This Thursday, Duke University will observe Juneteenth, commemorating the June 19, 1865, arrival of the Union Army in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation barring slavery in the Confederate states.
Nearly six months later, in December 1865, the ratification of the 13th Amendment would abolish slavery throughout the United States.
This holiday, long celebrated within the African-American community before it became a federal holiday in 2021, is also an opportunity for reflection and education for all.
Duke University, like American society in general, has traveled a long journey through the course of its history. For example, Black students were not admitted until the 1960s, and Samuel DuBois Cook— Duke’s first Black faculty member— was not hired until 1966. Our specific history and context as a Duke community, here in Durham, North Carolina, continue to inform the ways we acknowledge our past, ask critical questions across academic disciplines, engage our neighbors, and work together to understand this moment and our shared future.
We are tremendously proud of the many ways Black students, faculty, staff and alumni have advanced our mission, and we are grateful for their impact both here at Duke and in communities around the world.
As we look to the university’s future, we are committed to continuing the unfinished work of advancing and celebrating Black excellence and supporting all members of our community in reaching their full potential. We will continue to use our recently completed Campus Culture Survey to identify areas where we can grow and advance as a campus community.
This week, a range of local events will offer opportunities to gather with others to mark Juneteenth and gain a deeper understanding of Black history in America. I encourage you to learn more about these events on the Duke Community Affairs website.
Duke is an extraordinary community of faculty, staff, students, and alumni with a wide range of backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives. As we celebrate the work of the past, the present and the future, I am confident that our commitment to inclusive excellence will propel the people of Duke to even greater achievements and impact.
Hello, and thanks for all you do to support the Duke University community.
While our campus is much quieter now as we swing into the summer, the world of higher education continues to be noisy, and complicated.
We’re working every day to sort out many significant federal policy changes—and proposals for additional changes—that have quite dire implications for the University.
Federal funding threats affect all areas of our work, and include:
severe cuts to research funding;
dramatic increases to university tax payments, and threats to our non-profit status;
restrictions on international education;
losses of federal financial aid and loan programs;
and changes to government-funded healthcare programs.
I expect you share my grave concern about what these dramatic policy changes mean for our work at Duke. And I want you to know that we are advocating, in every way possible, at both the state and federal levels, to:
maintain funding for our mission;
to protect jobs and economic vitality here in Durham and across North Carolina;
to support international students and scholars;
and to keep education and healthcare accessible to all.
I am personally engaged in this work on a daily basis, along with many other Duke leaders.
I also serve on the board of the Association of American Universities, or AAU, through which we are working collectively with America’s leading research universities to demonstrate powerfully, and advocate strenuously, for the transformative power of education, research, and innovation.
Though we still don’t know the full degree to which Duke’s financial resources will ultimately be affected, the considerable reductions we’ve already experienced—along with the scale of the additional losses we could face—mean that there is, sadly, no scenario in which Duke can or will avoid incurring substantial losses of funding due to these policy changes.
As I announced in March, this spring we began planning a university-wide strategic realignment and cost-reduction process to prepare us for the road ahead.
And now, like many other organizations around the country, we are being forced to reduce the scope of our activities and spending in order to sustain excellence in our core missions.
The leadership of every school and unit at Duke has had to think carefully about how to do critical work with fewer resources, while developing strategic plans for moving forward.
This involves making incredibly difficult decisions and painful choices about reducing the scope of our work. I know our leadership teams have felt the weight of those decisions, and their implications, throughout this process.
As you are likely aware, we’ve taken several steps:
we’ve frozen most staff and faculty hiring;
we’ve suspended capital spending on new projects;
we’ve limited non-essential spending;
and we’re making some tough decisions about our work and how to do it most efficiently.
We will, for the foreseeable future, have to be smaller—and do our work with fewer people.
I sincerely wish that were not the case, but the harsh reality is that reducing our spending by the scale required means that Duke will have to employ fewer people.
It is likely we’ll come to a point where we’ll need to engage in involuntary reductions in staff; but first we are trying to do as much as possible through a voluntary process, one that provides generous separation benefits to eligible staff at all levels of the university.
Within this landscape of significantly reduced funding, academic leaders will also need to give thought to the future shape of our faculty.
In the coming weeks, eligible faculty members will receive information from their schools about new, again voluntary, retirement incentives that are being offered across the university.
Each of you has made a major contribution to our mission over the years, and this process highlights the value of those contributions.
As with all personnel matters, voluntary separation and retirement offers extended to colleagues are confidential, and I trust that our community will be thoughtful and respectful regarding decisions others may be weighing about their futures.
I’m confident that the steps we are taking now will position the university for continued success in the years ahead. But none of this will be easy, and I’m especially aware of the impact these changes will have on valued colleagues and their families.
I hope that if you have questions or concerns, you will discuss those with your supervisors, reach out to your unit HR professionals and other Duke resources for support, and consult the updates.duke.edu website for more information.
Yes, these are challenging times. Yet our recent Centennial celebration reminds us that the Duke community has faced and overcome many challenges over the past one hundred years.
I’m incredibly proud to be part of this community as we enter Duke’s second century, and I thank you for your ongoing commitment and support for each other, and for our mission.
This morning’s Commencement ceremony is both a celebration of the Class of 2025, and the continuation of a cherished academic tradition that connects Duke students and alumni across class years and generations.
And today’s ceremony is special in this regard, as we honor the 100th anniversary of the first Duke University Commencement, held just months after James B. Duke’s indenture of trust sparked the transformation of Trinity College into Duke University.
As we conclude our formal celebration of this centennial year, we are also looking ahead to the pivotal roles Duke students, faculty, staff and alumni will play in addressing the tremendous opportunities and challenges of the next 100 years.
In doing so, we may find helpful perspective in the life experiences of the class of 1925.
In June of 1925, the first students to graduate from the newly named Duke University gathered in Craven Memorial Hall on East Campus, where they were addressed by Curtis D. Wilbur, the Secretary of the Navy.
Among the 187 members of the Class of 1925 were several individuals of note, including:
Yasuko Ueno, the first Asian woman to graduate from our university;
Graduate student Mike Bradshaw Jr., who was one of the Chronicle writers credited with first referring to our athletics teams as the Blue Devils;
And Charles E. Jordan, who received his Law degree that day, and whose lifetime of service to Duke and Durham would later be recognized in the naming of Durham’s Jordan High School, located just a few miles from here.
They and their classmates would go on to pursue lives of purpose and principle in a variety of settings that would have made our benefactor James B. Duke proud.
Indeed, at the time of their graduation, the majority of the class reported an intention to pursue teaching, business, medicine or religious work, paths that aligned very well with the fields Mr. Duke considered best positioned, in his words, to “uplift mankind.”
The class of 1925 emerged from Duke during the Jazz Age, a dynamic period in American history. Optimism was high thanks to strong prosperity and seemingly lasting peace following World War I.
But the graduates would soon be forced to wrestle with rising social, economic and political tensions, and a general tenor of uncertainty that may seem familiar today.
Just a month after that graduation, the Scopes Monkey Trial, held 400 miles west of here in Dayton, Tennessee, would draw the world’s attention to questions of evolution and religion, and their place in public schools.
Some four years later, the Great Depression would result in heartbreaking family hardships and widespread economic devastation with generational consequences.
And of course, a decade after the Great Depression, the outbreak of World War II would signal the beginning of some of humanity’s darkest days.
However, in their lifetimes, the class of 1925 also enjoyed an era of enormous innovation and nearly unimaginable progress.
Consider—if you will—some of the wonders they would experience:
The life-saving discovery of penicillin, in 1928, which would revolutionize treatment of bacterial infections.
The unprecedented economic growth and prosperity that followed the end of World War II.
The advent of home televisions, of commercial aviation, and other technologies that facilitated the flow of information, ideas, and people.
And the significant movement—albeit sometimes slow, and sometimes uneven—toward equal rights and broader distribution of opportunity in society.
The class of 1925 was part of what came to be known as “The Greatest Generation.” Shaped by hardships—and fueled by resilience, honor, and an industrious spirit—their generation went on to make possible the many remarkable achievements of the 20th century.
Class of 2025, in your relatively short lifetimes the world has already seen transformative developments, including:
breakthroughs in artificial intelligence;
a revolution in media and information sharing;
and the introduction of life-changing technologies, including the iPhone and electric vehicles
… to say nothing of the air fryer—not exactly revolutionary, but a big step forward for making homemade chips.
Just as Duke’s very first Blue Devils, those members of the greatest generation who commenced into their unpredictable, changing world 100 years ago, today you commence into yours.
This changing world will bring challenges, I assure you, including many we cannot foresee today. These will test your resilience, your honor, and your industrious spirit.
But it will also bring opportunities for innovation and human progress, perhaps as never before.
And your generation of Blue Devils will discover and develop the breakthroughs that will define the 21stcentury. In that transformative, life-improving and life-saving work, as alumni of this university you will carry on Mr. Duke’s bold vision for uplifting mankind.
In this century to come, may you come to be known as the even greater generation.
Thank you, Trina. And let me begin by recognizing your leadership and service as chair of this council over the past two years, as well as that of your colleagues on ECAC who will be finishing their terms this year.
I am deeply grateful for your service.
Congratulations are also due to Professor Mark Anthony Neal on his election as incoming council chair.
And I’d also like to offer my thanks and appreciation to the full council for your ongoing engagement and work in support of our academic mission.
In his indenture of trust that established our University, James B. Duke requested that the institution secure for its officers, trustees and faculty people, “of such outstanding character, ability and vision as will insure its attaining and maintaining a place of real leadership in the educational world.”
One hundred years later, we have most certainly attained that place of leadership.
You—our faculty—and your predecessors, are largely responsible for that achievement.
You have devoted your careers to expanding knowledge; to educating the next generation of young minds; and to providing world-class health care.
And the world has taken notice. Today the Duke University faculty is home to:
Two Nobel Prize recipients, joining six who served at Duke previously, and another six who studied or trained here;
Two National Medal of Science recipients;
Ninety-six members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine;
Sixty-three members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences;
A culture of interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship that is unparallelled, and was duly recognized in this year’s inaugural Times Higher Education rankings for interdisciplinary sciences, which placed Duke among the top five in the world;
And hundreds of colleagues who have worked together to launch Trinity College’s first new undergraduate curriculum in 25 years.
But that list of accolades only begins to touch the surface of your many accomplishments.
And it neglects the reality we all know, which is that the work of education and scholarship can’t be well summarized in honors and awards alone.
We on the faculty recognize the heart and soul of the academic life we chose, as it’s reflected in our everyday lives:
the countless hours in the classroom, lab and library;
the late nights on hospital rounds;
the methodical fieldwork, conducted thousands of miles from home;
the twists, turns and failures that mark the unpredictable path to a discovery;
and the innumerable, lively discussions and debates with colleagues and students that lead to new perspectives and greater understanding.
Those are the moments, and the pursuits, repeated thousands of times over the past century, that have vaulted Duke to its place of leadership in higher education.
And you—together, as a faculty—will play a critical role in determining how Duke will not only maintain but advance our place of leadership in this rapidly changing world.
A world where artificial intelligence and other technologies expand as never before our capacity for generating knowledge—even as they stand to exacerbate inequities and introduce profound ethical concerns.
A world in which our students are digital natives, whose formative learning experiences were profoundly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and who—despite their comfort in the digital world—still crave genuinely human connections and community.
A world in which—ironically at the very moment when academic breakthroughs in so many fields stand to improve our lives in dramatic ways—public support of higher education and academic research has been trending downward, and our primary sources of external funding appear to be diminishing rapidly before our very eyes.
A world where social media platforms have largely replaced evidence-based forms of communication.
And a world increasingly beset by confrontation, confusion and conflict, entangling institutions of higher learning in political, social, and cultural clashes.
Indeed, it seems the American research university is in a moment of existential challenge.
Unquestionably we are in a moment of deep uncertainty.
One thing that does seem increasingly clear, however, is that we no longer enjoy at this moment many of the resources upon which we have relied in the past to help propel our momentum. These include, most foundationally, the broad trust of the American public and the support of our government.
And yet, this moment of challenge could conceivably present, for those of us prepared to lead, some opportunities to refine and perhaps even improve research institutions like ours. This could be a moment in which, provided we focus on our unique institutional strengths and are open to new ways of working, we may be able to deepen and even extend our impact.
How, then, are we as an academic community to lead our way forward? How do we navigate through the challenges before us, and see and seize the opportunities on the horizon?
I suggest three principal ways Duke can best capitalize on our place of leadership in this rapidly changing world.
First, even if these immense pressures feel to us unwelcome and unwarranted, we should try our best to see them as potentially clarifying of our purpose.
A scarcity of resources, while likely to be unpleasant at best, and painful at worst, can serve to sharpen our focus on identifying and reinforcing true excellence and true distinctiveness in Duke’s education, research, and clinical care.
If we can increase clarity with regards to what has distinguished Duke and remain true to our core values of respect, trust, inclusion, discovery and excellence—we have reason to be optimistic about our long-term success.
We are, fortunately, headed into these rough financial and political waters in an enviable position of institutional and financial strength, both in absolute terms and relative to peers.
As communicated to the Duke community last week, we should be prepared not only to seek cost-reductions across the university, but also to re-imagine our work and consider how we might strategically realign around our highest priorities.
We will find ways, even as we work to cut costs, to invest in funding student access and opportunity; in catalyzing Duke science and technology; in living up to our climate commitment; and in advancing healthcare—all as we maintain our core commitment to a superior liberal arts education and our distinctive residential undergraduate experience.
Second, even as we feel under attack and mischaracterized by our antagonists, we should approach this moment in a spirit of openness to fair criticism and with a desire to do some things differently than in the past and, in so doing, become better at what matters most.
The loss of public trust in American higher education comes from a sense, shared by far too many beyond the walls of this campus, that institutions like ours are privileged in our disposition, unaccountable for our actions, and profligate in our spending.
These I believe are caricatures; but they may reflect some underlying deficiencies that we can and should address.
Now is the time for us to commit to being maximally efficient and transparent in our operations, and maximally effective in realizing our most critical goals and objectives.
We will need to make some difficult tradeoffs. If we are smart and serious about pruning and perhaps thinning now as needed, we can position ourselves well for a vigorous response when conditions more conducive to growth return.
Third, even as we turn inward and undertake this vital work of implementing cost-savings and identifying opportunities for realignment, we should retain, even expand our outward focus on making real difference in the world through purposeful partnerships.
The insularity of the academy is one of the challenges we need to face, and the only way to gain public trust is to demonstrate our commitment to listening and engaging in common cause with those who may be skeptical of our intentions or our work.
Our consideration of strategic realignment should not come at the expense of being engaged globally and in our local region and community. Instead, it should be a lens through which we sharpen our focus on engagement that foregrounds our mission of education, research, and patient care.
This university community has faced many challenges before, and we will face others in the future.
And even as we look for efficiencies and cost reductions, we will move forward to make the case for new resources, as is the goal of our comprehensive campaign. I think that both the timing and the theme of our campaign are prescient: We are Made for This. Made for this moment.
We may find our path challenging, and rocky, and steep at times; but we will maintain our course and stay true to our Duke character. We will remain outrageously ambitious in our aims. We will remind ourselves every day that we succeed as a team. In a world that leans toward the negative, we will remain positive and always look for “yes.” And we will remain pragmatic. We want to do the work.
I am confident that by working together—and by being grounded in our mission and our values—we will successfully navigate the uncertainty of this moment and will ensure that Duke’s second century is one of even greater impact than our first.
Over the past 100 years, the people of Duke University have made extraordinary contributions to society through transformative teaching, pathbreaking research and scholarship, and lifesaving health care. As President, I am incredibly proud to be part of this community that is grounded in academic freedom and strengthened by the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of its faculty, staff, students and alumni.
I also recognize that recent reductions in funding for various aspects of our mission, along with the prospect of additional changes in the future, are causing uncertainty and concern within our community. I share those concerns and, as we have communicated previously, the university’s academic and administrative leaders are fully engaged in responding on a number of levels. These include providing guidance for colleagues across campus whose work has been affected by recent changes; educating policymakers about the value of Duke’s work and our impact on the communities we serve; and advocating for policies and practices that maintain support for Duke’s priorities and mission.
In addition, we are working to prepare for the possibility that the university will have to adopt new ways of operating in order to fulfill our teaching, research, and clinical care missions with reduced federal funding in the future.
To that end, I have asked Executive Vice President Daniel Ennis, working in close coordination with Provost Alec Gallimore, Executive Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine Mary Klotman, and Duke University Health System Chief Executive Officer Craig Albanese, to lead a university-wide strategic realignment and cost-reduction planning process to identify measures that may be needed to ensure Duke’s operational and financial health for the long term. You will soon receive a message with additional information regarding this planning process.
I understand that you likely will have questions about what this may mean for the university and for you individually, and that the uncertainty involved with the changes affecting colleges and universities nationwide, including Duke, may be stressful. We are committed to moving this planning response forward in a thoughtful, holistic, and expeditious manner and will provide opportunities for you to ask questions and offer input and feedback.
This is a critically important moment for Duke and one in which our responses will be grounded in and guided by our mission and our values. I am confident that by working together, we will ensure that Duke’s second century will be one of even greater impact and value both here in our own community, and around the world.
Throughout this year’s Centennial celebration, we’ve been reminded that the common thread running through all that Duke has achieved in the past—and all that we will achieve in the future—is our people.
And as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the many ways you are advancing Duke’s mission through your work and studies.
While many of us will enjoy a break in our schedules later this week, others will continue working around the clock, caring for our patients and supporting essential operations throughout the Duke campus and health system.
Whether you are working or taking a break, and whether you are staying close by or traveling a long distance this Thanksgiving, I thank you for being part of this extraordinary Duke community. I hope you will have the opportunity to enjoy moments of reflection and gratitude in the coming days.
Today is the first day of early voting in North Carolina for the 2024 general election. I encourage eligible voters to cast your ballot either here in North Carolina, or wherever you call home, during the early voting period or on Election Day on November 5.
Beginning today and through November 2, early voting locations throughout the state are open, including in Durham, Wake and Orange counties, where the majority of Duke students, faculty and staff live.
If you are eligible to vote in Durham County, you can do so at the early voting site at the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center, 2080 Duke University Road. I am grateful to the Duke Votes team and the Durham Board of Elections for making our campus a key early voting site for members of the Duke community and our neighbors in Durham.
Before heading to the polls, make sure to bring an acceptable form of photo identification, which can include a North Carolina driver’s license, an approved Duke ID card (students only), and others. Duke Votes is an excellent resource for non-partisan voting information and resources for voting here in North Carolina or in your home state if you are not a North Carolina resident.
In order to allow Duke employees flexibility in casting their vote, Duke University and Duke Health encourage supervisors to cancel nonessential meetings on November 5 and be flexible with scheduling to enable staff members who are unable to vote outside normal work hours to do so before, during, or after their assigned shifts. On Election Day, Karsh will not be a polling location, so you will need to cast a ballot at your assigned polling place.
I hope you are enjoying an invigorating and rewarding semester.
This will be a very special week on campus as we welcome back thousands of alumni and host a special series of events for the entire community as part of our Centennial Founders’ Day and Homecoming celebration.
On Thursday, former Duke Presidents Nan Keohane and Dick Brodhead will join alumna and Trustee Emerita Judy Woodruff and me for a wide-ranging discussion of Duke University’s past and our future.
Friday afternoon we will gather with descendants of George Wall and representatives of the Walltown community for the formal dedication of the George and George-Frank Wall Center for Student Life. This special program will celebrate the legacy of these two early employees and their family’s ongoing impact at Duke and in Durham, as well as the generations of staff members who have advanced the university’s mission throughout our first 100 years.
Our celebration will continue on Friday evening in Wallace Wade Stadium and at a student watch party in Penn Pavilion for a Centennial program featuring 9th Wonder, Retta, and a magnificent student and alumni chorus, followed by a concert by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.
And on Saturday we’ll return to Wallace Wade Stadium for our Homecoming football game vs. UNC, including on-field recognition of dozens of faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the university who represent excellence across our mission.
These are just a few of the many ways we will continue our yearlong celebration of the people and the moments that have shaped Duke’s first 100 years and the tremendous promise of our second century.
Many of this week’s events will be held both in-person and virtually; I hope you will plan to participate as your schedule allows.
Thank you for being part of this extraordinary community.
Good afternoon to the great Class of 2028! On behalf of the administration, faculty, and staff, I’m delighted to welcome you to Duke University.
It may be hard to believe that it’s been just one week since we were all together right here, saying farewell to your families.
Whether you’re a new first-year student, or you began your studies elsewhere and have joined Duke as a transfer student, I hope you had a great week of orientation, and that you’ve begun to feel at home, both here on campus, and among your classmates.
Feeling at home is important—and as a community we have developed an array of traditions to help you bond with this place and its people. As Provost Gallimore mentioned, this convocation ceremony is one example of tradition, as we mark the opening of the academic year, and formally welcome a new class of students to Duke.
Here on stage, we’re wearing traditional academic regalia that dates back to the Middle Ages and connects us to generations of scholars around the globe who have shared our commitment to learning.
Once you survive this gauntlet of speeches—another tradition of academic gatherings—you will join in singing the Duke University alma mater, Dear Old Duke, which was introduced 100 years ago by the graduating members of the class of 1924.
The lyrics emphasize your lifetime connection to Duke that begins today, and which will continue far beyond your graduation, regardless of where life may take you.
You’ll hear the alma mater ring from the Chapel Carillon at five o’clock every Friday evening, and we’ll have many other opportunities to sing it together, including here in Cameron Indoor Stadium, right over there with the Crazies in the student section, at the end of every basketball game.
And in four short years, we will all be in academic regalia again for your commencement, and your class will sing the Alma Mater one last time together.
By then, you will have experienced a vast number of Duke traditions, and likely started some of your own. These traditions are the ways, large and small, that we bond as a Duke community—a community of learners and scholars who support and uplift one another, and propel each other to greater successes than any of us would be capable of alone.
You are now members of a global network of more than 200,000 students and alumni who are connected by these Duke traditions.
The traditional excellence of this university has been systematically built over the past century, as you will learn from being part of our ongoing Centennial. Our excellence into the future—over our second century—is now in your hands, and in those of your classmates.
I know that Dean Guttentag and his colleagues in admissions were right in admitting you to Duke; and I share his confidence that you will do right by this extraordinary university.
To help you on your way, let me discharge another tradition, which is to offer you a bit of advice as you begin your studies tomorrow. My advice is simple: The surest way to get it right is to be honest about getting it wrong.
I realize I may be going against the grain here. The world today seems to urge us all to stand by our convictions. We celebrate finding and following our passion—particularly in an election year.
To be clear, strongly held beliefs or opinions certainly have their place, especially when they are arrived at slowly, through careful study and with an open mind, and grounded in a fair reading of evidence.
But in truth, how many of our beliefs and opinions actually stand upon that sort of bedrock of reasoned inquiry? How many, if we are being completely honest, are instead adopted through socialization? Or taking cues from other people who seem more qualified to say? Or other logical short-cuts we rely upon, out of necessity really, given all the layers of complexity surrounding all the choices we need to make?
Of course we must be guided by enduring values. And holding onto our strong beliefs and opinions, even those with less than worthy provenance, would be perfectly fine were it not for the unwarranted certainty, even ferocity and defensiveness, with which we often keep them.
Even if we happen to be right, we have no cause for self-righteousness; but as I’ve noted elsewhere, we seem to be living today in a world more likely to respond to challenges with indignance, where opposing views are met with unreflective condemnation rather than conversation.
Understandably, with wars engulfing much of the globe, with political tensions rising in so many nations, and with so much social change and instability, our natural human tendency is to recoil and rebuff. We are right; they are wrong. In such an uncertain world, we crave certainty.
Even, perhaps especially in such times, I hope you will see Duke as a place for getting things wrong.
The word “wrong” comes to us from the Old English. It meant crooked or twisted, rather than straight. The difficult road to the right answer is often just that: a winding path with changing directions along the way. Please allow yourself—for your sake and ours—to take those necessary twists and turns.
That’s what universities are for. We will question you; we will challenge you; but we will not judge you for getting things wrong while we all work together to find the path to the right answers. Experience shows that what seems a wrong turn at the time often proves to be the way home.
Now for this to work, you also have to be patient with other people. When they at first seem so very wrong to you, keep in mind that they might actually be right—even when their ideas might seem impossibly strange to you, and yes, even if they should upset you.
And I assure you, we do all get it wrong from time to time, far more often than we’d like to admit. I’ve been wrong more times than I could count.
For instance, I was dead wrong about dogs.
A seemingly trivial example, perhaps. But let me explain.
As you’re getting to know the university, two community members you’ll likely see around campus are my dogs, Cricket and Marlowe. They, like other dogs, are amazing, loving creatures.
But you see, I didn’t grow up with dogs. One of eight children in my family, I shared a bedroom with four other brothers until I was around six years old. As you might imagine, there was really not much space for dogs, or cats for that matter. So my pet experience was limited to tropical fish and a turtle. Neither experience turned out well, but that’s another story.
The bottom line was that I was never around dogs much; but I still had feelings about them—mainly apprehension, if not fear. They growl. They have sharp teeth. They are not particularly kind to rabbits or squirrels, so why wouldn’t they take a nip at my leg or my forearm?
After I was married with children of my own, my wife Annette—who had grown up in a home with dogs—began to lobby for one. I fiercely resisted, with my misgivings compounded by a belief that dogs were destructive and, given my serious investments of time and energy as a do-it-yourself homeowner, my fear that they would trash the house.
Well, my wife and kids eventually wore me down. And I’ll be the first to admit that I could not have been more wrong.
Count me a dog-person today. Our 14-year-old labradoodle Cricket is the joy of my life. Our goldendoodle puppy Marlowe is a bashful but loveable member of the family. Dogs have contributed immeasurably to my life. And while we’ve cycled through hundreds of chew toys over the years, our home is absolutely none the worse for wear.
Here’s the point: If I could be so wrong about dogs, so absolutely determined not to bring one home, how wrong might I be about other matters?
How many other times might my quite real if unfounded anxieties and fears—of different people, of strange places, of unsettling ideas—have limited my experience and understanding of the world?
The chance to encounter people whose life experiences, perspectives, and beliefs are different from ours is a gift, if only we will accept it.
Bringing you together—and creating conditions under which you can learn together; challenge each other; trust each other to talk honestly and listen carefully; and entertain the possibility that you might, just might be wrong—that is Duke’s gift to each of you.
Being open to sincere challenges to our thinking, and appreciating other perspectives, doesn’t weaken our values, but rather clarifies them. In a world that shouts, a world addicted to bullhorns and demands, ultimatums and pressure tactics, this kind of close human engagement, grounded in dispassionate education, evidence-seeking and persuasion, is not easy. But the world sorely needs it, and you are fully capable of it.
Try this: When you find yourself tempted to say “that’s outrageous,” or “I disagree,” or “how could you think that?” instead say: “Tell me more about why you think that.”
Eight words we would all do well to remember.
Saying “Tell me more about why you think that” invites conversation and discourse.
It shows someone that you are interested in their perspective. It opens the door for them to explain their position—and maybe even the life experiences that led them to that position—in a conversational way.
This can be challenging, both for the person pausing to ask for more information, and for the person who is asked to share more about their perspective. Especially if they feel that their perspective is not well understood or represented here at Duke.
But if you listen carefully, you might just be persuaded. Or persuade someone yourself. But you will learn, in any event. You will understand another person, a fellow traveler in our confusing, expansive, human world, a bit better.
Again, the surest way to get it right is to be honest about getting it wrong.
In closing, I have just one additional piece of advice to you today, which is something I share with all new Duke students.
This place is exciting, as it should be. And I’ve no doubt you will be engaged in many new activities and pursuits, as you should.
But please be sure to get some sleep.
Just as the surest way to get it right is to be honest about getting it wrong, the surest way to be our best is to get some rest. So, turn off those phones. We all need enough sleep to keep our minds alert and our hearts open.
Duke University Class of 2028, we are thrilled that you are here. You are poised to play an important role in this great university’s second century, and I can’t wait to see everything you will achieve!
I am very pleased to announce that this weekend the Duke University Board of Trustees voted unanimously to name the East Union Building—home of the Marketplace and Trinity Café—in honor of George and George-Frank Wall, a father and son who were longtime employees of Trinity College and Duke University.
A formerly enslaved person, George Wall was hired in 1870 to work at Trinity College in Randolph County. He was one of the few staff members who relocated with the college when it moved to Durham in 1892. Wall purchased land near the new campus, built a house on Onslow Street, and became a leader in his neighborhood, which is known to this day as Walltown. He was close to generations of students and many campus leaders and served the institution for 60 years before his death in 1930.
George-Frank Wall, the oldest of George Wall’s nine children, worked at Duke as a custodian for more than half a century until his death in 1953. His conscientious approach to his work earned him the nickname “Sheriff of the Dining Halls.”
As we mark Duke’s Centennial, this naming is a timely and meaningful way to recognize the significant contributions these dedicated and long-serving staff members made to Duke University.
The building—to be named the George and George-Frank Wall Center for Student Life—is a dining hub for first-year students and a dynamic center of student life on the former Trinity College campus. As such, this naming also recognizes and celebrates the important role that generations of housekeeping and dining staff members have played in nurturing our campus community and creating a supportive environment for students throughout Duke’s history.
The Duke community will be invited to attend a special dedication event for the George and George-Frank Wall Center for Student Life during our Centennial Founders’ Day and Homecoming Weekend, September 27-29 of this year.
