Category: Speeches & Writings Page 1 of 6

To the Duke Community, 

As we prepare to break for the Thanksgiving holiday, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude for each of you and for this extraordinary academic community we together form. 

I especially appreciate the many ways Duke faculty, staff and students draw on our rich diversity of expertise and perspectives to support each other and our neighbors here in Durham and far beyond. Through your work, academic pursuits and service to others, you find countless ways to strengthen our community and partner with purpose to support those in need.

I would also like to offer a special thanks to the many people at Duke whose work caring for others and maintaining our essential operations will continue through the holiday.

Whether you are here on campus or far from Durham, I wish you a peaceful and restorative holiday break.

With gratitude,
Vince

To the Duke community,

It has now been more than a week since the horrific Hamas terror attacks in Israel. In that time, thousands of innocent Israeli and Palestinian people have lost their lives, and thousands more have suffered terrible injuries. As we confront the escalating violence, I know that many in our Duke community are hurting. 

I wrote to you last week as we were shocked and saddened by the staggering loss of life. Since then, I’ve heard from many students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents throughout our Duke community: Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Israeli, Palestinian, with roots in the region or not. Our Duke community, mirroring the worldwide community, is in pain.

While there is perhaps little we can do to affect the course of this terrible conflict, we must do all we can to ensure that it does not erode our own commitment to community at Duke or lead us to negate our shared humanity. We should not allow divisiveness to undercut our capacity as an educational community for respectful and compassionate learning together, even—and especially—in these trying times.

With this in mind, I encourage each of us to consider ways we can, in moments of often intense and passionate disagreement, preserve our shared values of respect and inclusion, and foster debate and deliberation leavened with goodwill and understanding. As an institution of higher learning, we value wide freedom of expression for those in our campus community. With that freedom comes the responsibility to foster scholarly discourse, and not descend into polemics, personal attacks, or antisemitic or anti-Muslim rhetoric.  We must ensure ideas are discussed and debated in a way that advances knowledge, rather than obscures or impedes it.

As an academic community, we have the opportunity and the obligation to demonstrate, to ourselves and the world, the power of being guided by our educational values and working to ensure Duke is a place where everyone feels deeply valued and included.

Should you have concerns about your ability to openly express your beliefs and opinions, or be in need of other forms of support at this time, I would urge you to contact Duke resource providers who are here to provide guidance and assistance.

I am proud to be part of this extraordinary community of learners and scholars. I ask that you please support each other and join me in committing to engage across differences with compassion, respect, and a genuine willingness to hear others’ perspectives.

Sincerely,
Vince

Vincent E. Price
President, Duke University

Thank you, Professor Weinthal, KB and Dylan for those thoughtful greetings.

We’re gathered here today to celebrate the Class of 2023 and your many achievements as Blue Devils since you arrived on campus—a moment that no doubt feels like a long time ago.

For the undergraduates among you, that arrival was on a sweltering August day four years ago, when I spoke at convocation, just over there in Cameron Indoor Stadium. I talked then about a special place in one of Duke’s hidden spaces: the granite marker in a quiet corner of Duke Gardens, indicating the 36th Parallel of Latitude.

This line runs through the straits of Gibraltar, ancient Greece and Mesopotamia, through areas of conflict and of great natural beauty, through empty corners of the Himalaya and major cities in China, South Korea, and Japan, through California’s Golden Gate, and it runs across our campus, connecting Baldwin Auditorium to the Chapel.

Since it was first projected by Eratosthenes in the third century B.C.E., this line has been a sort of beacon to travelers around the world—calling them to explore beyond the horizon, searching for places past what the eye can see, just out of reach.
 
In those remarks a few years ago, I encouraged the incoming class of 2023 to consider the ways that such imaginary lines can influence our lives.

Today, I propose we reflect on lines again: the lines each of you followed in coming to Duke; the ones you charted during your time here; and the ones you’ll traverse when you leave Wallace Wade this morning. In particular, I’d like to consider the ways that, for all of us here today, we are marking—indeed celebrating—the splendid and significant intersection of all those lines.

First, think about the lines each of you followed to this campus. No two of those life trajectories were identical—every line of arrival was unique, coming from a different place. And that’s the glory of a university. We reach out every year to a new group of young, visionary, ambitious travelers, each planning to head in different directions, and we invite you all to come together and live with us for a while here in Durham, to help you plan your ways forward.

Not all roads lead to Duke, but thankfully yours did. And joining us this morning are also many fellow travelers who helped you get here, your friends and families and teachers and mentors and supporters. Tens of thousands of different story lines and life lines, intersecting here at Duke.

Second, what of the lines you’ve charted since your arrival here? I suspect yours may have been a wandering course, I hope with many unexpected encounters, twists, and detours along the way that helped you rechart as you went. It has without a doubt been challenging at times. Surely none of us sitting in Cameron back in the late summer of 2019 had any premonition of the ways a global pandemic would alter our course.

But through it all, you’ve formed lifelong friendships, joined clubs, produced and performed works of art, competed on the field, in the pool and on the court, and conducted boundary-breaking research. Your line through Duke, whether wobbly at times or not, has intersected with so many others. You’ve each lived life at Duke to the fullest and followed your own particular path. A path to this successful outcome.

And finally, think about your lines forward from today. Maybe you’re headed now in a very different direction than you had imagined when you arrived. Or maybe the way you were planning to head is clearer to you now, and your steps in that direction a bit more confident. Or maybe you see in front of you some new pathways you hadn’t anticipated, and you’re debating, like the poet Robert Frost, which road in the yellow wood you will take.

As you move on from Duke and head off in innumerable different directions, along whatever lines you chart going forward, you will carry this place with you—spaces traversed, friendships made, and lessons learned—connecting your Duke experience with your journeys beyond the campus walls.

Like the 36th Parallel, the Duke Parallel is a line around which you can chart your course—and one that will continue to intersect with those drawn by your classmates and friends—and other Blue Devils you’ll meet in the future—in wonderful ways we can scarcely imagine. And if you get lost or turned around along the way, you can follow that line back here to campus, which will always, always be your home.

Class of 2023: Thank you for all the wonderful and impactful intersections, and for those many more to come. Congratulations and best wishes for the journey ahead.

Thank you, Erika—and thank you for your truly exceptional leadership these past two years. It has been a great pleasure to work with you, and while I am certain you are more than ready to hand over the reins, you will be missed.

I also want to recognize the outgoing members of ECAC for your leadership and counsel—thank you, all of you.

And let me also say congratulations to Trina, our incoming chair. I am grateful for the many ways you have already offered your leadership to Duke, and I look forward to working closely with you in the months to come.

It is perhaps fitting that my annual reflections to this council fall after spring break, now that we’ve had some time to look back before we begin the final sprint to the end of the year. And what a wonderful year it has been.

We’ve launched QuadEx and the Duke Climate Commitment, initiatives that are transforming the student experience and our campus sustainability efforts.

We have added extraordinary new deans of the Graduate School, Suzanne Barbour; and Trinity College, Gary Bennett.

We celebrated two Rhodes Scholars, a Mitchell Scholar, and two Schwarzman Scholars.

And this has been an exceptional year for our faculty.

Ingrid Daubechies received the Wolf Prize for her tremendous contributions to the mathematical foundations of image processing, remote sensing, and digital photography.

Kafui Dzirasa of the School of Medicine and Amanda Randles of Pratt received the prestigious NIH Pioneer Award for championing creative solutions to pressing medical challenges.

Susan Alberts received the International Frontiers of Knowledge Award for her groundbreaking work in Ecology and Conservation Biology.

Leela Prasad of Religious Studies was elected to the American Academy of Religion’s executive leadership—she will serve as president next year.

The Anti-Defamation League honored Abdullah Antepli of Sanford with the Daniel Pearl Award in recognition of his advocacy for peace and reconciliation.

Priya Kishnani of the School of Medicine received the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor, for her lifesaving research on pediatric rare diseases.

Three faculty members—Lawrence David, Chantell Evans, and Gustavo Silva—were among 25 awardees of the Science Diversity Leadership Awards from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

And we’ve celebrated five new members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

These reflect just a few of the tremendous accolades received by our faculty over the course of this year—I really could go on all afternoon. So let me say congratulations to all of you. You are doing extraordinary work in your teaching and scholarship, and I am proud to call you colleagues.

This year is also extraordinary as it marks the 60th anniversary of the academic council—a remarkable testament to Duke’s commitment to shared governance. For six decades, this body has given faculty a strong and vital voice in shaping the university’s strategy and direction.

The existence of the council has unquestionably been to the great benefit of Duke, so it may surprise you that it arose out of difficult circumstances: the so-called Edens-Gross Affair.

The received history of this affair—as a conflict between the then-president’s commitment to Duke’s identity as a regional institution and the vice-president for education’s vision for transforming it into a global university—is untrue.

What did happen was a series of administrative squabbles that penetrated the university board of trustees and the Duke Endowment board and drove divisions between them, precipitating the president’s resignation, the vice-president’s dismissal, and widespread unhappiness among the faculty. As any veteran of institutional quarrels will tell you, this conflict was perhaps as much about personalities as it was about a difference in vision. But we remember it because it reflected a moment of profound change—a transition from the Duke we were to the Duke we have become.  Within a few years, it prompted the creation of the office of the provost and also this body—and with it much of our contemporary and far more functional practice of shared governance.

Today, Duke sits in a position of real leadership. We also sit at the confluence of strong societal and economic currents—of financial challenges and the disruptions of a post-pandemic labor market; of political tensions and questions of open inquiry and respectful discourse; of the continued promulgation of disinformation; of the opportunities and threats posed by technology; and of the fraught mental health and wellness landscape of our student population.

Taken together, I believe this is a moment of transition just as profound as that of the 1960s. And we are rightfully asking ourselves again some challenging questions. What should change, and how quickly should we change it? What is our shared vision for the future, and how should we arrive there? How can we position ourselves to not only lead but to thrive in the century to come?

The most visible manifestation of this moment of transition is in our leadership. It is a very good thing when the world looks to Duke for great leaders—as in the case of Valerie Ashby, now the president of UMBC, and Sally Kornbluth, now the president of MIT.

We have also recently announced that Gene Washington will be stepping down as Chancellor this summer after eight years of transformative leadership and the historic creation of our new Duke Health Integrated Practice.

These transitions leave roles to fill—but Duke will be going from strength to strength.

As I mentioned before, we’re so thrilled that Gary Bennett is already several months into his tenure as Trinity Dean, having taken the baton from Mohamed Noor, who was a fantastic interim and is serving in a new capacity as vice provost for academic affairs. 

Likewise, Jennifer Francis has been a truly outstanding leader in her current role as interim provost—working directly with me and other senior leaders to move Duke forward. And Chris Simmons has been equally terrific as our interim Vice President for Communications, helping us position Duke’s internal and external identity amidst a complex landscape for higher ed.

Both the Vice President for Communications and Provost searches are nearing completion and have attracted exceptional talent. We have engaged faculty leadership from across Duke’s schools in these important searches—thank you to those committee members who are with us today.

The second area of continued transition is in significant new strategic programming.

Since my last presentation to this council, we have made extraordinary progress on campus-wide initiatives under the five focus areas of the strategic vision that I first articulated in 2018: empowering the boldest thinkers, transforming teaching and learning, strengthening our campus community, partnering with purpose in our region, and engaging our global network of alumni and friends.

I want to provide just a few brief updates.

Under the leadership of Vice President for Research and Innovation Jenny Lodge, Duke Science and Technology continues to move forward in extraordinary ways. With a focus on three primary areas—materials science; computing; and biologic resilience—we have raised more than $300 million to hire 26 faculty members, retain others, and make significant investments in our research capacity.

I am thrilled that we’ve also launched two DST seed grant programs, which this year supported research by 29 additional faculty members.

What’s particularly exciting about Duke Science and Technology is that it coincides with a renewed emphasis on research translation and commercialization, led by Robin Rasor. Last year, we launched 14 new startups and generated $450 million in investment in Duke-launched companies. Taken together, these efforts will help us ensure that the discoveries that drive our future begin here, at Duke.

As I mentioned earlier, we launched QuadEx this fall thanks to the leadership of Mary Pat McMahon, Gary Bennett, Candis Watts-Smith, and many hands from across student affairs and the faculty. This reimagined approach to living and learning will equip all Duke students to navigate complex issues in the world ranging from building inclusive communities, encouraging diversity of thought, promoting wellness and purpose, and supporting civil discourse.

For the first time, every incoming undergraduate was able to participate in themed pre-orientation programs, and sophomore spark is guiding our second-year students through the transition to West Campus.

Seven faculty fellows are helping to lead the way—forming meaningful bonds with students outside of the classroom.

Already this is bearing fruit: a survey of members of the Class of 2026 showed that 94 percent felt they belonged at Duke, an extraordinary number among our peer institutions. Only about one and half percent of our rising sophomores requested a different quad.

We’re also turning our attention to creating stronger community ties in the graduate and professional student population. Implementation of the Reimagining Doctoral Education initiative, which was launched under the Together Duke academic plan, is transforming the experience of PhD students, and there are significant opportunities for improvement and greater coordination across all our programs.

This fall, we also announced the Duke Climate Commitment—our campus-wide effort to seek climate change solutions and advance climate education—and it’s well underway.

In January, we announced the Climate Research Innovation Seed Program, or CRISP—which is funding transformational research on sustainability and the environment. Funds were provided by the Nicholas Institute, the Provost’s Office, the Nicholas School, and five additional schools across campus.  

41 teams including faculty from 8 schools submitted proposals; funding will be split between research awards focused on energy transformation and ideation awards focused on energy transformation, climate and community resilience, climate and environmental justice, and climate and data.

We’re defining the concept of climate literacy across the disciplines, as perhaps best demonstrated by the new university course on climate, which has been immensely popular. We’re also piloting efforts to expand the Campus as Lab initiative in partnership with our campus sustainability work—which has achieved a 43% reduction in greenhouse gases and continues to move forward.

We are deepening our commitments to racial and social equity, and I am very grateful for the continued work of the Racial Equity Advisory Council and the Offices of Institutional Equity and Faculty Advancement, which are driving this important initiative into its third year.

Duke is changing at the unit and local level, and we are making real progress toward fostering a more inclusive campus community. In January, over three hundred campus leaders participated in a day-long retreat focused on racial equity. It was a terrific program—led by Kim Hewitt, Abbas Benmamoun, and Sherrilyn Black, with contributors from dozens of units. Looking ahead, we are working toward the release of the “Duke Annual Report on Racial Equity” or the DARRE, which will help units track and measure their progress.

In the past two years, we’ve funded 35 faculty research projects supporting efforts to understand and address systemic racism, including 17 projects related to race, racism and the history of the American South and 18 projects related to racial inequality.

Our faculty is also changing in meaningful ways. In the past few years, we’ve hired over two dozen faculty members whose scholarship focuses on racial and social equity. And from 2017 to 2022, we made significant gains in demographic diversity, including a 51 percent increase in our number of Black-identifying faculty, a 30 percent increase in our Hispanic faculty, and a 17 percent increase in our Asian and Asian American faculty. These hiring efforts will continue apace.

In addition to transitions in leadership and ongoing initiatives, we’re also breaking new ground in our goal of transforming teaching and learning for the next century.

Last year, we completed a forward-looking strategic thinking process, Strategy Team 2030, which focused on the goals and opportunities that will carry us through the remainder of this decade and beyond.

As Sally outlined to this council last year, the 2030 report recommended focusing on fostering a more cohesive and research-inflected undergraduate experience, building richer campus connections for graduate and professional students, and renewing support systems for research and scholarship. We are in the early stages of exploring how to implement these recommendations—but this work will remain an important focus for many years to come.

Likewise, there are significant curricular changes underway. One major transition will be the adoption of a new curriculum for Trinity, which I anticipate will include significant opportunities for collaboration and partnership with the other schools. And as I mentioned in my remarks here last year, the upcoming fundraising campaign—launching publicly in 2025—will support faculty and research across the disciplines. Already, we have raised amounts approaching the Duke Forward total, and we fully anticipate that this will be the largest campaign in Duke’s history.

Exciting transitions are underway—with more to come.

As we mark this 60^th anniversary of the academic council—and look ahead to Duke’s centennial celebration next year—we have an opportunity to celebrate all of the many transitions that Duke has made.

Our transition from a small regional college to a global university. Our transition from a closed campus for the few to an open campus for all. Our transition from an institution hemmed in by disciplinary divisions to a community that champions collaboration.

We’ll also be celebrating the things that haven’t changed: our values of integrity, service, and shared governance, our ambitions, and—above all—our exceptional students, staff, alumni, and faculty.

With that in mind, let me end by saying thank you for your support of the Duke we have always been, and the ever more extraordinary Duke we are destined to become.

To the Duke Community,

With the approach of Thanksgiving, I write in gratitude for all you do as members of our Duke community and to extend best wishes.

As we enjoy the company of family and friends, many among us are working through the holiday and unable to celebrate, or are separated from loved ones many miles away. All of us are feeling the strain of a world that seems unsettled and divided.

In these moments, I draw both strength and inspiration from our Duke University family, and I hope others find that encouragement and comfort as well. Wherever we come from or whatever brings us to Duke, we all belong here together. And everything we do—in the classroom, on campus, in the clinic, or in our surrounding neighborhoods—we do as part of a community, turning with shared values and commitment toward a more joyful tomorrow.

I am grateful you are with us at Duke and hope you find refreshment and relaxation this Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Vince

Thank you all for being here for this exciting moment for Duke.

I’d like to begin by recognizing trustee Jeff Ubben, who served as chair of our Climate Change and Sustainability Task Force, along with Dean of the Nicholas School Toddi Steelman and Executive Director of Sustainability Tavey Capps, who both served as Vice Chairs. Without your leadership, none of this would be possible. Thank you.

In coming to Duke, I knew I was joining a community of enormous intellectual power. We are also a community dedicated to purpose and commitment, a community brimming with innovation and potential and the opportunity to write a bold new chapter. Today, that new chapter—a story of a better future—begins.

The Duke Climate Commitment is a transformational initiative for Duke, one that is unprecedented in our history and in higher education.

Never have we committed to marshaling every part of our enterprise—our collective resources, talents, and passions—toward solving a global problem in such a focused way. The scale and importance of our climate-related challenges call for nothing less: creating sustainable and equitable solutions that will place society on the path to a resilient, flourishing, net-zero-carbon world by mid-century.

Our history has prepared us well to rise to this moment—indeed, at a time when some of our peers are launching new climate schools, we have been leading in this work for as long as we have been Duke.

The School of Forestry and the Marine Laboratory were both founded more than 80 years ago, in the early days of our university. More than 30 years ago these entities came together into one school—and thanks to a foundational gift from the Nicholas family, we now have the Nicholas School of the Environment.

Seventeen years ago, we launched what is now the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability, which elevates our environmental work through education, sustained engagement, and convening of stakeholders and policy experts. A dozen years ago, we launched our plan to achieve carbon neutrality, and we have operated with a broad strategic plan to achieve sustainability in areas such as energy, water, food, and land use.

The Duke Climate Commitment builds on and concentrates these many complementary resources. Our research will advance core areas of expertise in transforming energy, creating climate-resilient communities and ecosystems, and developing data-driven climate solutions—all with a focus on more equitable engagement. Our teaching will infuse climate and sustainability into programs across the university, improving the lives of our students and preparing them to lead as alumni.

But the reason that this can only happen at Duke is our distinctive excellence in interdisciplinary collaboration. While the Duke Climate Commitment will have the Nicholas School and Institute at its heart, it will encompass research and teaching across all of our schools and institutes, guide our campus operations, and help us foster stronger, collaborative relationships with partners in our community, state, nation and around the globe.

To that end, we’re launching data expeditions with an initial focus on climate and health and collaboration grants to drive creative research across disciplines. We’re committing to making climate and sustainability fluency foundational to the curriculum for every student at Duke and extending our reach to our alumni. As we continue to work toward our goal of carbon neutrality in 2024 and to lead the way in sustainable operations, we’re developing Duke as a living laboratory to study and solve climate and sustainability issues. And perhaps most importantly, we’re supporting environmental sustainability in the community and advancing our understanding of the critical impacts of climate change on social and racial equity.

None of this would be possible without the support of our extraordinary partners, donors, and alumni.

The Duke Endowment has provided early foundational support in launching climate literacy, research, and campus sustainability efforts.

Jeff and Laurie Ubben and Mike and Karen Stone are leading the way in supporting our transformational teaching and an endowed professorship.

Katy Hollister and her husband Brad Miller have provided seed funding along with an anonymous 1994 Pratt School graduate to create the DESIGN Climate program—a first-in-class experiential learning initiative for engineering and environmental students.

Cindy Marrs has supported courses and co-curricular activities in climate finance in the Duke Financial Economics Program.

And building on their incredible support of this work, the Nicholas Family this week announced a significant lead gift to create a Presidential Climate Action and Innovation endowment to lift the entire university-wide initiative.

These gifts represent a tremendous foundation for a climate commitment that will harness the best of Duke toward solving a seemingly intractable problem.

We know we can do it. We know that we will do it.

And that’s why the Duke Climate Commitment marks a hopeful moment for us—when we seize the opportunity and step up to our responsibility to lead toward a brighter, healthier future. I hope you will join us in this transformational undertaking.

Duke is in it, together, for life. Thank you.

[END OF EVENT]

I want to thank our program and panel participants for joining us today—and thank everyone here with us for your support as we mark this important moment—both for our university and the world that we hope to shape.

Too often in modern life, the drive to be innovative, the drive to be creative, has not been coupled with a thoughtful approach to being sustainable—to innovating in a way that leaves us all better off fifty or a hundred years down the road. 

As an institution, we have an opportunity today to chart a different course. At Duke, we have the bold thinkers to allow us to make this commitment. We have the diversity of thought, we have the talented students and staff, we have the global network of extraordinary alumni, we have the obligation as an employer, and we have the history.

That is why we must succeed. That is why Duke is in it, together, for life.

Thank you all. That concludes today’s event, but I hope you will join us for the sessions tomorrow and beyond.