Faculty reflect on Brodhead's tenure, praise leadership and global outreach efforts

The Devils took down the Florida State Seminoles, previously undefeated in the ACC, Saturday at Indoor Cameron Stadium
The Devils took down the Florida State Seminoles, previously undefeated in the ACC, Saturday at Indoor Cameron Stadium

As Duke’s presidential search committee begins looking for President Richard Brodhead’s successor, faculty reflect on his lasting legacy and influence.

Brodhead—who worked for 32 years at Yale University before assuming his position as president of Duke—was chosen as the successor for President Nannerl Keohane in 2004. Since then, he has focused on advancing Duke’s reputation as a worldwide leader in higher education through his emphasis on institutional advancement, globalization and attracting a broader range of faculty and students, wrote John Burness—visiting professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy and former senior vice president for public affairs and government relations—in an email. 

Under Brodhead’s leadership, the University has seen the launch of DukeEngage—a global and national outreach program—in 2007 along with the Duke Forward fundraising campaign in 2012. Brodhead’s tenure was also marked by negative national attention from the Duke lacrosse case in 2006 and from the research misconduct case involving Anil Potti, a physician who previously served on the Duke faculty. Despite the ups and downs of his career, however, several of Brodhead’s colleagues said they are proud of his accomplishments as president and are optimistic regarding his lasting influence.

“I think under President Keohane’s leadership, Duke [first] moved into the top echelons of US and world universities,” wrote Prasad Kasibhatla, professor of environmental chemistry at the Nicholas School of the Environment and member of the presidential search committee in 2003, in an email. “President Brodhead has solidified and enhanced Duke’s standing in this regard... I will be sad to see President Brodhead step down, but his legacy will endure in the years to come.”

In June 2003, the presidential search committee that sought Keohane’s successor—headed by Robert Steel, vice chair of the Board of Trustees at the time—released a Criteria and Qualifications Statement to direct its search. In the statement, the committee emphasized finding a candidate who could, among other items, build upon Duke’s developing collaborative academic culture, growing international presence and advances in minority representation and social progress. 

Both Kasibhatla and Burness wrote that Brodhead has tackled his goals as president through his focus on “knowledge in the service of society.”

“President Brodhead’s signature theme of ‘knowledge in the service of society’ has served to shape Duke’s teaching and research missions, and I think has been extremely positive in defining the core essence of what Duke should be,” Kasibhatla wrote.

Burness added that Brodhead’s future for Duke became evident early in his career with the launch of a new fundraising campaign for student financial aid in 2007. Over the course of a year, the effort reached its goal of raising over $300 million—funds that were later used to support students in undergraduate and postgraduate study programs at Duke.

“[This initiative] took on real importance for students and the University when the economy collapsed in 2008,” Burness wrote. “Although Provost Lange and Executive Vice President Trask played major roles, I do not think [Brodhead] gets sufficient credit for leading Duke’s emergence from 2008 as a stronger institution.”

Other faculty have also pointed to Brodhead’s role in recruiting new educational leadership initiatives, with a focus on interdisciplinary studies. During his tenure, the University launched several interdisciplinary groups, including the Duke Global Health Institute, the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and the Information Initiative at Duke.

“In addition to his emphasis on enriching the quality of the undergraduate experience, President Brodhead has been very much attuned to building Duke’s reputation as one of America’s leading research universities,” wrote Randall Kramer, deputy director for the Duke Global Health Institute and professor of environmental economics and global health, in an email. “He has done this by recruiting outstanding deans who value and support faculty research in their schools, by stressing the global reach of the University and by strongly supporting the interdisciplinary institutes and initiatives, which have become a defining signature of Duke.”

Burness and Kramer added that globalization has also been a key component of Brodhead’s vision as president. In addition to the DGHI, Brodhead spearheaded the launch of the popular DukeEngage initiative as well as Duke Kunshan University.

Other global educational initiatives include University-led Massive Open Online Courses and the establishment of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.

“[He also] emphasized early that Duke needed to be not only a national leader intellectually and academically, but in a rapidly changing world, Duke needed to have a broader global profile,” Burness explained. “Though the jury is still out on [Duke Kunshan University] and likely will be for several more years, it is a bold and risky initiative that may well have significant long term benefits for Duke.“

Burness also noted that Brodhead was successful in promoting social justice issues and built upon the progress of President Keohane, who was recognized as a pioneer for LGBTQ rights in the South during her presidency. 

During Brodhead’s tenure, the University has seen many demonstrations and protests in support of social progression, most recently from the Duke Students and Workers in Solidarity movement in April. Despite criticisms against Brodhead during many of these incidents, Burness wrote that he believes Brodhead has continually acted as an advocate of free speech throughout his career.

“Very early in his presidency he was criticized (more than 90,000 signatures on an e-petition) for permitting a student conference that was pro-Palestinian,” Burness wrote. “At the same time that he supported students’ right to have their conference, he made clear that the University served its students and the broader society by providing a forum for a wide range of views (there were several pro-Israeli events during the period leading up to the student conference).”

Despite student dissent against construction efforts on campus, Burness also said that he is confident faculty and students will benefit from the over $1 billion invested in on-going and completed construction projects around the University’s main campus. Jerry Reiter, professor of statistical science, added in an email that these construction efforts have also contributed to attracting and retaining global leaders in research.

Burness noted that another key aspect of Brodhead’s career was his emphasis on reaching the Durham community.

“[Brodhead] deserves a good deal of credit (as does [Tallman] Trask) for significant leadership in the transformation of Downtown Durham,” he wrote. “The decision to have more than 2000 employees work downtown and major investments in DPAC, Full Frame and a number of facilities and programs that have transformed Durham was both smart and strategic and catalyzed much of the city’s nationally recognized development as a culturally vibrant and edgy community.”

Brodhead’s time at Duke, however, has also been marked by several events that received substantial attention from national media, much of which has been negative.

One of the most prominent scandals the University has faced was the Duke lacrosse case, during which Burness served as senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. As a whole, Burness wrote that he believes Brodhead handled that crisis in an appropriate manner.

“I may not be the most objective person on his handling of crises, but in general I thought he handled the [lacrosse] situation—with the exception of reaching out more to the families of the players, which he has acknowledged—about as well as it might have been,” he wrote.

Kasibhatla wrote that, despite the lacrosse scandal, he believes the University’s athletic department is now in a much better position in the years since and that “Duke is looked upon as a leader in having a great athletic program without sacrificing high academic standards.”

Burness, however, noted that he thinks the University did not properly respond to a national scandal involving Anil Potti, a former cancer researcher at Duke. During investigations that began in 2009 and were resolved only last year, it was revealed that Potti engaged in scientific misconduct by promoting and publishing inaccurate data on a new cancer treatment.

“I do think the Potti scandal in the Health System is an example of an important issue that was not well handled, although it is not clear to me what role if any Brodhead played or should have played in that,” Burness wrote. “That said, it is a major scandal/embarrassment that occurred on his watch.”

Ultimately, both Burness and Kasibhatla wrote that they believe Brodhead’s actions as president will be remembered well by the University and its global and national partners.

“On balance, I suspect history will treat his presidency well,” Burness wrote. “Duke has experienced record admissions and fund raising under Brodhead which usually are metrics used to assess institutional strength and presidential leadership. The school emerged from 2008 in relatively good financial shape and because of the Duke Forward campaign, the incredible construction program and the transformation of Durham, Duke will remain an attractive school for students and faculty in the future. Brodhead deserves credit on all of those fronts.”

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