Canadian connection strong at University

With a flow of goods and services adding up to approximately $1.2 billion daily, the United States and Canada have the world's largest trading relationship. With students, professors and influential speakers crossing the Canadian border each year to learn and teach, Duke has its own "trading" relationship with the United States' northern neighbor.

        

     Just look at the facts.

        

     Canadian students make up a significant percentage of the University's international population, with 116 current undergraduate and graduate students. Additionally, there is a Duke graduate teaching at every major Canadian university, and the largest percentage of international Duke alumni are Canadian.

        

     The University has been nurturing this give-and-take relationship with Canada for decades, mainly building on its well-reputed Canadian Studies Program. Established in 1973, the program is the oldest of its kind in the nation. It has been a key factor in building the University's reputation in Canada, helping it become "as well known as Harvard and Yale," according to Michael Byers, director of the Center for Canadian Studies.

        

        

     "[Political Science Professor] Alan Kornberg is engaging in the only major study of voting patterns in this year's Canadian federal election," Byers explained. "It's a massive study, and it will be incredibly influential.... This reflects back on Duke because it will be quoted in papers across Canada and only strengthen our reputation more."

        

     Political science graduate student Tom Scotto, an American, is currently studying the fragmentation of Canada's political party system.

        

     "What makes [Canada] sort of fascinating is that it's one of the world's oldest democracies that seems to always have its troubles: separatist movements [and] many of the same issues as America like multiculturalism and bilingualism," Scotto said. "These issues that the United States is only scratching the surface of, Canada is and has been dealing with. It's also a country that partially defines its identity by its differences with the United States."

        

     Professor John Thompson, chair of the history department and a Canadian Studies instructor, said his aim in educating students about Canada is to give them a perspective similar to Scotto's.

        

      "I want to teach them about Canada, but in teaching about Canada, I'm also hoping to teach them about themselves so that they can analyze the United States and its place in the world," said Thompson, a Canada native.

        

     Aside from the program, individuals north of the border are also influential in establishing ties between Canada and the University.

        

     "We have a very active Duke Alumni Club in Canada," said Gilbert Merkx, vice provost for international affairs. "Members of the club, some of whom are parents rather than alumni, have been very helpful with putting us in contact with people who can come here as speakers."

        

     Canadian Gretchen Doores, a freshman, said she decided to come to Duke predominately because of alumni influence.

        

     "The first time I ever really heard about and got interested in Duke was at an alumni meeting in a hotel in Toronto," Doores said. "I met a ton of alumni who were Canadian. They were all amazing people who had done very well... so that inspired me because I thought, 'I want to be an alumna like that.'"

        

     Doores, however, said even Canadian students who have no knowledge of Duke's Canadian Studies program or contact with Duke alumni know about the University for other reasons.

        

     "When most people hear the name, they associate Duke with either the medical school or the basketball team," Doores said. "When I told people that I was applying here, they knew it for one or the other of those things."

        

     The growing influence of the alumni club and the Center for Canadian Studies, along with the continued exodus of many Duke graduates to professorships in Canadian universities, promises to broaden the University's "trading" relationship with Canada--possibly as soon as next week.

        

     "We are having a major visit from a high-level delegation from the University of Montreal who are coming to meet with deans and directors of programs," Merkx said. "It's a very fine institution, and I suspect that we will have a deepening of academic relations that will be followed by student exchanges."