In line with one of the six themes of Duke's new strategic plan, "Making a Difference," the Kenan Institute for Ethics hosted a symposium Friday to examine topics regarding "knowledge in the service of society."
Faculty, administrators and students met to discuss the interpretation and implementation of the theme, and accentuated the idea that knowledge is a two-way street.
"The goal of this symposium is to take six students in civic engagement and put that in the context of a research university," said Noah Pickus, associate director of the Kenan Institute and associate professor of public policy.
Although the symposium addressed specific issues relating to the six students who spoke on service as it relates to campus culture, its primary focus was on the questions raised by defining-and potentially bureaucratizing-knowledge in the service of society at Duke.
President Richard Brodhead addressed the difficulty of pinning down notions of knowledge and service as well as spelling out definitions of civil engagement.
"That might seem to suggest that knowledge is in service to society," he said. "We put these words together as if they go together."
Brodhead added that although it is usually considered worthwhile, knowledge does not always serve society in a positive manner.
"There are a lot of people in the history of the world that made a difference," said Sam Wells, dean of the Duke Chapel. "[The question is], what differences are good differences?"
Members of the symposium also discussed the issue of translational research or making theoretical research practical.
Provost Peter Lange said translational research makes knowledge accessible to the community and also draws on outside problems as subjects for research.
"We need to recognize that [translation] sets certain challenges," Lange said. "How do we learn, in fact, to 'translate?'"
He added that universities like Duke have to strive to reach the public, but in such a way that they are not "dumbing down" their information.
Ultimately, there is a difference between having a degree and translating that degree into service, said Dr. Robert Cook-Deegan, director of the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy and professor of public policy.
"Every medical center has this conflict," he said. "They have clinicians and they have medical doctors."
Symposium members then considered the role of universities in serving society and broached the issue of opportunism. If civic engagement is necessitated at universities like Duke, then serving society's need-a prominent idea behind "Making a Difference"-could be lost in the fray.
"This University should not try to pioneer the bureaucratization of service," Brodhead said.
He used the college application process as an example, calling it a "culture of juvenile achievement" in which students put as many activities and service projects as they can on their resumes in order to be seen in the best light. Ultimately, discussion is the best way to resolve issues of definition and interpretation, Brodhead said. "I'm really not a person who loves slogans," he said. "Let's have an argument [about it]."
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