The Duke Endowment's latest gifts reflect a "unique partnership" between The Duke Endowment and Duke University that has been crucial to the university's development as one of the nation's leading teaching and research universities.

"The Duke Endowment's generosity to the university has been, and continues to be, remarkable," Brodhead said. "The projects supported by The Duke Endowment all are strategic priorities for the university and are of utmost importance to the excellence of our programs -- particularly in our undergraduate curriculum -- in the future."

The $14,990,000 total from the Charlotte, N.C.-based charitable trust includes $4.25 million for undergraduate education initiatives that build on previous programs to create a new undergraduate model at Duke, one that is based on smaller classes and one-on-one mentoring experiences. These initiatives will involve both of Duke's undergraduate colleges -- Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and the Pratt School of Engineering. Undergraduate programs and other initiatives supported by The Duke Endowment include:

• the expansion of FOCUS, a program that exposes first-year students to cutting-edge ideas from across the humanities, sciences and social sciences. FOCUS students work closely with distinguished faculty in small classes built around a common theme, and have frequent contact with their instructors and classmates outside the classroom.
• an increase in the number of undergraduate students, particularly those in the humanities and social sciences, who engage in summer research.
• more opportunities for seniors to write honor theses, an experience that teaches students to manage large-scale intellectual projects, become experts about their subject matter and obtain intensive experience in research, analysis and writing.
• the expansion of an existing program in the Pratt School of Engineering that will allow all undergraduate engineering students to participate in a team-oriented design project.
• additional support for certificate programs -- integrated, interdisciplinary courses of study around a common theme that consist of at least six classes, including entry courses and capstone courses in the senior year, with most programs requiring a research experience or apprenticeship.

Other awards from the Endowment include $4 million to support Perkins Library, $2 million for the Duke Law School Library, $1.7 million in support of Goodson Chapel at Duke Divinity School and $1.5 million to support new priority initiatives identified by Brodhead. Brodhead became Duke's ninth president in July 2004.

Duke Provost Peter Lange, the university's senior academic officer, said the grant "reinforces Duke's commitment to providing as fine an educational program for undergraduates as any university in the country while strengthening our divinity and law schools and helping to modernize our world-class library."

Other university programs or initiatives receiving funding include $515,000 for the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, Duke's principal program for community collaborations with 12 Durham neighborhoods and seven public schools near its campus; $500,000 for the Baldwin Scholars Program, a new undergraduate women's leadership program; $325,000 for the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy; and $200,000 for "Durham: A Self Portrait," a documentary film about Durham, its history and culture.

The Duke Endowment also is providing support for a number of medical and health initiatives of the Duke University Health System, including:

• $563,900 for the development and implementation of measures to improve patient safety
• $266,344 to develop Community Pathways: Early Intervention for Hospitalized Children and Improve Post-Discharge for High-Risk Infants and Children
• $107,981 for a domestic violence/sexual assault hospital response program
• $150,000 to Duke University Health System to help establish an Institute for Prospective Health Care
• $59,982 to support expansion of a health clinic at The Community Family Life and Recreation Center at Lyon Park, serving seven Southwest Central Durham communities in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership
• $181,000 to support the establishment of a new medical clinic serving the Walltown community, an historically African-American community near Duke's East Campus, another Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership community

"This is an outstanding example of the importance of partnerships," said Victor J. Dzau, M.D., Duke's chancellor for health affairs. "The generosity of The Duke Endowment has enabled Duke University Health System to collaborate with the community to take critically needed health care services out into convenience community settings. The goal of each partner in this venture is to improve the quality of health for the citizens of Durham."

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The Duke Endowment, started in 1924 by industrialist, philanthropist and Duke University founder James B. Duke, is one of the nation's largest foundations. Duke Endowment officials announced in December that the Endowment had passed the $2 billion mark in grants to its principal beneficiaries in North and South Carolina: Duke, Davidson College, Furman University and Johnson C. Smith University; nonprofit hospitals and other health care institutions; rural United Methodist churches and pastors; and not-for-profit children's homes and other programs that support adoption or prevent child abuse and neglect.