As we begin the spring semester, I write to provide a second update to the Duke community about the work of the Campus Culture Initiative Steering Committee. You will recall that the President's charge to the Committee is challenging and multifaceted. We have been asked to take the measure of our undergraduate campus culture and see where it could be improved.
Our work can be viewed in four phases. The first phase last spring was devoted to framing our approach to the charge and organizing the work of the committee. The second phase comprised the summer months and focused on identifying key issues and opportunities for improvement and gathering relevant data.
With the beginning of the fall semester, we entered the third phase and focused on analyzing and integrating information, formulating questions, and garnering input from the larger campus community through Town Hall meetings with faculty, students, and staff, and an array of individual and small group sessions. We have continued our approach of connecting with offices and groups with relevant information and perspectives on aspects of campus culture, including the Office of Institutional Research and the Council on Civic Engagement. The Committee also met with the Presidential Council and has provided updates to the University Board of Trustees. At the end of November, members of the Committee provided an oral report of our work to the President.
The fourth phase of our work, which we have begun, is to articulate a vision of undergraduate campus culture and formulate a set of interrelated recommendations to realize this vision. In consultation with the President, we have revised our timeline to deliver our final report earlier in the spring to allow time for communication and discussion with the larger community before the end of the semester.
As a result of this intense activity, the Steering Committee has recognized the need for a clearly articulated set of core values or principles to guide choices about undergraduate life. One core principle that has emerged concerns a diverse and inclusive community. An environment that affirms, engages, and empowers difference is essential to our educational mission. We are proud of the increased diversity that Duke has achieved. An academic community must, however, consistently and constructively engage difference in order to reap its full benefits. We also have become aware of the forces for conformity to a particular view of what it means to be a Duke student, and we recognize the need to give strong affirmation to rich alternatives to any purported norm. We seek to find specific and constructive ways to promote a more inclusive and engaged community. Along with intellectual engagement, we are considering the extent to which increased civic engagement can deepen sensitivity to difference and broaden perspective while also fostering vital connections between the curricular and co-curricular spheres of students' lives.
Throughout these conversations, we have come to realize how critical the culture of the campus is in developing the intellectual, social, and civic qualities of our students. Duke seeks to prepare undergraduates for leadership roles in a globally interconnected, yet often fragmented, world. In this context, the Steering Committee has identified several areas that could make a significant difference in strengthening our campus culture. These areas include admissions and recruitment, athletics, curricular and experiential engagements, residential life and dining, social life, alcohol, and student-faculty interaction. The Committee is in the process of examining these interconnected areas and formulating recommendations for consideration.
I am grateful for the time and effort the Committee has devoted to this process and for the thoughtful comments and suggestions the community has contributed. I look forward to the campus discussions of our work later in the semester.
Bob Thompson
Chair, Campus Culture Initiative Steering Committee