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Dole was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree by President Nannerl O. Keohane, who noted, "Working for five U.S. presidents in roles ranging from federal trade commissioner to cabinet secretary, you demonstrated an abiding commitment to making a difference in people's livesÉ Talking about your leaving the presidential cabinet for the Red Cross, your husband, Senator Bob Dole, said, 'Frankly, I think Elizabeth would be just as happy doing something with Mother Teresa. It is really not the power that interests her.' What has interested you is enlightened public service." Also accepting an honorary degree was Andrew Young, first black congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction, former ambassador to the United Nations, and two-term mayor of Atlanta. Said Keohane, "Your career has thrust you into the forefront of the fight for justiceÉ. But you saw yourself and your colleagues in the civil rights movement as agents of transformation, not as radicals or revolutionaries. As you put it in your autobiography, 'Racism, war, and poverty were anchors dragging on our society, preventing us from reaching our full potential.É We accepted the challenges of detaching those anchors. We know it was a burden, but we believed it was an easy burden in a country as great as ours.' " Approximately 3,500 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees were awarded before a crowd of 15,000 in Wallace Wade Stadium. Among those on hand for granddaughters' graduation exercises were a former president and two first ladies: Jimmy Carter, his wife, Rosalynn Carter, and Lady Bird Johnson. Dole told graduates, "You take from this ceremony much more than a diploma. You take with you the responsibility for writing the next chapter of the American story. What we become as a nation will depend in large measure on what you become--and what you believe. "I hope you never forget those who have gone before, nor those who will come after. For heaven and the future's sakes, don't get jaded. Don't fall victim to cynicism. Remember that life is not meant to be endured, but enjoyed. Retain your curiosity, and though you may get wrinkles, you will never grow old. Be brave. Take risks. Above all, be yourselves, for therein lies the greatest gift you can return to those who have given so much that you might join the Duke family."
The NIH merged two existing federally-supported AIDS vaccine trial groups into one, naming Duke the central testing facility for the combined entity, called the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN). The five-year grant also will be used to attract new researchers to the field of vaccine development. HVTN is a combination of the AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Group (AVEG) and the HIV Network (HIVNET). AVEG's function was to perform Phase I and II trials of candidate vaccines on healthy volunteers in the United States and to evaluate any immune responses stimulated in volunteers by candidate vaccines. HIVNET established the infrastructure needed to carry any candidate vaccines through Phase III trials in the nation and abroad. Kent Weinhold, principal investigator for Duke, says HVTN is only developing and testing vaccines intended to keep non-infected individuals from getting infected, and is not involved in so-called therapeutic vaccines designed to treat patients who are already infected with HIV. Weinhold says the challenge facing researchers is developing a vaccine that creates in the recipient a large number of specialized immune system cells known as cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), or killer T cells, that are effective in killing HIV. While earlier vaccines were ineffective in stimulating strong CTL responses, the new generation of vaccines are showing more promise. The most intriguing vaccine in the pipeline is based on the canarypox virus. A vaccine based on canarypox is about to begin Phase II testing, and if all continues successfully, Weinhold expects the vaccine to enter Phase III trials by the end of 2001. The vaccine would be tested on non-HIV-infected people at high risk for being infected and would probably involve more than 12,000 patients in the United States and abroad. In addition to funding the laboratory activities, the Duke grant will allow researchers from across the country to submit proposals for vaccine-related studies. Under the old system, immunologists at the clinical sites could conduct vaccine-related research using samples generated from the trials, but experts outside the network had limited access. "We will now have the funding to support four to five labs across the country that have interesting or promising proposals," says Weinhold. "This should bring into the effort new scientific expertise and new ideas, as well as researchers who may not have participated in vaccine research in the past." Joining Weinhold from the division of experimental surgery are Michael Greenberg, David Montefiori, and Guido Ferrari, as well as more than twenty-five support staff members.
This year's recipients are: Adam Henry Bund of Lexington, Massachusetts, who will be based in China to conduct a project on "Internet and White Collar (Bai Ling) Identity in China"; Christopher James Dyer of Bryan, Texas, whose Germany-based studies will focus on "Musical Perception: Computer Interpretation and Analysis"; Katherine Leigh Fieri of Martinez, Georgia, whose time in Germany will be devoted to "Socially-Induced Turning Points in an Elderly German Population"; Matthew William Kovalick of Fairfax, Virgina, who will travel to Lithuania to study "NATO Expansion to Lithuania and the Baltic Region"; Simone Michele Manigo of New York City, who will travel to Ethiopia to investigate "The Rounding of the African Diaspora"; Elias Ibrahim Muhanna of Cyprus, who will be in Morocco to study "Cultural Identity and Musical Experimentation in 1970s Morocco." Also: Jaime Beth Palter of Sharon, Massachusetts, whose Costa Rica-based study is "The Effects of Different Land Uses and Nutrient Enrichments on the Gulf on Nicoya, Costa Rica"; Catherine Lynn Phipps of Durham, a graduate student whose project in Japan is "The Geography of Early Japanese Imperialism in Northern Kyushu"; Matthew Louis Reisman of Tallahassee, Florida, who will travel to Ivory Coast to study "Refugee Integration in the Communities of Western C™te d'Ivoire"; Joanne M. Richardson of Durham, a graduate student whose Romania stint will center on "Contemporary Art in Romania: The Politics of the Avant-Garde"; Colin Traian Williams of Boulder, Colorado, whose project in Romania is "Media, Democracy, and National Identity in Post-1989 Romania"; and Robert Thomas Rozehnal of Dillon, Colorado, a graduate student who declined his grant in favor of another scholarship. Thirty-three Duke students applied for the scholarship, says Rob Sikorski, executive director of the Center for International Studies. The twelve awards represent a 36 percent acceptance rate, the university's highest in recent years. The Fulbright program, founded in 1946, is the U.S. government's premier scholarship program. It was created by Congress shortly after World War II to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges.
Duke Magazine was one of two Grand Gold winners in the Higher Education Reporting category, judged by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The magazine submitted five entries: "Velocity: College Culture on the Run" by Phil Tinari '01, on the implications of such student-life enhancements as e-mail, automated registration, and the DukeCard spending account; "Academic Apprentices: Still an Ideal?" by freelance writer Barry Yeoman, on the pressures faced by graduate students; "First Year, First Week" by features editor Kim Koster, on freshman orientation; "A Community Finds a Home," also by Koster, on the Freeman Center for Jewish Life; and "Managing a Medical Makeover" by editor Robert J. Bliwise A.M. '88, on the federal Office for Protection from Research Risks' mandated suspension of clinical trials at the medical center. "Velocity," by Tinari, was also a Grand Gold winner in a separate category, Best Articles of the Year. Of more than 200 entries, "Velocity" was one of four to win a grand gold. Tinari was the magazine's first Clay Felker Magazine Fellow. At Duke Medical Center, Keeping the Promise received a gold medal for External Audience Newsletters. The newsletter is published by the medical center's development office, where Robert Bradford is director of communications. Writers are Marty Fisher and Ellen Devlin, and the designer is Lacey Chylack. In the category Internal Audience Newsletters, HR Re:Design won a bronze award. Deborah Horvitz is director of communications and planning for the Office of Human Relations. In CASE District III awards announced earlier, Duke Magazine received the Grand Award for Alumni Magazines, and the School of Nursing's Progress Report received a Grand Award for Annual Reports. Keeping the Promise received an Award of Excellence in External Newsletters, and Duke Medical Alumni News received an Award of Excellence in Alumni Newsletters.
A private corporation "is a natural for leading this brand-new industry," Sheppard says. "We have been known for delivering innovative executive education, and creating this stand-alone business maintains our momentum and leadership." Besides tailoring educational services for corporations, the company will expand Fuqua's distributed-learning consulting services to help corporations establish or improve their manager training programs and corporate universities. "We will be providing a one-stop shop for corporate universities," says Sheppard, "delivering top-to-bottom education that is truly unique." "Faced with the accelerating pace of change and a growing dependence on talent, companies are looking for Duke-quality education to support strategic transformation, help develop managers, and serve as an ongoing investment in human capital," says Fuqua dean Rex D. Adams '62. The market for corporate education is about $40 billion per year, he says, and is growing at an annual rate of 25 percent. The university will be the majority shareholder of Duke Corporate Education, with private equity groups expected to make major investments in the enterprise. Pensare Inc. will provide the distance-learning technology for the company, following a partnership with Duke in co-producing a new curriculum and e-learning platform for the Duke MBA-Cross Continent program. Initial clients of Duke Corporate Education will include Deutsche Bank, Ford, Siemens, and Ericsson, says Sheppard. Fuqua's second type of executive-education program, open-enrollment courses taught to managers from multiple companies, including the Program for Manager Development and Advanced Management Program courses, will remain under Fuqua's nonprofit umbrella. Meanwhile, Fuqua's facilities are growing as the school works toward a goal of increasing its roster of tenure-track faculty members. The five-story, $15.5-million Wesley Alexander Magat Academic Center at the business school was dedicated this spring. Dean Adams opened the ceremony with a tribute to Magat, a member of Fuqua's economics faculty for twenty-five years and an administrative leader, who died last year from an inoperable brain tumor. The center has 130 faculty offices, space for visiting scholars and adjunct professors, and meeting rooms. The building is physically linked to the existing west wing of the Thomas F. Keller Center for M.B.A. Education and adds 70,000 square feet to the school. That center, which opened last fall, is the first phase of a five-year plan for facilities expansion. The next phase is construction of a student center designed to be the hub of campus life at Fuqua.
Robertson Scholars will be expected to cross historical barriers and forge new links between the universities. Half the students will matriculate at UNC and half at Duke, but all will take courses at both institutions, using improved inter-campus transportation, and will spend a semester living on the other campus. Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane and UNC Interim Chancellor William O. McCoy announced the unprecedented gift at a joint news conference, and said it will inspire both universities "to new levels of colleagueship and collaboration." Keohane praised the Robertsons for their vision and noted that one key objective of the program is to foster a strong sense of shared leadership among the students. "The Robertson Scholars will be bright and collegial, curious and pioneering," she said. "They will be leaders among their peers. They will show other students that one can enjoy both the legendary fierce athletic rivalries between our institutions, and also the opportunity to learn from two of the finest universities in the world during one's undergraduate years. This penchant for leadership will prepare them to make a difference in the world, in community service, in their professional careers, and for their alma maters." Julian Robertson grew up in Salisbury, North Carolina, graduating from UNC in 1955 with a degree in business administration, and is the founder and chairman of Tiger Management LLC, the world's largest hedge fund group. Josie Robertson is a member of Carolina's board of visitors. One of their three sons, Julian Spencer Robertson, graduated from Duke in 1998 and teaches in the New York public schools. The first class of thirty Robertson Scholars--fifteen at Duke and fifteen at UNC--is expected to matriculate in 2001. The students will graduate from the universities they entered, with certification that their education came from both universities. The scholars will be expected to demonstrate an allegiance to both campuses, officials say. The gift will go into the Robertson Scholars Fund, with half to be managed by Duke and half by UNC-Chapel Hill. A coordinating committee will manage the program; it will consist of four faculty and administrators from each university and be chaired in alternating two-year terms by the deans of the arts and sciences at both institutions. Program operations will be based at UNC, with the director reporting to the dean of UNC's College of Arts and Sciences.
People had been approaching family-support staff privately to discuss their fear and shame about being angry at those who can't do anything about their condition, says Lisa Gwyther, an associate clinical professor and director of the family support program. At workshops for families or professionals, the topic would surface outside the group setting. Edna Ballard, a social worker with the Duke program, decided to take the issue public about a year and a half ago. She did a presentation on anger for one of the two support groups she facilitates. The unusually large turnout told Ballard she was right, that "this is a wake-up call, this is something we need to pay attention to." Using funds from a state Division of Aging grant, Ballard and Gwyther began developing ideas for a book. The book contains situations that caregivers can recognize and provides information they can absorb quickly. It uses first-person narratives to illustrate a range of ways to adapt and cope with anger, with insight from professionals interspersed with the narratives. It covers topics such as risk factors for anger, drawing boundaries, tips for maintaining control, options for when the patient gets angry, and guidelines for professionals, as well as a suggested reading list and other resources for information on Alzheimer's disease and anger management. For information on obtaining a copy of Pressure Points, contact the Duke Family Support Program, Box 3600 DUMC, Durham, N.C. 27710, or call 919-660-7510. E-mail queries can be sent to lpg@geri.duke.edu. Additional information on Alzheimer's disease can be obtained through a variety of sources: Duke's support groups have a lending library of materials, as do North Carolina chapters of the Alzheimer's Association. The national Alzheimer's Association has a national toll-free number for information, (800) 272-3900, and its website (www.alz.org) has links to e-mail support groups.
President Nannerl O. Keohane used the opening of a New York City conference celebrating the university's Women's Studies program and the accomplishments of generations of Duke women to announce the gift from Lisa Yun Lee Ph.D. '99 and her husband, Marc Ewing. Lee's field at Duke was German studies; Ewing is co-founder and former chief technical officer of Red Hat. The gift will endow a professorship, a post-doctoral fellowship, and four graduate fellowships, with The Duke Endowment providing one dollar for every three that Lee and Ewing contribute to graduate fellowships. The Duke Endowment is a charitable trust based in Charlotte. The $1.5-million endowed professorship will be named for Jean Fox O'Barr, the Margaret Taylor Smith director of the Women's Studies program. Smith '47 chaired the Kresge Foundation and chaired Duke's Council on Women's Studies from 1988 to 1990. O'Barr has been director of the program since its inception in 1983. O'Barr says the gift will increase involvement of graduate students in all areas of women's studies. While Duke does not offer graduate degrees in women's studies, graduate coursework in women's studies occurs in interdisciplinary seminars and departmental courses.
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lizabeth Hanford Dole '58, former presidential candidate and the first woman to direct two federal cabinet agencies, called on the Class of 2000 to avoid the cynicism of politics and help make government more relevant to the citizens of the nation. "Representative government is exactly that--
representative," said Dole in her May commencement address. "If politics seems irrelevant, then it falls to you to make it more relevant. If it appears lacking in civility, then your task is to help civilize it."
uke Medical Center received a $27-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct the detailed analysis necessary to determine whether potential vaccines show promise as a preventive measure against infection by HIV, the AIDS-causing virus.
William Fulbright Scholarships will give a dozen Duke students a one-year opportunity to study abroad and benefit from living in a foreign culture. This year's Duke recipients-nine Class of 2000 graduates and three graduate students-will travel to nine countries in all: China, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Germany, Ivory Coast, Japan, Lithuania, Morocco, and Romania.
oth the university and the medical center were recognized with gold awards in writing and publishing by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at its annual assembly in July. CASE, an international association of colleges, universities, and independent school, represents nearly 21,000 professionals in alumni relations, communications, and fund raising.
he Fuqua School of Business is forming a private corporation to become the first business school to provide corporate clients with business education designed specifically for their needs. Blair H. Sheppard, the school's senior associate dean for academic programs, will be president and CEO of the new enterprise, to be called Duke Corporate Education Inc.
o longer will the traditional chant of "Go to hell, Carolina" have quite the same ring. New York investment manager Julian H. Robertson Jr. and his wife, Josie, are giving $24 million to traditional athletic rivals Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to create a pioneering collaborative program that will recruit and support extraordinary undergraduate students in studies at both campuses.
n what is believed to be the largest gift to support the field of women's studies at a private university, a New York couple has given nearly $3 million to endow a professorship and five fellowships in women's studies.
Sally M. Dickson, former director of campus relations at Stanford University, is the new vice president for institutional equity. She succeeds Myrna Adams, who stepped down at the end of her five-year term on June 30. The Office of Institutional Equity is responsible for overseeing Duke's compliance with a wide range of federal and state regulations, including affirmative-action policies and the status of persons with disabilities.
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