Vincent Price: Creating a Duke University of Tomorrow
I am delighted to be here, although I have to admit that the gravity of this setting is not lost on me. Some of you will know that it was in his final address to the faculty that Terry Sanford laid out his “Outrageous Ambitions.” And I understand that in the past this session was often characterized as a State of the University address.
Well, that all sounds a good deal grander than what I have in mind today. I hope you can forgive me if I am a bit less formal than my predecessors. I’d like, instead, to keep my opening remarks brief, so that we might engage in a bit of dialogue about where we are as a university, and where I think we could go from here.
It’s hard to believe that we’re already in the spring semester of my first academic year at Duke. It truly seems like yesterday that Annette and I were moving into Hart House, unpacking boxes, and putting family pictures on our shelves.
And what a first year this has been. Thanks to your teaching and your mentorship, we’ve continued our proud tradition of Rhodes, Marshall, and Schwarzman scholars, sending the brightest Dukies on to graduate study that will prepare them for lifelong leadership.
We opened the magnificent new Rubenstein Arts Center, affectionately dubbed the Ruby, which offers classroom, rehearsal, and performance spaces for Duke artists to practice their craft.
We’ve also begun implementing Together Duke, the academic strategic plan, which will help us to systematically advance our teaching, learning, and research.
This is also a period of transition for Duke. For one thing, we have a new president. The verdict’s still out, but I hear he’s a pretty good guy.
Two members of my senior leadership team will be retiring from Duke. Bob Shepherd, Vice President of Development and Alumni Affairs, and Phail Wynn, Vice President of Durham and Regional Affairs, have been instrumental to the success of the Duke Forward campaign and our regional engagement efforts.
Steve Nowicki is also returning to the classroom full-time after a decade leading our efforts in undergraduate education. Thank you for your years of strong leadership, Steve.
And while we are sad to see Bob, Phail, and Steve move on, I am confident that we will find worthy successors through our ongoing searches.
I also want to take a moment to thank Kelly Brownell of Sanford, Jeff Vincent of Nicholas, and David Levi of Law, who could not be with us today. Kelly, Jeff and David have led their schools to international prominence and trained thousands of students for leadership and distinguished public service. Your leadership and lasting contributions to Duke are so greatly appreciated.
The good news is that we have found wonderfully accomplished new Deans in Kerry Abrams, Toddi Steelman, and Judith Kelly. I am pleased to report that after they take office this summer, eight of our ten Deans will be women. We truly have a bright future ahead.
“ If Duke University is called to rise with purpose to meet the challenges of a changing world, how do we build a stronger academic community, ever committed to our enduring values while also adapting to and preparing for the future?”
So today, as we look ahead to that future, I am reminded of the question I posed in my inaugural address last October. If Duke University is called to rise with purpose to meet the challenges of a changing world, how do we build a stronger academic community, ever committed to our enduring values while also adapting to and preparing for the future?
We have two, interconnected questions before us today: What do we wish the Duke of tomorrow will be? And what steps will need to be taken to get there?
I’ve spent the past few months discussing these questions with members of the faculty and senior leadership, and my preliminary thinking has focused on five core areas of investment: Our people; our educational innovation; our campus environment; our regional partnerships; and our global network.
First and foremost, the Duke of tomorrow will be the place where the world’s brightest minds go to meet our most important challenges, where we recognize that the discoveries and advances that will improve lives begin with attracting the very best people – and most importantly, the best faculty.
To get there, we will invest in recruiting and supporting select, world-class teams of faculty, building on the success of the Quantitative Initiative, and with a particular emphasis on strengthening discovery science and technology. We will also redouble our commitment to reaching the brightest students and supporting them with necessary financial aid. And we will take a sober look at bending the cost curve for middle-income students.
The Duke of tomorrow will also redefine education for the 21st century. The academic strategic plan laid out many wonderful ideas for rethinking our undergraduate, graduate, and professional education strategies and forging new partnerships.
We will invest in building on this work, to better fuse our research and educational missions, to create innovative, team-based pedagogies and curricula, to take advantage of new technological opportunities, and to build a robust and responsive learning community that includes everyone.
Third, the Duke of tomorrow will be a diverse and stimulating campus that promotes growth among our students, faculty, staff, and visitors.
We will invest in improved residential experiences for students; build on the reputation of Duke Athletics and our recent initiatives in the arts; redevelop Central Campus; and improve well-being for all community members. This will be a healthier, more vibrant and more inclusive environment for all of us – faculty, students, and staff – who call Duke home.
The Duke of tomorrow will also continue to heed James B. Duke’s call to promote regional welfare
We will find new ways use our educational and research resources to deepen and strengthen our partnerships across the Carolinas, with particular focus on our relationship with Durham. Through these partnerships, we can advance not just economic development but also community health, housing, public education, and transportation. And we will benefit from richer partnerships in the Triangle’s thriving research ecosystem, building a new research commercialization strategy and offering innovative learning opportunities for our students.
“ We will invest in developing next-generation engagement platforms to extend and deepen all aspects of university life, creating a robust, global, continually developing human-development cooperative. We will offer our alumni new opportunities for continuing education; but we should also see them as a deep reservoir of talent, drive and experience that we can draw upon to advance our educational, research, and service missions.”
Finally, the Duke of tomorrow will be an interconnected global community supporting lifelong growth and discovery.
We will invest in developing next-generation engagement platforms to extend and deepen all aspects of university life, creating a robust, global, continually developing human-development cooperative. We will offer our alumni new opportunities for continuing education; but we should also see them as a deep reservoir of talent, drive and experience that we can draw upon to advance our educational, research, and service missions.
Yes, we will need to invest in our campus infrastructure in the coming years, but the more significant investments will be in the human infrastructure that is our true value proposition.
These investments do not represent a redirection of our history or our mission. Quite the opposite: Duke’s great strength is that we have always remained resolute in our purpose while remaining open to change.
As we build toward tomorrow, we will remain steadfastly committed to a liberal arts education while also incubating radical new ideas, a balance that will help us be ready to address the fundamental changes that may arise five, ten, or twenty-five years from now.
For the roots of our future lie not only in the decisions we make today, but in the hundred years’ worth of history and stewardship that brought us here. We are the fortunate inheritors of the tremendous ambitions of the past, but we have not yet realized the great promise of tomorrow.
I thank you for your help and support as – in each of these ways – we rise with purpose to build the Duke University of the future.