What makes Duke, Duke? I have often been asked this question in my 30-year tenure as university archivist, a job I held after eight years as a resident undergraduate and graduate student.
Today my student experiences appear antediluvian. Roll was taken in class. Your grade point average was reduced for cutting class. Grading was often on a bell curve, with D's and F's balancing A's and B's. Social life was governed through elaborate regulations administered through the Woman's College (now East Campus) where women resided as a coordinate college.
The University enjoyed success in both football and basketball with my Class of O61 enjoying trips to the Orange and Cotton Bowls and an ACC championship in basketball.
We affectionately called Duke the "Gothic Rock Pile," an appellation far different from the "Gothic Wonderland" used today.
The most striking difference is that then, the student body came almost completely from the United States east of the Mississippi River. A similarity is that Duke has always excelled at assisting first-year students (we were called freshmen) in acclimating to university life.
As university archivist, one of my responsibilities has been to keep the history of the University. That history is complex, and it is most simple to divide it into the Randolph County (1838-1892) and Durham experience (1892-present).
Another tempting simplification is to view Duke as a young university. Perhaps it is in name, but, educationally speaking, Duke's history correlates with other research institutions. In the 1890s, President John Crowell introduced aspects of a research-based curriculum at Trinity College when that German-based concept was first popularized. Trinity earned national recognition by having a Rhodes Scholar in 1914 and receiving a Phi Beta Kappa charter in 1919.
Clearly Duke University would not have achieved today's stature as quickly without the strong foundation of faculty, teaching, research and admissions that Trinity experienced before it became Duke in 1924.
Continued strong leadership separates Duke from its contemporaries. The school has had remarkably visionary and committed administrators from its inception in 1838 to today.
Presidents Crowell, John Kilgo and William Few won the support of the Duke family and successfully transformed the college into a university. Duke has had faculty who dared expand the curriculum. Braxton Craven pioneered teacher training before the Civil War, John Spencer Bassett taught history at the beginning of the 20th century and Fritz London was an innovator in low temperature physics in the 1930s.
Initiatives in biomedical engineering, genomics and numerous interdisciplinary courses continue the tradition. Duke's trustees have selected presidents wisely and have led the institution in achieving more than one would expect, given the financial resources at hand. Duke has had a cadre of profoundly committed staff who shared the dreams and worked hard implementing the plans upon which the school's achievements are built. And it has had many students who were captivated by the promise of a Duke education and took advantage of the opportunity.
Finally, Duke has attracted numerous "continuing founders" who have appreciated the past sufficiently to underwrite the future through their considerable philanthropic endeavors.
What makes Duke, Duke? All of the above. As stated by the trustees when the name changed in 1924, "Now [the institution] changes again to meet changing conditions." We are fortunate that leaders have met the challenges of change so spectacularly. It has been a pleasurable, even exciting, experience to be part of this institution as a student, alumnus and member of its administration.
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