Duke University Year In Review - Celebrating Cultures

1993: Duke launches the Black Faculty Strategic Initiative with the goal of doubling the number of black faculty (44) by 2003. The goal is met a year ahead of schedule, in 2002, with a total of 88 black faculty members.
1993: The Women In Science and Engineering Group (WISE), an all-volunteer organization composed of women graduate students and post-doctoral associates, forms to improve the climate for women in sciences and engineering at Duke.
1994: The Center for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Life opens on campus. In 1995, Duke becomes the first university in the South to extend employee benefits to domestic partners of gay employees. In 2000, officials say same-sex unions can be held in Duke Chapel.
1998: President Keohane encourages unprecedented collaboration between Duke and N.C. Central University, Durham’s prominent historically black institution of higher education, and in leading racial discussions in Durham with Julius Chambers, the former chancellor of NCCU.
1998: The School of Medicine ranks first among leading national medical schools in diversity, with 25 percent of the entering class consisting of underrepresented minorities – twice the national average.
2001: African-Americans make up 11.2 percent of the freshman class, up from 7.8 percent five years prior and among the highest percentages of Duke’s peer group of institutions.
2002: The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, in a survey of the nation's top universities, ranks Duke top in the nation for its success in integrating African-American students and faculty.
2002: The Graduate School’s innovative outreach program attracts top minority candidates. The entering class includes 89 U.S. minority students (14 percent), of whom 29 are African-American. Between 2000-2002, Duke awards Ph.D.s to 27 African-American students, by far the highest two-year total in Duke history.
2002: Duke starts offering undergraduate financial aid to foreign students, which increases the caliber of the pool of international applicants.
2003: The prestigious American Economic Association’s Summer Minority Program for undergraduates considering graduate school selects Duke’s Department of Economics as host for a minimum of three years, starting in 2004.

When Bill Clinton opened his office in Harlem, some residents hailed him as "America's first black president," others were thinking, "There goes the neighborhood"--and John Jackson was capturing the controversy on tape. One of Duke's newest faculty members, Jackson, author of Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America, is working on a documentary about the gentrification of the legendary community and its residents’ wildly varied responses to their changing neighborhood.

Jackson is one of two new cultural anthropology faculty members who attempt to use an artistic medium to achieve scholarly ends. His goal, he said, is to find ways "to integrate my identity as an urban anthropologist with my other half--my identity as an ethnographic filmmaker. Duke is a place that seems amenable to me thinking through the connections between those two identities." The other new faculty member, Deborah Thomas--Jackson's wife--also found the university a crucible for forging academic and artistic pursuits. A scholar, social activist and former dancer with the ensemble “Urban Bush Women,” Thomas seeks to integrate all her passions in studying how artists attempt to bring about social change.

Besides bringing new depth to the Duke faculty and curriculum, the hiring of John Jackson and Deborah Thomas last fall helped Duke reach an important milestone one year ahead of schedule. In 1993, Duke adopted a Black Faculty Strategic Initiative aimed at doubling the number of black faculty from 44 to at least 88 by 2003. Under Provost Peter Lange’s leadership, it actually met the goal in 2002. Meanwhile, related initiatives had brought the diversity of Duke’s undergraduate and graduate student bodies to all-time highs. University leaders caution that much work needs to be done to continue recruiting and retaining top minority faculty and students, but the achievements show clear progress toward Duke’s ultimate goals: “ . to draw the best faculty to Duke, along with the best students; to create an environment that engages, and hence retains, these talented teachers and researchers; and to ensure that our education prepares our students for life in a diverse society."