Duke University Alumni Magazine

     The gifts to Duke were made by alumni, parents, patients, friends, and other individuals, as well as by corporations and foundations.

     The Duke Endowment was the largest single source of support: Gifts from the philanthropic organization created by Duke's founder, James Buchanan Duke, totaled $28.9 million, or 13.1 percent of all gifts, representing an increase of 8.9 percent over the previous fiscal year.

     New giving records were set in virtually every category as Duke closed its books June 30 on the 1996-97 fund-raising drive. Total giving was up 21.4 percent from the previous fiscal year. Individual gifts (excluding bequests) increased 24 percent to reach $58.9 million. Corporate giving totaled $77.9 million, up 15.9 percent, and foundation giving was $29.8 million, up 17.5 percent. Annual giving from individuals reached a record $11.5 million, up 4.7 percent. Individual bequests jumped 114 percent to $12.6 million.

PARTNERS IN
LITERACY

     The America Reads literacy program that President Clinton announced last fall authorized $1.5 billion to fund reading specialists to train and supervise tutors and $1 billion to help recruit and organize tutors in one of the largest campaigns ever against illiteracy. Clinton's goal is to ensure that every child in America can read well by the end of the third grade. He called on colleges and universities to dedicate at least half of new college work-study funds to community service, including 100,000 work-study slots for reading tutors.

     Elaine Madison, director of Duke's Community Service Center, along with Duke's Community Affairs Office, is coordinating the university's participation in the project. She says both volunteer and work-study students will be recruited to participate and that Duke hopes to involve as many as fifty students in the project.

     Since the costs of training, reading materials, and transportation for the students are not covered in the work-study funds, Duke asked Glaxo Wellcome, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, to help. Glaxo Wellcome agreed to provide $20,000 for reading materials, teacher stipends, transportation, and training sessions.

    Research shows that 40 percent of America's fourth-graders cannot read at the basic level on challenging national reading assessments. Studies reveal that if students cannot read well by the third grade, their chances for later success are significantly diminished, including a greater likelihood of dropping out of school, fewer job opportunities, and increased delinquent behaviors.

    The Duke tutors will give individualized attention to children in kindergarten through third grade. These learning partners will meet with their young reading partners two to three times each week for about a half-hour. Volunteer tutors are expected to make a commitment of one semester, two hours a week, and the work-study tutors will be helping students for six to twelve hours each week for two semesters. All tutors will be trained and assisted by reading specialists in the public schools.

    "There's no doubt it will make a difference," says Lenora Smith, literacy teacher at the Morehead school. "Those kids are so excited that they're to have one person whose job is to work just with them. Just having the attention will make a difference."

WORKING MOTHERS
AND STRESS

     The research, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, studied 109 women working in clerical and customer service positions. The level of hormones associated with stress that are excreted in urine was measured over a two-day period. The women also completed a series of questionnaires, including demographic information, evaluation of stress at home and at work, and measures of social support. Researchers correlated hormone excretion levels with other factors, such as whether the women were single or married, whether they had children at home, and the number of children in the household.

     All participants showed a significant increase in levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine, known as catecholamines, during the workday, and there was little, if any, change from workday to evening levels. In contrast, other studies have shown that men experience a drop in catecholamines when they come home from work.

     "We believe the increased stress levels seen in the employed mothers is related to increased strain at home, rather than work strain, but that the increased strain exerts its physiological effects over the entire day," says Linda Luecken, lead author of the study.

     Other studies have shown that increasing social support may reduce stress levels, but Duke researchers found that social support did not buffer the effect of having a child. Instead, they discovered that quality of work and family experiences may be key factors in women's stress levels.

NEW PIPES,
OLD SOUND

Brombaugh and his masterpiece: "the only one of its kind...possibly in the Western Hemisphere" Photo: Les Todd

     To the untrained ear, it may seem similar to other organs, but musicians, music enthusiasts, and faithful churchgoers are likely to recognize that major chords emanating from the instrument's pipes contain "pure thirds," sounds arising from a method of tuning based in the early traditions of composers such as Girolamo Frescobaldi in Italy, Henry Purcell in England, and Johann Pachelbel in Germany.

     Duke's "Brombaugh" (organs are traditionally named after the builder) stands in the "swallow's nest gallery" in the northwest part of the chapel, in the memorial section, out of view of the congregation and up a spiral staircase attached to its platform. The majestic instrument--eighteen feet tall, gold-trimmed, pale green with a hint of blue, to match the stained glass windows--faces the tombs of university founders Benjamin Newton Duke, James Buchanan Duke, and Washington Duke.

     Although Brombaugh has built similar instruments, he says the new organ "is the only one of its kind in the Tuscan-Italian style in the United States and possibly in the Western Hemisphere." It is expected to cost about $400,000 and is being paid for by gifts.

     The Brombaugh joins the chapel's Flentrop and Aeolian organs, taking the place of the Holtkamp organ, which Duke donated to Wofford College in South Carolina. Together, the three organs will span five centuries of classical music: the Brombaugh, pre-1700 composers; the Flentrop, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century composers; and the Aeolian, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century composers.

OVARIAN CANCER
LINK

     The scientists believe that constant ovulation, which causes cells in the ovary to divide, is likely to spontaneously damage DNA in those cells over time. That can result in mutation to a critical regulatory gene, known as p53, that normally stops cells from proliferating into cancer. Tumors that show evidence of p53 genetic mutation account for half of all ovarian cancer cases, and are considered the most aggressive form of ovarian cancer. The findings indicate that women at risk for this type of cancer can protect themselves by reducing their ovulation cycles through birth control pills, pregnancy, and breastfeeding.

     The study also means that the rest of ovarian cancers are likely caused by pathways not linked to ovulation. Some of those pathways are due to different genetic mutations. "This is one of the first studies to show that ovarian cancer is really a collection of a number of different cancers," says Andrew Berchuck, professor of gynecologic oncology.

     Ovarian cancer is usually a fatal disease because it is often found in its late stages, after it has spread beyond the ovaries. In 1996, about 27,000 new cases were diagnosed, and about 14,800 women died of the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute. Mean survival after detection is less than three years.

CAPTURING
CUBA

After the fall: Bazan's prize-winning photography documents the Cuban people's struggle post-U.S.S.R. Photo: Ernesto Bazan

     Photographer Ernesto Bazan and journalist Silvana Paternostro spent the past five years documenting how the island nation is negotiating what Fidel Castro termed El Periodo Especial, the Special Period. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cubans now face harrowing changes and dire hardship. Bazan's photos capture the fleeting, everyday moments of people struggling for survival amid austerity.

     In their proposal, Paternostro wrote about the strength, passion, and resourcefulness of the Cuban people. "Walking around the streets of Havana, one can feel a sense of hopelessness and utter despair. The dire shortage of food, gas, and other basics has made it extremely difficult for most Cubans to go about their daily lives. Yet, we have found despite these frustrations and failings, Cubans have developed remarkable reserves of inner strength and patience. Their dignity has served as an inspiration for our work."

     Paternostro is a journalist who has reported and written for The New York Times, The Miami Herald, the Columbia Journalism Review, and Spin magazine. She is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York City and is currently working on a book about gender relations in Latin America.

     Bazan's images have been published internationally. The photographer's portfolio, "Ernesto Bazan in Cuba," was published in the summer of 1996 issue of DoubleTake, the critically acclaimed new magazine of photography, fiction, poetry, and prose published at the Center for Documentary Studies. Bazan's books of photography include The Perpetual Past and Passing Through. A native of Sicily, he also has done photographic studies of Italian-Americans in New York and the plight of refugees around the world.

     The Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize is given annually by the Center for Documentary Studies to encourage collaborative documentary work in the tradition of American photographer Lange and writer Taylor, whose work is recorded in the book American Exodus. The prize is offered to a writer and a photographer working together in the formative or fieldwork stages of a documentary project that will ultimately become a publishable work.

TRUSTEES IN
TRANSITION

     Duke's board of trustees has a new chairman and a new group of recently appointed members. Randall L. Tobias of Indianapolis, Indiana, was elected chairman of the board, and Michelle Clause Farquhar '79 of Washington, D.C.; Carol Louise "Cookie" Anspach Kohn '60 of Highland Park, Illinois; Takcus Nesbit '97 of Welcome, North Carolina; John Mack '68 of Rye, New York; Robert C. Richardson Ph.D. '66 of Ithaca, New York; and Lanty Smith LL.B. '67 of Greensboro were elected to their first terms as trustees.

     Tobias has been a Duke trustee since 1986 and served as vice chairman of the board for the past three years. He succeeds John A. Koskinen '61, who retired from the board June 30. Tobias, who is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company of Indianapolis, is also a director of the Phillips Petroleum Company, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, and Knight-Ridder, Inc. He is a member of the Business Council, the Business Roundtable, the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S.-Japan Business Council, and the U.S.-China Business Council. He is also a trustee of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Economic Club of Indianapolis, and a trustee and member of the board of directors of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. He and his family donated $1 million to Duke last December to help the university build a new recreation facility. He has made previous gifts of scholarship endowment to support and encourage students with financial need whoare also demonstrating leadership potential through extracurricular activities.

     Farquhar, president of the Duke Alumni Association, is serving a two-year term on the board. Her first year will be spent as a non-voting member, and she will be an active member the second year--the year after her presidency of the alumni association. She is a partner with the law firm Hogan & Hogan in Washington, D.C. In 1992, she received the Charles A. Dukes Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service.

     Kohn is co-owner and vice president of Anspach Travel Bureau Inc., in Highland Park, Illinois. She is a longtime volunteer for Duke's Annual Fund, having served on its executive committee since 1984 and as chair from 1988 to 1990. A past president and class agent for Duke's Class of 1960, she served two terms on Trinity College's board of visitors. She is a member of the Duke Chicago Development Committee, a past recipient of the Charles A. Dukes Award, and a past member of her area's Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee.

     Nesbit, former president of Duke Student Government (DSG), will spend the first year of his three-year term as "young trustee" and a non-voting observer. The former DSG vice president for student affairs and member of the President's Advisory Committee on Resources has received awards for leadership, community service, and outstanding service to DSG. This summer, he took part in the White House Internship Program and was an intern with the Wexler Group.

     Mack, who has served on the board of visitors of the Fuqua School of Business since 1988, is chief operating officer and a director of Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Company, of New York. He is also co-chairman of the board of trustees of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and a trustee for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

     Richardson, the 1996 Nobel Prize-winner for physics, is the F.R. Newman professor of physics and director of the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics at Cornell University. He has received numerous awards for his scientific discoveries, including the Nobel for his work on superfluid Helium-3. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1986 and is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

     Smith is chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Precision Fabrics Group Inc., a manufacturer of high-technology, specification textile products, with headquarters in Greensboro. He is a life member and immediate past chair of Duke law school's board of visitors. A recipient of the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Greensboro Jaycees and the Americanism Award from the Anti-Defamation League, Smith is an avid public service volunteer and community leader.

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