After Friday's announcement that Penn provost Vincent Price will become Duke's next president, The Chronicle spoke with students about their thoughts on the announcement.
"I was glad that they selected someone who had a background in academia. The president is in charge of faculty, so I think he should have the ability to empathize and understand what their job is like. He seems like someone who has had a life in education, and he's done some really interesting research over the years at Penn."—first-year Bo Carlson
"We're seniors, so it seems a little inconsequential for us. I don't know much about the new president."—senior Symonne Singleton
"I'm looking forward to seeing what changes he'll bring to the University and how he'll keep us moving forward."—sophomore Mitchell Abrams
"I don't really feel like we have all that much interaction with Brodhead as students. I went to a dinner where he was there, and he seemed very nice and open to talk, and he seemed like a very responsive administrator during the Allen protests, but I don't really think it's going to affect people all that much."—junior Alina Ahmad
"I was more looking forward to a person of color, whether it was a woman or not, because Duke had a female president, but all of them have been white. Right now, it's 10 white presidents, which is very disproportionate. That's not our goal!"—sophomore Hadeel Abdelhy
"I'm sure he's a nice guy, and I'm sure he's extremely successful, but I was looking forward to having a little more diversity. I think it definitely has the potential to impact the environment [of Duke]. I know that sometimes it's easy to forget that the presidents do have impact, but a lot of the changes they make have the power to impact day-to-day lives. And especially their making of executive decisions to do things like construction work or implement certain policies. That's a big thing that people sometimes just don't think about."—sophomore Emily Brockman
"I just know he [introduced] Lin-Manuel Miranda, so I assume he's a funny guy."—senior Tim Luu
"It seems like his experiences at Penn align with Duke's mission and priorities. I'm excited to see if he changes the course of the University or keeps it on the same trajectory."—first-year Elliott Davis
Claire Ballentine contributed reporting.
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