Category: Speeches & Writings Page 5 of 7

Dear Colleagues, Students, and Friends,

This week, as the United States passed the grim milestone of 100,000 lives lost to the coronavirus, the horrifying death of George Floyd has drawn national attention to fundamental and systematic disparities of justice in our nation. The events in Minneapolis have occurred on the heels of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the shooting of Breonna Taylor and in the context of the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color, including here in Durham. For many people at Duke and elsewhere, the pain, trauma and sense of hopelessness is overwhelming.

Every day, throughout our country, African American and other marginalized communities have their safety and dignity threatened—in their places of work, in public spaces, and in their homes and neighborhoods. This ongoing history of structural and sustained racism is a fundamental and deeply distressing injustice, here as elsewhere.

But we as a university must do more than recognize and grieve these circumstances; we must work together to change them.  In our Duke statement of values, we affirm our commitment to trust, respect, and inclusion. In that spirit, Duke University will continue the work of addressing generations of racism and injustice, of seeking ways to approach one another with respect, and of building communities that are truly safe, supportive, and inclusive for all.

My very best wishes to the entire Duke family in this troubling time.

Sincerely,

Vincent E. Price

President

Dear Duke Students and Families,

I hope this note finds you and your family well despite the complications to life caused by COVID-19. The past few months have brought us many new challenges, but also daily reminders of why we are all so proud to be members of the Duke University community. 

I write today because I know the question on everyone’s mind: what will happen with the fall semester?

There’s a lot we still don’t know.  Like every family, community and business, we are trying to make the best decisions with only partial information that changes by the day.  A month ago, we established several planning teams to prepare for the next academic year.  These teams have worked closely with our faculty, our physicians and public health experts to develop a range of options that start with protecting the health and safety of the Duke community and focus intensely on ensuring the continued excellence of our education, research, public service and patient-care missions.

That work continues, but here’s what we do know right now:  

First, Duke University will be open in the fall, with the specific details of attendance and schedule to be determined soon. Throughout the pandemic, our education and research programs continued, so in a sense we’ve never closed.  We completed the spring semester, awarding almost 6,000 degrees earlier this month to the extraordinary Class of 2020.  We started a virtual Duke Summer Session with five times as many students as last year.  Our hospitals and clinics continue to care for patients, and research on COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics has only expanded.  And we’ve now begun the very careful process of reopening our facilities in phases. This week, hundreds of additional Duke researchers and scientists are returning to campus to continue their vital research with new protocols for social distancing, daily monitoring, and testing, contact tracing and medical supervision.

Second, we expect to make decisions about the structure of the coming academic year by the end of June.  Why not decide now?  We are committed to getting this right, and responsible decision making must be based on a clearer understanding of public health and safety issues than is now available. Our decisions also have to be informed by our experience from these early campus restarts. Making choices now in the absence of this vital information would jeopardize safety of our students, faculty, staff and the wider community, even if it seems to provide the certainty so many of us desire. 

Consider for a moment where we were as a country just six weeks ago: you can see how quickly medical guidance has evolved, how rapidly legal and regulatory guidance developed, particularly around matters like testing and tracing, and how much local conditions have changed.   The next six weeks should give us far more reliable information upon which we will base our decisions.

And finally, we know enough to say that next academic year will not look anything like the past.  As we work toward coming back to school safely in the fall, we are innovating every part of the Duke experience—from the academic calendar to residential living—to provide students the best and safest possible configuration of on-campus and high-quality remote teaching.  We are dedicated to adapting the life-changing experiences that make the Duke experience so special, and to creating new ones in areas like career planning.

To be sure, there will be necessary changes in how our spaces are configured and classes are delivered, as well as in the many campus activities that make Duke so enriching and exhilarating; but, like every other part of society, we will be resilient and adapt to the new reality.

Looking beyond next academic year, we are building the Duke of the future. This too will take time, but will only be improved by the knowledge we all gain as we move through the months ahead.  Our present circumstances may be daunting; but they call upon us to determine, together, how we empower the finest scholars, redefine teaching and learning for the 21st century, deepen our commitments to community, strengthen our partnerships in the region, and engage as never before our global network of Duke alumni, families, and friends. 

So, while I may disappoint those of you who are looking for certainty now, this is where we stand today. We’ll be in touch with you directly as soon as we have more specific information about our programs, and the actions you can take to prepare for the fall semester. 

In the meantime, I can tell you that the Duke you know and love is alive and well.  The education you receive at Duke will prepare you for lives and careers of meaning and fulfilment.  Whether you are a first-year or a senior, your Duke experience will be memorable for life. And wherever you are, near or far, you can follow what is happening through The Duke Daily, our daily e-mail newsletter.  Our students receive it each weekday, and parents and families can sign up here. 

I offer my best wishes to you and your family, my deepest thanks for your commitment to Duke, and my appreciation of your confidence in the enduring value and promise of our great university. 

Sincerely,

Vincent E. Price
President

Dear Colleagues,

Over these past few months, the world has seen the best of Duke. Every member of our community has risen to meet extraordinary difficulties that none of us expected when the academic year began with such promise last August. For all that, and on behalf of your colleagues around the world, I thank you. I have never been prouder to be a Blue Devil.

Even as we rise to meet the public health challenges and navigate this new world of social distancing and working from home, we must also rise to meet the financial headwinds now confronting us, both individually and collectively. As I noted last month, the fallout from the pandemic has had a significant negative effect on almost every aspect of our operations. Indeed, as predicted, every one of our sources of revenue—tuition, research grants, clinical and patient care services, private philanthropy and income from our investments and endowment—has already suffered large reductions or is expected to be quite substantially diminished in the months ahead. 

At the same time, many of our costs continue to rise as we grapple with expanded needs precipitated by the pandemic. The full impact will not be known for several months, but we can estimate that the total decline in revenues will be somewhere in the range of $250 million to $350 million next fiscal year and could range as high as 15% of our annual operating budget. 

In anticipation of this downturn, we implemented last month a series of steps to mitigate our worsening financial circumstances, which—except for the Duke University Health System (DUHS)—apply to all of Duke University:

Reducing expenditures: All schools, units, departments and programs have suspended all new non-salary expenditures, with any ongoing expenditures greater than $2,500 requiring pre-approval by the Executive Vice President, Provost or Chancellor for Health Affairs or their designees.

Hiring freeze: All staff hiring has been paused until further notice, except for those positions deemed essential and approved by the Executive Vice President, Provost or Chancellor for Health Affairs, or their designees. 

Suspending salary increases: For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2020, there will be no salary increase for university employees making more than $50,000 per year. Employees earning up to $50,000 who earn satisfactory performance evaluations will receive a one-time, $1,000 payment. The only exceptions to this policy will be certain academic promotions and positions governed by the terms of contracts with collective bargaining units.

Holding construction: All new university construction projects are on indefinite hold, except those related to safety, repairs, infrastructure, virus research and a small number of obligations to new faculty. 

These cost-saving measures are helping to meet part of our shortfall. However, since salaries and benefits for our employees represent about two-thirds of our overall operating budget, a deficit of the magnitude we are anticipating cannot be addressed without curtailing some of these costs. We continue to believe that our health insurance programs must remain intact, especially at this time. However, we have reluctantly determined we must also reduce our salary and benefit expenses in order to weather successfully the financial storm. 

Duke is only as great as our people, and as we adapt to this new reality, we must never lose sight of our commitments to our people and our purpose. Every university employee continues to be in a fully paid status regardless of their current location and duties, and we intend to keep that in place as long as it is financially feasible and responsible. But doing so will require some changes and sacrifices that, while uncomfortable and unpleasant, will help secure continued employment and retain vital economic resources in the Durham community. 

Consequently, the following will apply to all university employees. (DUHS employees will receive separate communications.)  Effective July 1, 2020, we will:

Temporarily suspend university-paid retirement contributions.  To avoid cutting direct compensation, we will instead temporarily suspend all employer contributions to the Duke Faculty and Staff Retirement 403(b) plan for a period of 12 months. This action does not affect any employee investments—that is, anyone enrolled in Duke’s retirement plan can continue to make contributions from their salary—only the university’s separate contributions to these plans will be temporarily suspended. Nor will this impact the Employees’ Retirement Plan for our nonexempt employees, which is administered separately. 

We take this step only after very careful study and deliberation. While painful, it appears our best way forward for two reasons. First, it affects only deferred income and only for one year, meaning that regular salaries will continue to be paid throughout this temporary period. Second, this will ensure that Duke can continue to support our employees, their families, and the Durham economy. 

This action, and the other cost-saving efforts noted earlier, will result in an estimated savings of approximately $150 million to $200 million next fiscal year and provide, we hope, the necessary resources to sustain and advance our academic programs for the near-term.  

We are also taking additional steps to that will affect the approximately 300 university employees earning above the retirement-contribution threshold: 

Temporary reduction of salary for highly compensated employees.University employees who earn more than the federally mandated 403(b) contribution threshold ($285,000) will also see a temporary reduction of 10% in the portion of their salary above that threshold, for a period of 12 months. Specific details will be communicated before June 30 directly to those who will be impacted. 

Additional voluntary contributions by senior leadership.  As President, my reduction above will be doubled to a total of 20%, and the Provost, Executive Vice President, and Chancellor will have a reduction of 15% for this period. The deans and vice presidents will also make additional contributions to support our highest priorities in addition to the mandated reductions.

We take these steps only after considerable study of all the options, and with confidence that this is the best and most equitable path for us at this difficult moment. We will continue to monitor our circumstances carefully, and have engaged a comprehensive Team 2030 Strategy process to determine what further actions may be needed.

Some may wonder why we don’t simply draw additional funds from Duke’s endowment to address these deficits. You are probably aware that the endowment, which in times of growth is a source of funding for priorities such as student financial aid and faculty chairs, is not a “rainy day” savings account. Rather, it is a permanent fund intended to provide ongoing support over the life of the university, and most of it is legally restricted for specific purposes. The steps we are taking to secure Duke’s financial future are already predicated on spending as much as we responsibly can from our endowment. Indeed, even with the actions outlined here, we expect in the coming year to spend from our endowment—which has suffered considerably by recent declines in the market—at rates that will not be made up for by investment growth, thus further reducing this vital source of long-term income.

Our circumstances today are daunting, but we will get through them. We are a strong and resourceful community guided, especially in challenging times, by our shared values of mutual respect, trust, inclusion, discovery and excellence in all we do. Our work is great and good, and it continues in the face of the pandemic. Last weekend, we conferred degrees on almost 6,000 new Duke graduates. And while we could not share their joy on campus, thousands of you, joined by alumni, friends and families around the world, came together to mark the moment of their transition from citizens of Duke to citizens of the world. It is for them, and their succeeding generations of scholars and doers, that we take these steps now to secure our future.

Thank you for all you do to make us the Duke we have always been, and the Duke we are destined to become.

Sincerely,

Vincent E. Price
President

Dear Colleagues,

What sets Duke apart are our people and our purpose, and both have been tested over these past few weeks.  We have all lived through what for many has been the most tumultuous and unsettling period of our lives.  The combination of understandable concern for our health and safety, and those of our loved ones, with massive disruptions to society, education, business and even our ability freely move around our communities, is deeply unsettling.

But we have as a Duke community met these unprecedented challenges with an extraordinary outpouring of creativity, commitment and courage from thousands of people spanning the globe.  Each of you has contributed in your own way, through actions that have saved lives, supported our students, faculty, staff and patients, and ensured that our important work continues despite the challenges we confront every day.  Many of you have done so while balancing health concerns, caring for family members, and navigating the mental and emotional challenges of an uncertain and isolating time. 

Your extraordinary effort brings home the truth that we can only do great works through great people, and that ensuring the well-being of our people is critical to our purpose of seeking knowledge in the service of society.

Even as we confront present challenges, we must be clear that the pandemic will also produce profound and lasting effects, including severe and negative effects on our operations and finances.  Duke is not alone in this, of course: every business, government, nonprofit organization and family is now making difficult choices. While it is too soon to determine with precision the magnitude of disruption to our finances, it is clear that the impacts will be both severe and prolonged.  All of our formerly reliable sources of revenue – tuition, research grants, clinical revenue, private philanthropy and income from our investments and endowment – will almost certainly be significantly and adversely affected, even as we face increased expenses in our education, research and patient-care services. 

The responsible institutional course is to engage in a thoughtful, comprehensive, and strategic review of our operations and finances, and we are initiating exactly that.  In the meantime, we must also act responsibly now by taking immediate steps to mitigate our deepening financial challenges.  As a result, we are today either confirming (in the case of actions that were announced earlier) or implementing the following Duke University policies, which do not apply to the Duke University Health System:

Expenditures:  All schools, units, departments and programs will need to pause new non-salary expenditures, including (but not limited to): contracts, service or consulting agreements; computer, office and laboratory equipment; renovations; furniture; travel and entertainment; meetings and conferences. Any ongoing expenditure of university funds (including grant, gift and endowment funds) greater than $2,500 will continue to require pre-approval by the Executive Vice President, Provost or Chancellor for Health Affairs or their designees.  There will be additional guidance forthcoming regarding information technology services, including software licenses.

Hiring:  All staff hiring is paused until further notice.  Requests for exceptions for positions that are essential to the operation of the university can be made through the vacancy management process, which requires the approval of the Executive Vice President, Provost or Chancellor for Health Affairs, depending on the unit.  Subject to the approval of the appropriate dean, ongoing faculty searches may continue provided that all salary and startup funds are identified.  Likewise, searches for staff positions that are fully funded by external research grants that have already been received by the university may continue, subject to review through the vacancy management process.  

Salaries: For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2020, there will be no salary increase for University employees making more than $50,000 per year.  Employees earning up to $50,000 who earn satisfactory performance evaluations will receive a one-time, $1,000 payment.  The only exceptions to this policy will be certain academic promotions.   Positions covered under collective bargaining agreements will be governed by the terms of the contract.  This action also does not cover Duke University Health System (DUHS) employees.  DUHS administers compensation on a different calendar from the University, and guidance for the next year will be provided to DUHS employees at a later date.

Benefits: At this time, we do not anticipate making any changes in our insurance programs (health, dental, vision and disability).  We are reviewing our 403b program to determine whether adjustments are now appropriate.

Construction:  All new construction projects are on indefinite hold, except those related to safety, repairs, infrastructure, virus research and a small number of obligations to new faculty. 

As we adapt to this new reality, I pledge to you that Duke will never lose sight of our highest commitments, to our people and our purpose.  We remain firmly committed to meeting the financial aid needs of our students, which are likely to rise.  Our decisions will be guided by and aligned with Duke’s overarching strategic framework, Toward our Second Century.  We will be mindful of the needs of the most vulnerable among us and committed to the health, safety and security of our students, faculty and staff.  And we will be true to our shared values of respect, trust, inclusion, discovery and excellence.

We will get through this, together, by supporting one another and our shared mission as a university.  Thank you for all that you are doing for Duke. I am proud to call you colleagues.

Sincerely,

Vincent E. Price
President

Dear Colleagues,

The start of a new academic year is a time of great anticipation at Duke.  Faculty, staff and students alike share news of their summer exploits.  Many of our colleagues are working to put the finishing touches on new facilities like The Hollows and the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center.  And the summer campers at Duke who temporarily lowered the average age on campus by perhaps a decade have gone home, making way for our returning undergraduate, graduate and professional students and the great new class of 2023. 

We can only speculate about what the months to come will bring. A Bass Connections team might discover a primary source that opens a new page of our history. Perhaps we’ll see some new  discoveries that will save lives, a few more Rhodes Scholars, or even another Nobel Prize. Maybe the Blue Devils will win another national championship – or several!

For me, this time of year also brings a profound sense of gratitude for the opportunity I’ve been given to be a part of this inspiring Duke family.  Our achievements may garner the headlines, but it’s the countless everyday contributions of each person in our community that truly define us – and shape our future.

I’m thankful for those who have been here all summer: maintaining and renewing our beautiful campus, conducting research in our labs, caring for patients, and supporting our students and faculty in their endeavors. I’m grateful for those who have been representing Duke this summer across the globe, through internships and research projects and DukeEngage trips. I’m particularly grateful for those who are joining our university for the first time, and for all that you will contribute to our community in the months and years ahead.

As I told our first year students at convocation, the connections between us are what set Duke apart. In this spirit, as we look forward to the new academic year, I encourage you to reflect on how very much we rely on each other to be our best.  Find an opportunity this week to express your gratitude to a classmate, a teacher, a staff colleague, or a teammate.  Hold a door open, give a smile and a wave, let them know how much you value their being here.  You might make their day – and I anticipate they’ll be grateful for you as well.

Very best wishes for a wonderful year.

In gratitude,
Vince

Good afternoon! To the great class of 2023, welcome to Duke! 

I also want to recognize Provost and Chief Academic Officer Sally Kornbluth, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Gary Bennett, Vice President and Vice Provost for Campus Life Mary Pat McMahon, our deans and administrators, and all of the faculty members who make this community so exceptional.

Well, you are moved in!  I was out there on East Campus helping with move-in yesterday morning, and a quick note: If any of you in Jarvis are missing a mini-fridge, I think I left it in one of the common rooms.

And to your parents, siblings, and friends who came to help you move in:  well, it’s time.  Time for congratulations, and then goodbyes.  If you want to stick around, you’ll have to talk to the admissions office about submitting an application. 

Otherwise, it’s time for you to take your leave, and leave it to your students begin exploring Duke.

To be sure, there is much to explore. This storied gym, for one, but I have to tell you that you’re not seeing it at its best right now. Come back when one of our volleyball, basketball or fencing teams are on the floor, and this place will be rocking.

But other corners of campus are already bursting with life: from the Rubenstein Arts Center with its light-filled dance studios, to the classrooms and labs where your professors are preparing for your arrival, to the glorious afternoons in the Duke Gardens as we head into the fall. 

As you explore, you’ll come across some fascinating corners of the campus.  Along a quieter edge of the Gardens, for example, you may discover a granite marker documenting an interesting fact – passing right through the middle of Duke is the 36^thparallel of latitude.  

From time to time, you might be inclined to think of this campus as a parallel universe, but that’s notthe point of this marker.

When Eratosthenes, the so-called Father of Geography, first attempted to measure the circumference of Earth in the 3^rdcentury BCE, he did so by projecting this line, which we now know as the 36^thparallel, and which neatly bisects the Strait of Gibraltar, the Greek Islands, and the entire ancient Mediterranean world. In the centuries since, that line has guided untold travelers, dreamers, and explorers … and now, it has brought you here to Duke.

The 36th parallel illustrates just how far this class has come to get here.  In its vast lap around the world, the line runs through remarkable places, some of which are very familiar to you or your classmates. It passes through Southern California — where I was born and raised, along with many members of the class of 2023.  

The parallel also passes through some of the most embattled – and culturally-significant – places in the Middle East: Tehran, Kurdistan, and Aleppo, Syria. It passes through Jiangsu Province in China, home to three of you along with Duke Kunshan University.  It passes just north of Busan, South Korea, home to two of you, and through a thousand smaller towns along the way.  Closer to Duke, it cuts directly through Tulsa, Oklahoma and Nashville, Tennessee – are there any Tulsans or Nashvillians here today?

But today, I’d like us to pause for a moment and contemplate the 36^thparallel — not just to note a curiosity on our campus, but to think about what these kinds of lines signify.  I think there may actually be some interesting lessons for us, here today, when we think about such imaginary lines.

First, lines allow us to map; they help us draw places and to define spaces.  And the 36^thparallel can literally show you the way while you’re here. In a happy accident of history, Campus Drive almost exactly follows the line.  So if you ever get lost somewhere between East Campus and West, I suppose you could navigate old style by using a sextant.

But one way or another, you willbe charting your own course here. A course of study, sure, but also lining up new friendships, clubs, research, producing and performing works of art, playing sports, perhaps traveling abroad.  And as you are mapping your way, writing papers, poems, and lab reports while juggling your activities, you may at points feel a bit overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, or just flat-out lost.  When that happens, please reach out for some assistance in navigating.  

As Liv McKinney so nicely pointed out, when you lose your line, when you veer off course and become disoriented; it’s not necessarily cause for concern.  You may just discover places you’d never imagined, people you’d never expected to befriend; ideas that help you get back on course — if you want – or to rechart your course, or maybe even redraw the whole map.

Second, lines allow us to connect; they can serve as links between disparate points.  When Eratosthenes first projected the 36^thParallel some twenty-three hundred years ago, he scarcely could have imagined the innumerable connections it has allowed humanity to make – bridging cultures and continents and facilitating a much wider and deeper understanding of our place in the world.

So another way to think about your education is to focus on the points, the places, the people you will draw together– as is often said, learning is about “connecting the dots.”  Your roommates, classmates, or teammates, your teachers and advisors will challenge your perspectives and opinions.  And, if you are willing to connect with them, they will have a great deal to teach you about how to live in and experience the world. Some of the most remarkable things that you will learn at Duke will be from one another, not in the classroom or lab but in conversations late at night at the dorm, over breakfast in the marketplace, or even while you’re tenting in K-ville.  Be open to those connections.

I hope that you will also take these connections as inspiration to draw your own broad connections, across disciplines, over time, between theory and practice. As has no doubt already been made known to you, Duke is a university firmly rooted in the liberal arts – that is, we are committed to a holistic approach to the search for knowledge; we believe that by studying literature, history, and the arts alongside the sciences and math we gain ever more opportunities to draw those connections, and in so doing draw a fuller picture of what it means to be human.

Now, I should close by noting a third function of lines, which is that they allow us to divide; we often draw lines to serve as boundaries. 

Just as Eratosthenes could scarcely have forseen the connections facilitated by his imaginary line, he could not have known some of the more dubious purposes that line would serve.  Eratosthenes could not have forseen that 19^thcentury Americans would use the 36^thParallel to draw the northern boundary of slavery in the Missouri Compromise – a compromise that may have forestalled but could not prevent the nation’s journey toward Civil War.  Or that the 36^thParallel would mark the boundary of the no-fly zone in Iraq, and the front lines in the Syrian Civil War.  

Today, we are confronted around the globe by intense divisions over disputed boundaries, and border lines over which goods and people, and ideas, travel. 

When we draw lines, we often oversimplify.  We risk missing a truth that is much more complicated, and richer, and blurrier than our imaginary lines suggest.  And if we confuse the lines we draw with reality, we risk embracing division over connection.  We risk letting our own boundaries box us in.  

Confronting that risk means reaching over those lines that would otherwise limit our worldview.  If we truly listen to our neighbors, listen carefully, and voice our disagreements with them respectfully, we will emerge with a much fuller idea of our place in the world.  Reaching out to make connections – especially connections across the boundaries that encircle us – reminds us that the lines that we thinkdivide us are only imaginary.  We become open to people, students of the world, seeking to learn from our neighbors rather than draw boundaries against them.

Over the course of your four years here, I hope you will be a boundary crosser, that you will seek out what interests you, what challenges you, what scares you, what excites you. Are you planning to conduct biomedical research? Try a short-story writing workshop, and you could write science fiction about genetic engineering. Is art history your strength? Why not take a chemistry class that can teach you about methods for dating paint pigments?  

But there is one boundary I hope you willdraw.  I know how exhilarating life at Duke can be. I know how driven Duke students can be. The fear of missing out can get the best of us.  Our drive is admirable, but it can drive us to distraction.  It can wear us down.  

So, I hope each of you draws another imaginary line, one that says I need some space; some space to relax; some space to reflect; some space to focus on my health.  And please: Get. Some. Sleep. 

Not now!  Stay with me …

I do want to emphasize this last point – the research clearly demonstrates that you are not at your best without adequate rest.

One great way to rest is to take in the Gardens.  Please do that now and again. And next time you do, maybe you will pause to reflect at that marker of the 36^thParallel of Latitude. 

Eratosthenes believed that this line was the center of the world. And while our scientific understanding has certainly evolved in recent centuries, when it came to our campus, he might have gotten it right. Here before you at Duke, along that imaginary line that traces the road between East Campus and West, an entire universe of knowledge awaits your exploration. 

So, brave explorers in the class of 2023, may the next four years take you on a remarkable journey of discovery that begins now. 

Congratulations, and welcome.

Good afternoon. To the great class of 2019, let me say congratulations. I don’t want to jinx it, but the outlook is prettygood that you will graduate tomorrow. 

To the parents who are with us, congratulations to you as well. I know from experience that “it takes a village” really means “it takes two decades of preparation and four years of worry.”  So, thank you for all you have done for our students.

And to those of you here for convocation, you’re in the right place but about three months too early. Please come back later.

It’s no coincidence that this grand space is modeled on the chapels of the great European universities. When James B. Duke was designing this campus, he wanted it to suggest a history that goes all the way back to the earliest medieval institutions of higher learning.  

So much about the university, from the soaring architecture to these extravagant robes we sometimes wear, is rooted in the Middle Ages—in the guilds of scholars who gathered around libraries where knowledge was preserved for safekeeping during the confusion and unrest of the day. Students studied for entry into the guild and earned degrees granting them access to the wisdom of the library.  

And while much has changed over the centuries, libraries are still the heart of university life.  You’ve probably spent many an hour in Perkins, Bostock, Lilly, and Rubenstein, thumbing through dusty volumes or frantically searching J-STOR. There is something profound – almost spiritual – about the research breakthrough late at night, when you flip open a book and find exactly the right quote for that paper.

Our libraries are more than stacks and carrels, or study rooms and digital collections: they also contain a wealth of archival materials. Among our special manuscripts you will some of our most treasured wisdom and the ingredients for some of our most transformative discoveries. 

So, when I set out to prepare these remarks, I followed your lead and went searching for justthe right quote for my assignment.  

Predictably, I found much to consider, from voices speaking through and across the ages.  

Take for instance the 16^thcentury Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius. Duke owns one of the few first editions of Vesalius’s landmark 1543 anatomy tract, On the Fabric of the Human Body, which serves as the basis of much of modern medical science and biology. 

In and among hundreds of pretty gruesome anatomical engravings, you can find some advice that is useful even today. Vesalius urges us to ground our understanding of the world in what we directly experience, to challenge what is authoritatively handed down with what we ourselves see to be true.  

He wants you to claim your ownunderstanding of the world; indeed, the medieval physician derisively describes sitting through a boring – and in his view, quite mistaken – lecture at the University of Louvain in the early 1500s – his fellow students scribbling notes, quote, “with accuracy in proportion to their interest.”

I guess not much has changed in 500 years. 

Or take the 18th century African-American poet Phillis Wheatley.  Duke has, remarkably, an inscribed 1773 first edition of poems by Wheatley.  She was a slave for most of her life – entirely self-educated – but her poetry was celebrated throughout colonial America and England and is still studied and read widely today. 

This is one of our most treasured assets — the first book published by an African American author, released two years before the first shots of the American Revolution and nine decades before Emancipation. 

What might Wheatly have written that speaks to you, today?  Well, in a poem to new graduates at Harvard, she called on them to raise their sights, and challenged them to make the most of what they had learned, to literally reach for the sky: “Students, to you ‘tis given to scan the heights above; To traverse the ethereal space, and mark the systems of revolving worlds.”

So, Wheatly spoke eloquently of the power and impact of outrageous ambition long before it became associated with Duke.

Many such voices of the past can be heard, speaking to your future from the quiet corners of the library, if you choose to listen.   You can find here the very scrap of paper where Walt Whitman first worked out a few famous lines for his life’s work, Leaves of Grass,in the middle 19^thcentury. His words are crossed out, underlined, scribbled – until he finally arrives at this: “Youth is full of grace, force, fascination … but old age will come after you, with equal grace, force, fascination.”  

Your parents can confirm that this is true. 

So, here’s what we have heard on the eve of your commencement: set out to understand the world for yourself, advises Vesalius; with all that you have been given, aim high, implores Wheatly; and from Whitman, accept the grace of aging as you have the exhuberance of youth.

But of all these treasured voices, there is one speaking most eloquently through the generations, as though she were here, with us in this Chapel: the great Victorian writer Mary Ann Evans,also known as George Eliot. 

As the English majors among you probably know, Duke owns a first edition of her classic novel, Middlemarch, which was published in eight installments in 1871 and 1872.  You can go to the Rubenstein Library and hold the volumes in your hands, serial paperbacks that have advertisements for patent medicines and long-forgotten London bookstores inside the back cover. Our librarians will give you a pair of gloves to turn the frail and browning pages.

And from those pages, Eliot speaks with unparalleled beauty and wisdom.   One line in particular, from her famous conclusion, sticks with me, and I hope speaks to you: “The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts.”

While commencement is a time when you are exhorted to strive for knowledge, to reach for the heavens, to leave your mark on history, I suggest we listen to the truth expressed here – the unhistoric acts can make all the difference. 

To be sure, the class of 2019 has been responsible for more than your share of Duke history: winning ACC championships, opening the Ruby, earning scholarships and awards, and building a world-record electric vehicle. But you’ve also “grown the good”at Duke in countless ways that never got reported in Duke Todayor The Chronicle.  

You’ve grown the good by staying up late to help a classmate who was struggling with a physics problem set.  You’ve grown the good by collecting trash on the paths in Duke Forest. You’ve grown the good by helping a heartbroken friend through a rough patch, by looking out for a first-year who is homesick, and by spending a Saturday morning grouting tile at Duke’s Habitat house.  

Even by holding open the door of the library for that colleague whose hands are full of books: It can be as simple as a smile, a kind word, an extended hand, or any of a million small ways of saying “I see you; I support you; I appreciate you.”

You know, we talk about preparing students for leadership in the world, but this doesn’t necessarily mean turning you into world leaders. It means inspiring you to have the courage to take full advantage of your gifts, by giving them to others every day, and becoming more fully realized versions of the person youwant to be.

Some of you in this room might change history. It’s possible that sitting among you is a future President, a famous artist, a CEO, perhaps a Nobel laureate, the discoverer of the cure for cancer.  And if you loved your time in Rubenstein, perhaps one of you will direct the Library of Congress or the Bodleian at Oxford.

But a great many of us will lead what from the outside may seem like more ordinary lives – as elementary school teachers, community doctors, advocates for immigrants, and devoted parents.  And these too will be great and good lives.

Duke’s greatest aspiration is to give you the curiosity and conviction to make the ordinary extraordinaryin whatever you do.  Just as in your time at Duke, opportunities for these unhistoric acts abound. Seek them out. 

You’ve already grown the good on our campus these past four years. And as you set off tomorrow once and for all, as you step through the gates into life after Duke, it will be into a world that I know will likewise be forever changed by the great class of 2019.

Cheers, and congratulations.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for the kind introduction, Mark. While I am unfortunately going to have a leave early for a funeral, I am so delighted to have an opportunity welcome you all back to campus for today’s important commemoration.

The occupation of the Allen Building was one of the most pivotal moments in our university’s history, a moment that would not have been possible without your courage and conviction and your willingness to stand up for what was right. In the actions that you took, you forever shifted our sails toward the prevailing winds of justice and equality. Thank you.

I also want to acknowledge Dr. Brenda Armstrong, one of the organizers of the Allen Building takeover. Though she is not here with us today, her hard work, passion, and resilience have left a lasting mark on our campus. We are so very grateful that she spent her career at Duke.

So much has changed for the better in the past fifty years. For one thing, the Department of African and African American Studies was created in the immediate aftermath of the occupation, and it has become one of the most vibrant and vital departments on our campus.

Following the occupation, we also began the hard work of building an inclusive campus and workplace for everyone who calls Duke home. Today, we recognize that our community is enriched, our teaching and discovery broadened and deepened, by the diverse perspectives of our fellow members of the Duke community.

Last year, we celebrated the first majority minority class of incoming students, and we are striving to make a Duke education more accessible, through need-blind admissions and robust financial aid. Things are changing for the better.

But as we look beyond our gates – and indeed at times on our campus – it seems like too much has gone unchanged. We find ourselves still troubled by many of the same issues that inspired the Allen Building occupation. We may feel that we see history repeating itself, or continuing on the same trajectory. How then should Duke respond?

About a month ago, I was rereading some of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s writing on education and social justice in preparation for our campus commemoration service. And I was struck by the famous quotation: “we are not makers of history; we are made by history.” Out of context, this can seem rather discouraging – it suggests we have no control over the circumstances that have brought us here.

But Dr. King goes on to elaborate. “Most people,” he wrote, “are thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion, not thermostats that transform and regulate the temperature of society.” This is not a deterrent – it’s a challenge, a call to action.

At Duke, we want to teach our students to be thermostats. Particularly in this moment of overheated and damaging discourse, we want them regulate and transform society. We want them to promote the values they learn here – respectfulness, empathy, and courage in their convictions – and change the world.

Fifty years ago, you set that example. In your actions on our campus and the lives of purpose you have lived since, you have forever changed this place for the better and improved the lives of many who followed. We commend you for your courage, and we are so very proud to call you Dukies.

Thank you.

Dear Duke Colleagues,

Over the past year, we have experienced a series of events that have been exhausting and hurtful for many, most recently students from China who were criticized for using their native tongue in a social space. These events are not restricted to one school or group – to a disturbing degree, they are widespread on our campus.

We are a community deeply committed to building an inclusive and welcoming environment for every member of the Duke family, regardless of their home, heritage, beliefs or language. So today, as academic leaders, we make a simple pledge:

First, we restate our commitment to the values embodied in Duke’s Statement of Diversity and Inclusion:

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Second, we emphatically affirm our promise to value the identities, heritage, cultures, and languages of every individual at Duke. Everyone at Duke deserves to be here.

Our excellence is built on the experiences and perspectives of each person, and all of us – leaders, students, faculty and staff – must hold ourselves accountable for strengthening this community so it lives up to its great promise.

Vincent E. Price
President

Sally Kornbluth
Provost
Eugene Washington
Chancellor for Health Affairs
Tallman Trask III
Executive Vice President
Richard Riddell
Senior Vice President and Secretary to the Board of Trustees

Kerry Abrams
James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke Dean, School of Law
Valerie Ashby
Dean, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
Ravi Bellamkonda
Vinik Dean, Pratt School of Engineering
William Boulding
Dean, Fuqua School of Business
Marion Broome
Dean, School of Nursing & Vice Chancellor for Nursing Affairs
L. Gregory Jones
Dean, Divinity School
Judith Kelley
Dean, Sanford School of Public Policy
Mary E. Klotman
Dean, School of Medicine
Paula McClain
Dean, Graduate School/Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Toddi Steelman
Stanback Dean, Nicholas School of the Environment

Pamela J. Bernard
Vice President and General Counsel
Kyle Cavanaugh
Vice President for Administration
Tracy Futhey
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Leigh Goller
Chief Audit, Risk and Compliance Officer
Larry Moneta
Vice President for Student Affairs
John J. Noonan
Vice President for Facilities
Luke Powery
Dean, Duke Chapel
Benjamin Reese
Vice President, Office for Institutional Equity
Michael J. Schoenfeld
Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations
David L. Kennedy
Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development
Tim Walsh
Vice President for Finance and Treasurer
Kevin M. White
Vice President and Director of Athletics
Stelfanie Williams
Vice President for Durham Affairs

Edward Balleisen
Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies
Abbas Benmamoun
Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement
Gary Bennett
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Lawrence Carin
Vice Provost for Research
Jennifer Francis
Executive Vice Provost
Deborah Jakubs
Vice Provost for Library Affairs
Scott Lindroth
Vice Provost for the Arts
James S. Roberts
Vice Provost