Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series evaluating DukeEngage since its inception in 2007. This article analyzes the relationship between DukeEngage and the Duke brand. In Part 3, The Chronicle will illustrate critiques of the program and discuss DukeEngage’s responsive strategic plan. In Part 1, The Chronicle focused on the DukeEngage experience.
It may seem unthinkable that DukeEngage was ever anything besides a cornerstone of the Duke experience, but the program’s origins are part of the response to the 2006 lacrosse scandal.
In creating DukeEngage, administrators intended in part to offset branding issues presented by the lacrosse scandal through building a program that put Duke in a positive light. The program sought to address the University’s damaged brand and to spark a shift in campus culture through civic engagement.
Through DukeEngage, Duke emphasizes civic engagement in a bigger way than any institution in American higher education, DukeEngage Director Eric Mlyn said. At its creation Spring 2007, the University set ambitious goals.
Administrators estimated that at least 25 percent of Duke undergraduates would participate in the program during its first five years. This program aimed to serve as a concrete manifestation of one of Duke’s goals in the University mission: knowledge in the service of society.
‘The Big Idea’
Months after three men’s lacrosse players were falsely accused of rape in 2006, Provost Peter Lange convened the Big Idea taskforce. The taskforce was charged with generating an initiative that would instill passion for learning and affecting positive change, consistent with the University’s strategic plan. Amid the national controversy, Duke saw a drop in its U.S. News and World Report rankings—from No. 5 in 2005 to No. 8 in 2006—and a 3.3 percent dip in the number of applicants in 2007.
“What lacrosse forced us to do as an institution was to look at ourselves very, very deeply with open eyes and rediscover what mattered to us,” Mlyn said. “What mattered to us was that Duke was a campus that was deeply civically engaged in a variety of ways.”
Mlyn, who was the director of the Robertson Scholars Program at the time, led the taskforce.
The Big Idea began with a suggestion related to increasing study abroad options, he said, but it evolved into a program centered on civic engagement and service learning. President Richard Brodhead had arrived at Duke only two years prior, and upon learning about the immersive summer opportunities available to merit scholars, he asked about the possibility of expanding that set of opportunities to the entire student body.
“We wanted something that was big enough to impact students, the communities we serve and the culture of the University,” Mlyn said. “We felt like giving students experiences was the way to go.”
As DukeEngage was conceived, administrators also hoped to promote a readjustment of the Duke culture paradigm. The impact on culture is hard to measure, Mlyn said, but it could mean something as simple as influencing conversations between students in their residence halls and on the bus. DukeEngage also presents Duke as a place that cares for how students grow, said Edward Skloot, professor of the practice of public policy and director of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society. Skloot is also a member of the DukeEngage National Advisory Board.
A pillar of the brand
DukeEngage may have helped to alleviate some negative conceptions of Duke after the lacrosse scandal.
“DukeEngage has redefined Duke’s place in the American higher education landscape,” Mlyn said. “This was an effort to rediscover what this University believed in. That’s what we did.”
But beyond lacrosse and perhaps more importantly, DukeEngage has provided the University with a first-mover advantage in the higher education marketplace in terms of civic engagement, making Duke increasingly unique among its peers.
In many ways, the program set the standard for service learning integration in higher education.
“Increasingly, higher education needs to embrace putting the learning we do in the classroom into the real world,” said Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost for undergraduate education. “DukeEngage is one of the premiere ways we can do this.”
DukeEngage has shown itself to be a strong part of the Duke brand, as made evident in the admissions process. As the number of applications to Duke rose from 2007 to 2013, administrators have pointed to DukeEngage as one of the main reasons for the surge. For the first time in 2010, DukeEngage surpassed men’s basketball as the leading reason why students want to come to Duke, as noted in their application essays. The program continues to elicit excitement among prospective Blue Devils.
Among a random group of 11 admitted high school seniors interviewed for this story, eight identified DukeEngage as a main reason they applied to Duke. Ten of those 11 seniors said they knew about DukeEngage before they applied to Duke.
“Nearly a quarter of my ‘Why Duke?’ essay was about the program,” Amanda Sullivan, an accepted high school senior from New York, wrote in an email April 4.
Duke admissions staff, including Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag, could not be reached for comment as to how they promote DukeEngage to high schools and prospective students. But the program is featured prominently on the admissions website.
The program has also captured the attention of other universities, who contact DukeEngage to ask how the program was built, Mlyn said. He declined to mention specific universities. Still, no university has been able to replicate a program on the same scale of DukeEngage.
“Duke is known for this,” he said. “It’s the largest program of its kind in the world—not in terms of money spent on civic engagement but money spent on direct student experience.”
The reporter participated in DukeEngage South Africa-Durban 2012.
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