Duke Plans Pres Review

Duke University announced today the appointment of a seven member committee to review President Richard H. Brodhead’s first three years in office. The announcement noted a similar review was carried out for Brodhead’s predecessor, Nannerl O. Keohane, after her first three years as president.

From Duke News:

A seven-member committee composed of members of the Board of Trustees and the faculty has been appointed to assess Richard H. Brodhead’s first three years as president of Duke University.

The committee is to report to the Board of Trustees by the end of the calendar year.[…]

“Since 1982, Duke has a system of regular reviews of its presidents, officers and deans. It’s a process we find extremely valuable, helping us learn not only about the individuals involved but also about some of the issues and challenges facing the university,” said Board of Trustees Chair Robert K. Steel.

Attorney Daniel T. Blue Jr. of Raleigh, the board’s vice chair and a member of the N.C. House of Representatives, will lead the review. The other trustees on the committee are Paula P. Burger, dean for undergraduate education and vice provost of The Johns Hopkins University; Alan D. Schwartz, president of Bear Stearns Companies Inc.; and Anthony Vitarelli, a student at Yale Law School who, like the others, earned a degree from Duke.

The three faculty members on the committee are Sara Sun Beale, Charles L. B. Lowndes Professor of Law at Duke’s School of Law; Dennis A. Clements, a professor of pediatrics, community and family medicine at Duke University Medical Center; and Sherman A. James, Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy Studies at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.[…]

The entire Duke News announcement is here. It contains addresses and links for those wishing to contact the committee.

A few notes now, with comments to follow tomorrow –

Committee chair Dan Blue (JD’73) was a protégé and friend of President Terry Sanford. He was one of the eulogists at President Sanford’s funeral in Duke Chapel on April 23, 1998.

Blue began:

When I was 24 years old with a wife and young son and two weeks experience practicing law, Terry Sanford came to visit me in my office. He walked in, closed the door, sat down.

He could tell I was nervous. After all, who wouldn't be if you had a former governor, the president of the university from which you had just gotten your law degree and the single partner in a law firm that had just blazed a new path in this state by being among the first to hire an African-American lawyer, come in the office.

Well, after giving me a little fatherly advice on the practice of law, Terry told me, he said, "I came over here to check on you, see how you're doing. These fellows will treat you all right. If they don't let me know. And let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you." It was his law firm of course - Sanford, Cannon, Adams and McCullough, at the time.

And I later learned that Terry had placed a call to the single partners in that firm and told them that he had observed this Duke law student and he wanted them to interview me, which was tantamount to telling them "come hire me." [...]

The fact that I stand before you today, as a farm boy from Robeson County, one who embodies all of those things that Terry Sanford did and meant for North Carolina, and as I stand to help remember one who is considered one of the 10 greatest governors in America during this century, it's a clear measure of how far we have come and how far Terry Sanford has led us. […]

Blue’s eulogy was one of a number of moving tributes paid to President Sanford that day which you can access here.

This link will take you to a short Duke Invests in Talent profile of Blue.

Today’s Chronicle article reporting the review of Brodhead's service is here but I’m now having trouble accessing it. Overload perhaps.