The Duke Endowment will provide $2 million to the University to launch the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry and Belonging, according to a Wednesday Giving to Duke announcement.
The initiative was first announced in September by Provost Alec Gallimore, the second provost’s initiative unveiled in 2024. The University has not announced any specific programming associated with the initiative in the almost-five intervening months.
According to Charles Lucas III, chair of the endowment’s Board of Trustees and descendant of Benjamin N. Duke — brother of James B. Duke, the endowment’s founder — the funding will support the initiative over the next three years. It will create programs to help students, faculty and staff facilitate “constructive conversations across diverse perspectives,” as well as allow faculty to develop new courses, conduct research and bring in speakers related to the initiative.
Gallimore identified a “decreasing interest in understanding and seeing others as fellow citizens” as motivation for Duke to “recommit to [its] values” of fostering free inquiry and open dialogue.
Duke previously established the Provost’s Initiative on the Middle East, the Polarization Lab and the North Carolina Leadership Forum — all similarly aimed at constructively engaging across ideological divides.
“For this new initiative to succeed in an increasingly diverse society and academic context, the University must both support and challenge every one of its members to be part of it,” said Abbas Benmamoun, vice provost for faculty advancement. “The willingness to be curious and open to different views and the humility to know the limitations of one’s understanding are essential to learning and advancing knowledge.”
Benmamoun and Associate Provost Noah Pickus lead the initiative as co-principal investigators, collaborating with programs such as Duke’s Office of Institutional Equity and the Kenan Institute for Ethics to integrate the initiative’s values across campus efforts. The initiative will also host a series of events in partnership with the Office for Faculty Advancement, Student Affairs, the Graduate School and the Office of Undergraduate Education.
“This is a critical time to build a distinctively Duke, community-wide approach to fostering the underlying habits and skills necessary for mutual respect, community and constructive conversations,” said Candis Watts Smith, vice provost for undergraduate education and professor of political science.
The Duke Endowment last gifted the University $100 million in honor of its centennial year in November 2023, at the time marking the single largest award in the institution’s history. The funds were directed towards enhancing support to students from minority backgrounds and students from the Carolinas, promoting Duke’s community engagement and building renovations.
Since its founding in 1924, the Duke Endowment has distributed more than $5 billion in grants to communities across the Carolinas. In December, the endowment announced an upcoming $5 billion in grants to recipients in both states over the next 15 years.
Though the endowment and University share a birthday and namesake, they remain separate institutions.
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Ava Littman is a Trinity sophomore and an associate news editor for the news department.