Not too many students knew who Jim Clack was when President Nan Keohane announced that he would become the interim Vice President of Student Affairs.
But in the course of a year, Clack has become one of the most popular administrators on campus, a man who colleagues and students will remember as a strong and admirable leader.
"Dr. Clack is one of the best people I've worked with at Duke," said Duke Student Government president Jordan Bazinsky, a senior. "People think Jim Clack and they think only positive adjectives."
But this year has not been an easy one for Clack. During first semester, Clack witnessed the failure of alcohol-free programming and a rash of students taken to the emergency room for over-intoxication. Clack estimated that alcohol issues consumed over 70 percent of his agenda first semester.
"In the beginning, I was overwhelmed," Clack said. "There were so many demands and so many things to do and there was so little time to do it. It was really hard to fix a problem when you don't know what the problem is."
Clack said that he learned a lot first semester and faulted himself for making an excessive amount of student meetings and not delegating enough work.
But by second semester, he became a much more efficient administrator-delegating work to committees and streamlining his personal schedule.
"I had an urge to be as available as possible and consequently I was attending meetings night after night," said Clack. "I had to learn to say no."
Clack admits that his job was made more difficult by his interim status.
"There's something about the word interim that means 'not really,'" said Clack, who will return to his position as director of Counseling and Psychological Services this summer. "There's certainly an element of being a lame duck the moment you start."
Throughout the year, some student life decisions were made without Clack's consultation. One of the most prominent exclusions was Clack's absence from the addition of Goal Seven to "Building on Excellence," the University's long-range plan. The section, which the Board of Trustees demanded be added to the plan, featured the vision of student life at Duke and was authored by Provost Peter Lange, President Nan Keohane and Vice Provost and Student Affairs vice presidential candidate Judith Ruderman.
During the planning period for that document, Clack wrote a separate document that concentrated on the operations of the division of Student Affairs. But the impact of this report will be dependent on the vision of the next vice president.
Despite the difficulties of his interim position, colleagues said that they never questioned Clack's strong leadership and praised him for his hard work.
"I think he's done a great job. It's difficult to take on a challenge like he did," said Barbara Baker, dean of student development. "By deciding that he was going to be an active participant in student affairs rather than just a place holder, he was asking to be in the spotlight."
Though Clack made progress on many of the goals he set for himself, he feels he was not able to make as large of an impact as desired.
Others noted that considering his short-term, Clack did a excellent job.
"Only so much can be accomplished in one year, and I think he made a lot of progress on the alcohol and social space issues in terms of receiving two significant reports and making some initial decisions about implementation," said Keohane. Clack looks back on the year without any regrets, and said he is proud to have had the opportunity to serve the University and students. He also thanked Keohane and students for their faith in him and the opportunity to serve.
"If I had to do it all over again, I'd do it," he said. "I might do things a little differently, but this has truly been an honor. I really like challenges and this certainly has been a challenge."
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