President Nan Keohane's announcement Sunday that she plans to step down as Duke's eighth president in June 2004 ended months--in fact, years--of speculation regarding her future.
As a successful administrator, talented academic and proven fundraiser, Keohane sparked regular rumors that she might leave the University--for another academic institution in her early years, or, more recently, for retirement. Keohane said Sunday, however, that until last fall, such speculation was little more than hot air.
"There were a lot rumors that were swirling around, and some of them were premature from any point of view," she said. "I said some time ago that I would stay through the end of the [capital] campaign, and that was the only firm thing that I had said and meant. But that left a great deal of scope at the other end. Some people interpreted that to mean that Jan. 1, 2004 I was going to step down."
Keohane's 1993 appointment to the presidency surprised many observers of Duke and of higher education, who saw the then-president of Wellesley College-a small, all-female, liberal arts college in Massachusetts-as a risky hire. Keohane quickly won over many of her skeptics, however, surviving major campus battles over such controversial issues as residential life and academic tenure.
The result was a flurry of rumors that other universities involved in presidential searches, particularly Harvard University, might lure her away; The Boston Globe called her a front-runner. But Keohane, in the middle of a billion-dollar capital campaign, expressed adoration for her current institution and was quick to dispel such discussion.
"I'm not interested in moving," Keohane said in August 2000, as Harvard was beginning its search to replace Neil Rudenstein. "I made a commitment to a lot of people that I want to stay through the campaign. I am also quite intrigued by a couple of things we have going on in our planning exercises."
Even as recently as last month--two months after she revealed her decision to the Board of Trustees leadership--Keohane remained tight-lipped about any future career plans. Acknowledging during a February interview that many campus figures had approached her about the possibility of her stepping down, she said she had no career plans after The Campaign for Duke ends Dec. 31, 2003.
"Once the campaign is over, it will be time to think about new leadership," Keohane said last month. "But how soon, and how quickly I move on, when we launch a search--all those things--that's one of those things I really need to think about. It's conceivable it could be 2004, 2005, 2006. I don't think it would be 2012."
At that point, however, Keohane had already informed Trustee Chair Harold "Spike" Yoh and the rest of the Board of Trustees' executive committee of her decision.
Yesterday, Keohane attributed the silence regarding her career change to a wish that the Trustees be among the first people to know. She told them Saturday during the Board's annual retreat, in an "emotional moment," and Sunday morning began calling faculty members, student leaders, alumni and others to spread the word.
Still, many people saw signs--beyond the imminent end of the campaign--that Keohane was planning to leave her Allen Building corner office.
She often communicated a desire to return to the classroom and the library to teach and to produce significant scholarship before she retired "for good." She noted Sunday that her predecessor, President Emeritus Keith Brodie, taught during his tenure, but that it was more difficult for her to shift gears. She already has plans to teach a political science class next spring.
Moreover, many community members, while lauding Keohane's evaluation of the status of women at Duke, saw in the Women's Initiative an attempt to start discussion and enact change before Duke's first female president stepped down. In a speech before the Academic Council last month, Keohane herself expressed hope that the initiative's findings would become part of her legacy.
"I think the fact that I am a woman made it easier to open that topic and made people feel enthusiastic and free in talking about it," she said Sunday. "I know it's been helpful to a number of women undergraduates, staff members, faculty members who look at the president or a dean or department chair and say, 'Wow, she can do it, maybe I can do it too,' and I'm pleased by that."
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