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Annual Address to the Faculty

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.  

Thank you.

Dear Colleagues,

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.

Sincerely,

Vincent E. Price
President

To the Duke Community,

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. 

Cheers,

Vince

To the Duke Community,

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.

Thank you for participating in our democracy.

To the Duke Community,

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!

To the Duke Community,

I write with an update following today’s Supreme Court decision regarding the race-conscious admissions plans at Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Duke’s position continues to be that diversity is absolutely vital to our educational mission–everyone in our community, and the work they do, benefits from differing perspectives, opinions, and life experiences.

We remain steadfastly committed to cultivating a racially and socially equitable Duke to the fullest extent permitted by the law.

Over the coming weeks we will review the decision closely and determine what, if any, changes need to be made to our admission processes.  We have already been planning for the many potential procedural implications. As this process unfolds, we remain committed to doing everything we can to foster a vibrant and diverse academic community.

As always, I am grateful for your support as we continue this important work.

And let me say to any current and future members of the Duke community who may now wonder whether Duke is the place for you, let me be clear—we see you, we welcome you, and we will support you.

Sincerely,

Vince