2008 Woodie Awards
Together at last
convocation address
By: Richard Brodhead
Issue date: 8/24/07 Section: Columns
Last update: 8/24/07 at 9:25 AM EST
Last update: 8/24/07 at 9:25 AM EST
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Class of 2011, what a happy morning: You're together at last. As recently as March, you were total strangers randomly distributed across this country and the world, with nothing in common but great promise. But now comes the real thing, the assembly of a critical mass of highly combustible talent, the Duke freshman class 1,700 strong, ready to befriend each other and spark each other to an explosion of personal growth. Men and women of 2011, my warmest welcome to Duke.
Like other schools, we talk about these first few days in the language of orientation. As you know, orientation is a compass word-orient means the East, from oriri, to rise; and the word suggests that you'll be lost in space, disoriented, until you learn the coordinates for charting your way. You'll learn many things this week, but my job could be to name the cardinal points of Duke's compass, the values you'll need to observe to navigate this new world. As with the compass, there are four.
First, Duke is a place for excellence. Whether it's on our famous athletic teams or our no-less-famous research activities, this place becomes Duke to the extent that people recognize the difference between the best and the very good and are willing to work the extra measure to achieve the best.
Second, Duke is a place of community. Duke is different from some places where people are driven to outstanding achievement in that at Duke, it's not about doing better than someone else. This is an amazingly friendly place, a place where people of extraordinarily various backgrounds learn to accomplish things together they couldn't achieve on their own. You will find it so. Help keep it so!
Third, every thing we do at Duke is done for the sake of education. By education we mean the continual deepening of your grasp of the world and strengthening of your capacities to act intelligently in that world. Please don't settle for a lesser goal. If you have a smaller aim, you'll get a Duke degree, but you won't get a Duke education.
Viewing Comments 1 - 7 of 11
Mudlark
posted 8/24/07 @ 12:30 PM EST
Wherever anyone from the Duke Admin or BOT speaks, the specter of their conduct during the Duke Lacrosse frame-up is going to linger beside them...
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. (Continued…)
Clapton
posted 8/24/07 @ 2:45 PM EST
A lot of us alums still care. We won't shut up. Learn about capitalization, run-on sentences and the difference between "its" and "it's" before posting again. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 8/24/07 @ 3:05 PM EST
I think it is quite obvious that the people using this website to trash President Brodhead are mainly the LAX players, their families and friends, and some others who want to use the LAX case to strike a blow against the liberal influences that exist on college campuses all across the nation. (Continued…)
Clapton
posted 8/24/07 @ 5:11 PM EST
I'm a Duke alum (1979). Not a lacrosse player, or a player's friend or family member. No interest at all in lacrosse. I'm a Democrat and, by most measures, a liberal one. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 8/24/07 @ 7:33 PM EST
To the editors of The Chronicle:
As you can see from the comments above by Clapton and a few others, your readers are being held captive by a small group of fanatics who have a one-sided view of the LAX case and who apparently have decided that they are going to keep bashing President Brodhead and those members of the faculty who signed the listening statement again and again and again and again and again ad nauseam until they get whatever it is that they want. (Continued…)
Locomotive Breath
posted 8/24/07 @ 11:16 PM EST
I've been associated with Duke, man and boy, since 1975. That's 32 years including 9 on campus. I have three degrees from Duke and know far more about Duke than you ever will including how far it has fallen from what it used to be. (Continued…)
Rudy
posted 8/25/07 @ 11:01 AM EST
Dear Anonymous,
If there was rot in part of the structure of your house I doubt you would advocate just painting over it and ignoring it. Many people who love Duke want to correct a serious problem. (Continued…)
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