Casting directors for The Apprentice interviewed more than 100 of Duke's graduate students, faculty and alumni Thursday morning for a chance to be a contestant on the popular reality show.
Seated within a fully constructed kitchen set on the stage at the Griffith Film Theater Monday afternoon, five people staged a casual conversation about community. The multi-generational and multi-ethnic panelists quipped about everything from 1950s radio to evolving notions of diversity.
The discussion, sponsored by the Samuel DuBois Cook Society, focused on the ironies of fostering communities while still promoting diversity. President Richard Brodhead and Johnnetta Cole, president of the historically black Bennett College for Women, recalled an era when universities were closed communities that did not admit minority students.
Pointing out the value of being surrounded by people with multiple backgrounds, they spoke of how admitting black students in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement enriched academic inquiry.
“That turned out to be more educational and more fun at the same time,” Brodhead said. “You don’t want to assemble a community that’s only diverse on paper.”
In fostering interaction among racial groups, universities could look to the struggles of previous generations to learn which questions to ask and when to provoke people beyond their comfort areas. With agreement from the other participants, Brodhead noted that although schools cannot structure such interaction, they have a responsibility to encourage it.
“I guess I do not believe in values-neutral universities,” he said. “Some form of moral education is at the heart of a serious institution.”
“If we cannot identify some decent human values than we are in serious trouble as a University,” agreed Cole, who was later honored with the Cook Society distinguished service award.
Junior Vivian Wang noted the resistance students have to probing their value systems—particularly when it involves racial or socio-economic differences. “Students don’t feel compelled to have to know certain things. A certain kind of ignorance doesn’t have consequences,” she said.
Part of the issue, Cole noted, is that when different groups interact, someone has the “power to include.” Invitations often set up unequal relationships, panelists said.
Lee Baker, associate professor of cultural anthropology, reminded the panelists about how diversity extends far beyond race and must be considered as such—an idea met by echoes of agreement.
“It’s just a wonderful liberation to define diversity beyond skin color—to then start looking at each other as individuals,” said Rebecca Reyes, coordinator of the Latino Health Project.
The Cook Society also honored Dr. Sandy Williams, dean of the School of Medicine; Bradley Simmons, director of the Duke Djembe and Afro-Cuban Ensembles; Judith White, assistant vice president for campus services; senior Julie Hamilton; junior Venis Wilder; and medical school and Fuqua School of Business student Staci Arnold.
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