Hundreds of Duke employees shared stories and laughs with President Richard Brodhead in the Griffith Film Theater Tuesday.
Brodhead's friendly interactions set the tone for the event, in which he expressed the importance of staff contributions to the University and discussed Duke's relationship with Durham. Duke employees at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., were also able to enjoy his stories via Internet broadcast.
Brodhead praised the working culture at Duke, noting the employees' compassion in their work.
"A university where everybody did their work but nobody put an extra ounce of human warmth in it would be a very unpleasant place to go," he said.
Brodhead shared the story of Duke Press IT Specialist Marcus Butts-a Presidential Award winner-who not only helps fix broken computers but also helps people deal with their "psychological meltdowns" when they encounter computer malfunctions.
"He did more than his job and he did it with all this warmth," Brodhead said.
University employees have also reached out into the Durham community in a variety of ways, he said. He noted projects ranging from helping to improve community health to building a soccer field for Durham students.
Approximately 18,000 Duke employees are Durham residents, Brodhead said, noting that 10 percent of the city's population works at the University and about 30 percent of the population is supported by the University.
"Durham is not something separate from Duke-Durham is in large part made up of people from Duke," he said.
After his speech Brodhead entertained questions from staff that were submitted prior to the event and others raised by the audience. The questions ranged from banning smoking on the Duke Medicine premises to the new Employee Tuition Assistance Program.
An audience member also questioned Brodhead regarding the lack of staff representation on the Campus Culture Initiative steering committee.
"It focused truly on the undergraduate culture," he answered. "We require [students] to reside on campus, the culture is an all-day and all-night experience.... It's justified to be focused on undergraduates."
He added that the committee conducted many interviews in February with a variety of Duke staff.
Carolyn Leith, staff assistant of the film/video/digital program, however, said she was not satisfied with this answer.
"He fluffed a little bit by saying it was undergraduate culture," she said. "The staff interacts a lot with the students and have a different perspective to offer."
But Leith noted she was nonetheless very impressed with the event and enjoyed Brodhead's speech.
"It was wonderful-I really enjoyed it," she said. "He's marvelous, I don't think you can ask for a better president."
Jennie Goetz, a human resources representative, said she found the event very pleasant.
"His communication was very sincere," she said.
Sean Moroney contributed to this story.
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