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DUKE’S SIGNATURE IN AMERICAN
HIGHER EDUCATION
• Section One
-- Private Research Universities in American Higher Education
• Section Two -- Duke's Mission, Ambition,
and Responsibility
• Section Three -- Competition and Differentiation:Duke's Distinctive
Signature
• Section Four -- Fundamental Threats
to the Pre-eminence of Private Research Universities
Competition
and Differentiation: Duke’s Distinctive Signature
In our consideration of the broader context in
which Duke functions, it is important to discuss the dynamics of our
market within American higher education. The leading private research
universities have much in common, offering similar degree programs
and pursing similar lines of research, yet the rivalry among them
is often intense. Each institution is pursuing excellence (and the
public recognition that comes with it) on it own terms, seeking to
create the deepest, richest, and most diverse environment possible
for teaching, learning, and research and for the preparation of new
leaders for our society. The leading universities compete with each
other for the human and financial capital they need to excel in their
broadly overlapping missions.
Although this competition can be costly and sometimes takes on the
character of an arms race, the independent pursuit of excellence by
individual institutions is an important source of innovation. Because
there are few if any trade secrets in higher education and many channels
of information sharing, successful innovations are widely publicized
and then diffused. This free flow of information and innovation is
undoubtedly one of the great strengths of the American system of higher
education, contributing to its ability over the last century and more
to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities presented by changing
environmental circumstances and new public demands. It also helps
to explain the broad similarity of the leading institutions as well
as relative stability of the prestige hierarchy in American higher
education. If Duke develops an innovative, effective program of teaching
or research, other institutions with adequate resources can seek to
imitate our success. Similarly, we are always on the lookout for what
is working elsewhere.
Nevertheless, because no institution has the resources to escape defining
choices, and each institution evolves independently, every private
research university has its own distinctive signature reflecting its
unique history, specific programmatic balances, and relationship to
place and space. We need to understand
what is truly distinctive about Duke’s signature and what elements
of that distinctiveness we want to
preserve or sharpen over time. Having this or that program is not
alone the answer because programs
can be replicated and their leadership attracted away. Our signature
is determined far more by distinctive programmatic balances, relationships,
and values. James Engell, professor of English and comparative
literature at Harvard University, has expressed this idea most eloquently
in a discussion of the entelechy (en-TEL-echy) of higher education:
Entelechy means the striving for perfection in a series of goals taken
together as a whole. The word comes from Greek enteles, or complete
or full, which in turn derives from telos, or goal. An entelechy demands
we envision how to fulfill the potential of the whole by coordinating
and giving proper relative weight to a set of varied goals and the
goods they seek to achieve. For each institution, this entails a particular
inflection or emphasis.1
How do we describe the balances and inflections that form the signature
of Duke? Several interrelated factors create this signature:
• We have an exceptionally strong tradition of academic freedom
dating back to Trinity College; we recognize that this tradition of
unfettered inquiry, free expression, and spirited debate is essential
to the critical examination of the human condition and the discovery
of new knowledge. Like other forms of freedom, its productive exercise
requires mature judgment and respect for the rights of others.
• The distinctive combination of schools that constitute Duke
and the relationships among them are unique. Each of our schools has
substantial interactions with virtually all the others, and our faculty
members have close colleagues and collaborators not only in their
own disciplines but in many others as well. This is less true of our
students but ought to be more so; the intergenerational University
Scholars Program is a start.
• This sense of complementing and a habit of cooperation extends
beyond our own campus to formal and informal partnerships with other
universities and organizations in the Research Triangle, across the
country and, increasingly, throughout the world. Duke has been and
will continue to be a leader in collaboration.
• Our signature reflects a combination of place and scale and
a relationship between campus and surrounding towns that is especially
conducive to community. It is easier at Duke than at most other major
private research universities to establish multifaceted relationships
that span professional interests, family friendships, religious devotion,
and recreational pursuits. In addition, we have abundant opportunities,
individually and collectively, to help meet the many needs of the
Durham community and to see our efforts make a tangible difference.
We need to sustain and expand this sense of belonging to a community,
and make it more intergenerational and inclusive; it is one of our
defining assets.
• Duke is a community of deep engagement for students outside
the classroom, in community service, the arts, political organizations,
academic competitions, and athletics. Duke’s men’s and women’s
sports attract the interest and loyalty of people in all walks of
university life, and in the wider community as well. Participation
in high-level athletics competition while engaging in a challenging
course of study is a defining characteristic of Duke for many students;
and many more of us take pride in their efforts and accomplishments
and share their triumphs and disappointments. Our widely shared interest
in athletics is an important source of community; the academic and
athletic performance of our student athletes and their personal conduct
reflects our commitment to excellence, personal growth, and high standards
for all our students.
• Duke has a culture of innovation and collaboration
rooted in its long tradition of academic freedom and the ease of interaction
in an academic community situated in a small-town environment. Duke
is especially open to innovation and supportive of entrepreneurial
initiatives undertaken by our schools and members of our faculty,
staff, and student body. We need to make this sense of shared ownership
and empowerment even more pervasive.
• We have a tradition that fosters moral and ethical reflection,
responsible leadership, and spirited debate. This tradition permeates
Duke in many ways: through the central presence of the Duke Chapel,
the broad influence of the Divinity School, and the fresh energy of
the Freeman Center. Our innovative Institute for the Care at the End
of Life spans schools, disciplines, and faiths in addressing some
of the most personal human needs and profound mysteries. The innovative
work of the B.N. Duke, Hart Leadership, and Kenan Ethics programs
touches many members of our community. Our robust faculty governance
system and the active roles played by students, through DSG and GPSC
and many other avenues, provide abundant opportunities for leadership,
linking faculty and students with each other, campus administrators,
and trustees.
• Duke is committed to the value of diversity
in all its forms as part of the celebration of human life and a fundamental
foundation for effective teaching, learning, and inquiry. Though this
commitment has never been perfectly realized, it has deep roots and
requires constant nurturing. An especially important part of this
commitment is our strong support for effective financial aid programs
in each of our schools; these programs help ensure that our programs
are accessible to talented students from many diverse backgrounds
and that all our students benefit from participation in a diverse
academic community.
Our quest for academic excellence is inextricably bound up with these
signature qualities. Like any other great university, Duke depends
on attracting outstanding faculty, students, and administrative
leaders. But it is how their talents and energies work together that
matters, and Duke is a particularly
conducive place for working together, for interdisciplinary collaboration,
for the transmission of values and experience through participation
in an intergenerational community in which we learn from each other
(and challenge each other to excel).
These relatively intangible qualities require careful
cultivation, and that work goes on as a function of leadership at
many levels, an essential backdrop to the development and execution
of our academic plans. We recognize, of course, that none of these
signature characteristics is fully formed or free of tensions and
contradictions. Raising them to consciousness helps us understand
these tensions, and the work that remains to be done to build a distinctive,
inclusive community devoted to academic excellence, not for its own
sake, but as part of a fabric of stewardship, citizenship, and reverence
for the gifts that have been assembled here. This is the entelechy
that makes Duke a special place—a place like no other—to
teach, learn, discover, create, and offer care.
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