Growing in Troubled Times
In times of economic turmoil, Duke has survived “ and even thrived
Five years after James B. Duke created The Duke Endowment in 1924, formally establishing "an institution of learning to be known as Duke University," the Great Depression hit.
During the 1930s, Duke made sacrifices, but it also completed its transformation from the small, regional Trinity College of the early 20th century to a world-renowned research university, complete with a new hospital, new schools of medicine, nursing, engineering and forestry, and expanded schools of religion and law.
The economic insecurity of that time didn't derail Duke from its pursuit of excellence, a standard President Richard H. Brodhead has touched on in recent months. He has encouraged faculty and staff to regard the current economic downturn as "a time of challenge, not of retreat."
"I think President Brodhead is echoing what President Few felt during the 30s," said Tim Pyatt, Duke University archivist. "President Few had a vision that even during hard times, higher education had the opportunity to keep things moving and expanding."
National Attention
The unquenchable optimism of Duke in the 1930s is captured in an iconic picture taken nearly two years after the 1929 stock market crash: Duke Chapel rising on the west end of the quad.
The Chapel capped a massive seven-year building spree that created the new Duke University. At slightly more than $21 million (the equivalent of more than $250 million today), the renovation of the Trinity campus and creation of the new gothic campus was the largest construction project undertaken in the South up to that time.
Duke's quick growth gained national attention. A TIME article in 1931 noted "31 separate structures" and described the campus as "the most prodigious new educational project in the land this century -- Duke University, now nearly complete though little grass yet grows on its sandy campus, no ivy on its neo-Gothic walls of soft-colored fieldstone."
"The most prodigious new educational project in the land this century" is how TIME magazine described the Duke campus and its construction boom. Nanaline Duke, widow of James B. Duke and a Duke trustee, is featured on the 1931 cover.
"All is modern, thoroughly equipped, efficient," the magazine said. "In the students' union are shiny dish-washing and potato-peeling machines. In the theatre is the latest cinema for 150. The stadium seats 35,000."
The construction of the campus provided work for Durham residents, and many trained stonemasons from Italy. These construction jobs were a boon when the North Carolina Commissioner of Labor estimated that total unemployment in North Carolina had reached 22 percent.
After the completion of the Chapel, even more buildings rose. Baker House opened to house nursing students; Duke Gardens took shape; and Few Quad was built to provide housing for the influx of graduate students.
"The construction of Duke was a huge effort during a time when most of the country was not building," Pyatt said.
Wealth of Talent
As the U.S. economy stagnated, Duke's enrollment rapidly grew, and its academic reputation flourished in the 1930s. The Association of American Medical Colleges ranked Duke's new medical school among the top 25 percent in the country. Duke was invited to join Harvard, Yale and 26 other universities as a member of the elite Association of American Universities (AAU).
"Looking back, there was an exceedingly short time between the birth of Duke as a research university on the eve of the Depression and the recognition of it as a top-notch school by the AAU, which includes the top schools in the country," said Mike Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations at Duke. "Imagine the self-confidence it took to say not only are we going to survive, but we aren't going to give up on our vision of excellence. That attitude carries forward today."
While Duke grew, thanks to the generosity of donors and steadily increasing enrollment, many other colleges curtailed classes or shut down completely during the Depression. The result was a wealth of talent flocking to Duke's doors.
"We have had to decline the offers of thousands of men within the last few years who want to come here in some connection with the University," wrote William Wannamaker, dean of Trinity College, in 1932. He noted with regret that he "had during the last year to decline the applications of many first rate persons."
Many who landed coveted jobs at Duke were young, able faculty and staff who helped shape the university, and whose names still grace the campus -- Wallace Wade (football), Frederick Hanes (medicine) and Clarence Korstian (forestry).
"Some may have come to Duke just for a job, but many were attracted to launching a first class university in the south, because they were scarce," said Robert Durden, Duke professor emeritus of history and author of "The Launching of Duke University."
Endowment Plummets
Despite its growth, Duke did not come through the economic turmoil of the Depression unscathed.
Investments, a key source of income for the university, were hit by the collapse of the stock market. Duke's income from the Duke Endowment plummeted from just over $1.3 million in 1931 to slightly more than $660,000 in 1933 -- a drop of nearly 50 percent.
Then, as now, the precipitous drop in income required a careful review of the budget.
The 1933-34 academic year included a freeze on new faculty hires, cancellation of all paid leaves of absence, cutting of research funds by 50 percent and cuts in salary of at least 10 percent for every person at Duke.
President William P. Few's salary dropped from $21,000 to $16,800; his assistant's from $1,380 to $1,238.
"In many ways, the 10 percent cut was lenient," said Durden, adding that the University of North Carolina had cut salaries a year earlier and many schools had to close.
"To have a job at that time was lucky."
Even President Few, struggling to manage debts his family had incurred, rented most of the upper bedrooms in the President's house. "This rent about takes care of the running of our house and we are trying again this year to eliminate practically all other expenses," he wrote to a friend in 1933. He cited the toll on his family but concluded, "I do not think any of these sacrifices will hurt any of us. Sacrificial living is well in keeping with the hard times that confront us all."
Trying Times
Despite adversity, morale at Duke remained high. The editorial note of the June 1932 Alumni Register illustrated the determination of Duke students to thrive in hard times. Describing the May commencement, the first ceremony held in the new chapel, the magazine said:
"This is a trying time, and a time in which graduates will find it extremely difficult to adjust themselves. The men and women who this month left this campus went with heads up and they intend to fight, and they will make the grade. -- You can't down such a spirit. It faces odds, but conquers them."
President Few, speaking a year later in July 1933 at a Duke University Day celebration, captured Duke University's reaction to the troubled times more succinctly.
"I do not care for the Depression," said Few, according to the alumni magazine. "But I am not afraid of it."