Academic Leaders Meet Again With Student Coalition to Hear Campus Climate Concerns

Students present a list of demands at Friday's meeting. Photo by Chris Hildreth/Duke Photography

President Richard H. Brodhead, Provost Sally Kornbluth and Trinity College Dean Valerie Ashby returned to Page Auditorium Friday for a second conversation with students about a campus culture that students said marginalized people of color.

This second conversation was organized by a coalition of student groups and focused on a list of demands presented to the administration.

Brodhead thanked the students for the meeting and reminded the students of his pledge “that intolerance and bigotry has no place in a university community.”

Whereas the previous conversation included many painful and emotional personal stories, Friday’s meeting focused on the requests for institutional and policy changes. Several students asked the president about the new task force on bias and hate issues he had appointed this week.

Brodhead said he, Kornbluth, Ashby and other faculty and administrative leaders would consult with students in responding to the demands. He pledged to move thoughtfully on priority items.

“It is our plan to look at them seriously and figure out where most important points for progress are,” Brodhead said.