When two of higher education's all stars sit down to chat, what do they talk about?
For Frank Rhodes, president emeritus of Cornell University, and Duke's soon-to-be-president-emerita Nan Keohane, the hot topics ranged from the nature of the undergraduate experience to the challenges higher education currently faces in terms of affirmative action and diversity on campus.
For over an hour Tuesday afternoon, Rhodes and Keohane discussed many of the issues they have faced as university presidents in a forum titled "Higher Education: Emboldened or Embattled?" hosted by Duke Magazine and the Office of the Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations.
The discussion focused on Keohane's experiences at the University as her term ends, as Rhodes, who led Cornell from 1977 to 1995, asked questions gleaned in part from his own experience as the head of a major research university.
Rhodes commended Keohane on her accomplishments at Duke, noting that "the student body is by any standard more diverse and more talented than ever before," and commending the strides the University has made in international programs and the development of the undergraduate experience during her tenure.
"We have really tried to make sure that the special quality of Duke's undergraduate education is the same throughout this period, even as we try to make it better, and that does have a lot to do with the centrality of the residential experience," Keohane said. "We've been really proud of the ways in which extracurricular activities for Duke students are almost overwhelming in their number and their variety.... Community service is a very important part of what we do, [and] we pride ourselves on our magnificent athletics, as well we should--but in the end of course, the core is in the classroom."
The forum's title prompted Rhodes to turn the discussion toward the Supreme Court's recent decision about affirmative action admissions practices at the University of Michigan, where he acknowledged that current standards had become "embattled."
"We are very fortunate in the way the Court decided the issue," Keohane said. "It's always struck me as extremely odd that we might reach a situation when we would be allowed to take everything else in the world into account... but we could not take into account your racial background... in a country for which that has always been one of the most important divides and sources of tension and sources of opportunity."
Although Duke has not faced any direct challenges to its admissions process, Rhodes noted that the University has made a conscious effort to improve diversity on its own campus--but that diversity by the numbers does not automatically equal a truly integrated campus in every respect.
"One of the most significant difficulties is how you walk the fine line between creating situations and creating contexts in which students are encouraged to venture into areas which you know will be educational for them, and allowing them to make their own way and find their own pathway," Keohane said, agreeing with Rhodes' assessment. "You also can't say we are going to force you by some continuing unrelenting pressure to continually randomly divide yourselves up again."
Throughout the discussion, both Keohane and Rhodes were acutely aware of their stature at the top of American higher education leadership. John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, called each the "outstanding American university president" of their respective eras, and audience members seemed duly impressed.
Rhodes, who stepped down from the top position at Cornell nearly a decade ago, offered the most telling insight of the afternoon into what it means to be a president emeritus and no longer president of a major university as he commended Keohane and her legacy.
"I think, President Keohane, that you will never leave Duke," he said. "In a real sense you have changed the landscape."
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