Amid a torrent of campus-wide unrest triggered by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, Terry Sanford took the reins of Duke University into his capable hands during the winter of 1969 and, for the next 15 years, guided the South's premier educational institution to unparalleled heights.
During his tenure as the University's sixth president-a tenure which lasted 10 years longer than he initially anticipated-Sanford repaired the relationship between the administration and the student body in a time of political turmoil while engineering vast improvements to the University's monetary and structural resources. The fruits of his labor were clear: At the end of his term, Duke's local and national reputation had never been stronger.
"No matter how unjustified, the perception of [Duke's] apartness and its attitude of intellectual superiority kept many from feeling welcome," wrote Mary D.B.T. Semans, Trinity '39 and chair of the Duke Endowment, in a June 1985 letter published in Duke Magazine. "President Sanford threw open the windows, welcomed people and brought them to the campus. For its alumni, he made Duke 'home' again. His desire to build a team of highly talented people created one of the most effective staffs the University has ever had."
As one might from a seasoned politician-Sanford had served as North Carolina governor from 1961 to 1965-Sanford was known for his amiability and outgoing persona while occupying the Office of the President. He spent his first day on the job, for example, breakfasting with student leaders and later meeting and shaking hands with other members of the student body.
Many observers have noted that, during that period in America, the position of a university president demanded more political savvy than intellectual leadership. This was certainly true at Duke, where demonstrations about the status of black studies and the University's relationships with the black community and non-academic employees ignited in 1967. The protests culminated in 1969 when black students took over the Allen Building-an event that led to the resignation of then-University President Douglas Knight, paving the way for Sanford to step to the fore.
"He had an amazing ability to work with difficult situations, and it wasn't lip service," former Vice President for Student Affairs William Griffith told Currents in July 1993. "I don't know of anyone who had the kind of acumen that he had."
Sanford-whose resume also includes stints as an attorney, author, FBI agent and national politician-believed adamantly in student self-government. "The theory of education," he told Duke Magazine in June 1985, "is that people-to do the things that they must do as adults-have got to learn to discipline themselves, to set their own standards, to conduct their own behavior."
When students protested President Richard Nixon's invasion of Cambodia and the National Guard shootings at Kent State University in 1970, they blocked the traffic circle at the West Campus bus stop and threatened to take over the Allen Building for the second time in as many years. But Sanford refused to summon the police. Instead, he approached the crowd of about 400, requested that the two sides work together to "fight Washington" and persuaded the activists to join him in Page Auditorium, where a lengthy discussion
"I always thought that the students were acting in completely good faith," he explained to Currents. "They had a legitimate complaint and our job was to listen to it in a respectful way to see to it-in our capacity as the head of the institution where they had come to learn-that they would learn how to do that in a creative way."
One unique manner in which Sanford officially incorporated student input into the administrative process was by creating the position of "young trustee." Sanford's intent, he said in 1977, was "to get younger members on the board... whose viewpoint, closer to students, would be a valuable addition to the board."
In response to students' complaints that "the trustees... were old, racist, imperialist and capitalist, meeting in secrecy to do in the students and the faculty," Sanford also opened the meetings to faculty members, students and members of the press-a decision that current President Nan Keohane's administration overturned in September 1996.
This sense of heartfelt respect was mutual. After Sanford sent the now-famous "An Avuncular Letter"-better known as the "Uncle Terry" letter, which is how he "sort-of on impulse" signed it-to Cameron Crazies, chastising them for acting in a "crude and obscene" manner during a home men's basketball game, students at the next game unfurled a banner that read: "Uncle Terry: We're sorry. The devil made us do it."
After learning in 1985 of Sanford's imminent departure from the University, the students threw him a "Farewell to Uncle Terry" party in Card Gymnasium.
"It just always seemed to me that the reason for having this place in the first instance was the students," Sanford told the Dialogue in December 1994. "It never occurred to me that the students weren't the center of all of our attention."
Sanford recognized that his accessibility and common sense appealed most to University students, and students in turn appreciated his attempts to foster a healthy balance between academics and extracurricular life.
"I don't want people walking across the campus all the time talking about Chaucer when they could be talking about the Maryland game," he told Duke Magazine. "I mean that it's artificial, and we don't want a bunch of nerds. We want a bunch of well-educated citizens. I think we've got a very wholesome, healthy intellectual atmosphere here."
His steadfast devotion to students, however, did not keep him spending ample time on other sectors of the University.
Sanford led the University through turbulent economic times that resulted in the discontinuation of the baccalaureate program in nursing, the phasing out of the education department and the reorganization of the physical education department into a non-academic unit under the Office of Student Affairs.
Faced with a pressing financial crisis, Sanford embarked upon a $200-million capital campaign during the early 1980s-an endeavor previously unprecedented that ultimately tripled the number of contributions to the University.
The Sanford administration utilized these funds, in part, to construct 40 new academic buildings, 23 of which were affiliated with the Medical Center. Among the new buildings were the $16-million Fuqua School of Business and the $16-million Bryan Center. Sanford was also largely responsible for deepening
Given that Sanford was one of the nation's leading champions of education, one struggles to ascertain which educational feat was his greatest. One achievement, however, that left an indelible mark on the University was his creation of the Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs, which was renamed the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy after the December 1994 completion of a new $13-million building.
"It goes without saying that, without Terry Sanford, there would be no public policy institute at Duke," said Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies Joel Fleishman at an April 3, 1998, tribute held at the Durham Civic Center in honor of Sanford and the 25-year-old institute that bears his name.
At the same event, John Koskinen, former chair of the University's Board of Trustees and current member of the Sanford Institute's Board of Visitors, praised the institute for its innovative approach to education, which continues to incorporate into its curricula Sanford's twin goals of creativity and leadership.
"Leadership suggests service, and creativity suggests contribution to mankind, and I call those the greatest goals," Sanford remarked during his inauguration as University president. "I want to see for Duke University a spirit that makes a Duke graduate a Renaissance man with a purpose."
Two of the more contentious decisions Sanford made during his tenure as University president concerned the establishment of a library dedicated to Nixon, Law '37, as well as his choice to run for president of the United States in 1972 and in 1976.
Dubbed by some as Sanford's most controversial act as president, Sanford proposed in 1981 that the University become the site of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. Because of the former Duke law student's shameful resignation from office, however, many members of the University community opposed any formal University affiliation with Nixon. Nixon's supporters, however, contended that the University should be proud its role in educating a U.S. president with an admirable foreign policy record.
Some faculty members accused Sanford of attempting to railroad the proposal through the appropriate administrative channels, but Sanford ultimately endorsed a faculty resolution in the fall of 1981 that banned the inclusion of a museum in the library.
Nixon and his attorneys were miffed when they heard the news, and the deal fell through-but not before Sanford took some heat for the manner in which he handled the matter.
"The mistake was made in not proceeding more slowly," he acknowledged in Duke Magazine.
Given his political background, some members of the University community also criticized Sanford from the get-go, insisting that he would use the Office of the President primarily as a bully pulpit from to spew political rhetoric and wage campaigns for national office. But Sanford contended that he never short-changed the University for political gain.
"I didn't use Duke because I could have left Duke," Sanford told Duke Magazine. "Duke defeated me, if you want to know the truth of it. If I had been willing to leave Duke in the summer of '75, I would have taken the nomination away from [Jim
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