Extending a Warm Welcome

I write, with thanks to The Chronicle staff for this space, to welcome all new and returning students-undergraduate, graduate and professional students alike. It's great to have everyone back after the mid-August lull; the campus seems mighty empty without you.

I hope the summer break was refreshing and rewarding for everyone. It was a good summer for me, including travel for the University in Asia as well as hiking in Yosemite and time in Maine with all our family. Not everyone can have the sort of summers that some Dukies had, of course. Trajan Langdon, Elton Brand, Peppi Browne and Michele VanGorp represented the United States in international basketball tournaments. Vanessa Webb won the NCAA singles women's tennis championship and began play yesterday in the U.S. Open. And Jenny Chuasiriporn, an amateur, stunned the golf world by finishing second in the U.S. Open before taking second in the U.S. Amateur golf tournament. Still, University students tend to get around, and I know from the Career Development Center and your major departments that your assignments ranged from social service in Appalachia to internships on Wall Street.

New students have most likely had a dizzying first few days after our brush with Hurricane Bonnie. My conversations suggest you're finding your way around pretty well. Over the summer we had to do some renovations in order to house your exceptionally talented but large class. We hope that even if you may be a bit crowded, you are enjoying the special nature of life together on East Campus.

Everyone at the University can take a great deal of pride in our accomplishments last year. It was an extraordinary year, with several major national scholarship winners and winning teams in math and engineering as well as basketball and many other sports. It was a year of praise from national rankings for medical care and educational programs, as well as kudos from a major national study of undergraduate education for our FOCUS program.

Thanks to the sustained commitment of many people on campus, we made some gains in the effort to deepen our understanding of diversity at the University and to realize its benefits. And, two years into a neighborhood partnership with Durham, University students, faculty and staff have played a major role in helping Durham's public schools achieve the major turnaround in test scores and teaching effectiveness announced a few weeks ago.

It was a great year for those and many more reasons, but it was also a turbulent spring, in terms of communication between students and the administration. My colleagues and I are determined to do a better job of that. We're grateful that students have also reached out, particularly the students in Professor of Public Policy Tony Brown's leadership class last spring.

For my part, I am excited about spending more informal time with students, getting to know you more personally, through lunches, attending your events and just walking around campus. If you see me, stop and say hello and let me know how things are going. I also have regular office hours, and I welcome your thoughts and suggestions about the University.

Now we're heading into a year in which we can expect to make real progress in areas of particular interest to students, including a comprehensive review of the undergraduate curriculum in Trinity College. The new $22 million West Campus recreational facility is on schedule to open by the end of the academic year. The Center for Jewish Life taking shape on Campus Drive is set to open about a year from now. The football season will showcase the renovations we've made at Wallace Wade Stadium, where we've also relocated the student section. And my colleagues and I have made progress on plans for residential life. We look forward to sharing these ideas with you for your reactions in the fall, before decisions are made on next steps.