The first meeting of the Academic Council, which was an organizational meeting, occurred on October 18, 1962.  In reading back through some of the minutes of the early years of the Academic Council, I was able to get a feel for the debates and discussions that led to its creation.  It was interesting to see the issues of concern to faculty at the beginning—the establishment of faculty committees to handle issues such as benefits, salaries, construction, athletics, libraries, personnel policies, and tenure among others.

"except in emergencies, all major decisions and plans of the administration that significantly affect academic affairs should be submitted to the Academic Council for an expression of views prior to implementation or submission to the Board of Trustees.  The views expressed by the Academic Council should be transmitted, along with the Administration’s proposals, to the Board of Trustees when these plans and decisions are considered by the Board of Trustees."

Faculty shared governance is an established principle at Duke University and works well, but it is something we cannot take for granted will always be observed.  We must always be attentive to preserving the role of faculty in all aspects of the decision making processes of the institution.  I encourage each of us make sure the shared faculty governance system is respected on the numerous and multiple committees on which we all serve and to make sure that the voice of the faculty is heard.  A strong faculty governance system is the foundation for the protection of academic freedom and freedom of speech.  This also means, however, that we must not abdicate our responsibilities in the decision making process, as it is always easier to continue working on the latest research paper or project or work with a student or prepare for class rather than attend another committee meeting.   Yet, it is crucial that we be attentive to these often mundane activities, because they are the individual building blocks of this larger edifice of shared faculty governance.

Given that it is still early in the academic year, the agenda for this upcoming year is still being formulated by the Executive Committee of the Academic Council (ECAC).  But we have already embarked on several projects.  We have obtained all of the reports on the Virginia Tech shootings, have read and are discussing the results and their implications for Duke.  As Amy Abernethy commented at a recent ECAC meeting-- “Faculty are the frontline touch system” for identifying potential problems and must be involved.  In conjunction with various administrative units, we hope to be able to develop a mechanism for the effective dissemination of essential information to faculty to help with the identification of potential dangerous situations.

ECAC has begun a series of internal discussions around the effectiveness of Academic Council in an effort to identify the areas in which we are strong and those that might be in need of strengthening.  These conversations will continue throughout the year.  We also look forward to participating in the discussions of the Interim Report on the Undergraduate Experience and the discussions of Central Campus.  Many other issues loom on the horizon that will fill our agenda this year.    

Duke University is an incredible place!  Its reputation depends on the rich and complex diversity of schools, divisions and departments that we, as a collective faculty, represent.  Each of us is essential to Duke’s excellence.  Efforts to diminish any one of these are efforts to diminish the reputation and stature of our institution as a whole. An academic institution such as ours thrives on its ability to sustain a wide complement of ideas and perspectives and it is this ability to engage differences in a multiplicity of areas that makes Duke’s excellence stand out among our peer institutions.   While we might not all agree when engaging in the intellectual debates that are characteristic of our intellectual lives, we are united across schools, divisions and departments in our devotion to the rigorous principles of scholarship that each of us makes apparent in our research, our classrooms, and our service to Duke.

I would appear a Pollyanna if I did not acknowledge that these values that have made Duke strong have been challenged of late, primarily from forces outside the institution.  While we cannot control the external challenges, we are in control of how we as faculty react to these challenges.  We are in control of how we relate to each other, how we engage each other and how we speak to and speak about others.  As Dean McLendon stated in his “Address to the Arts and Sciences Council” in September, the recent events have strained the bonds of trust within the Duke community.I would like to encourage us to strive to overcome these strains, to remember that we all share the same objective—the continued excellence of Duke University—and that we, the faculty, are the key to that excellence. 

One of the most powerful world leaders, a man of tremendous vision, leadership, humility and grace, is Nelson Mandela; a personal hero of mine.  In rereading his 1994 address from his inauguration as President of the Democratic Republic of South Africa, I was struck by his ability to rise above the horrors that had been visited on him by the former repressive system.  Now, clearly I would not deign to even suggest that the strains among some of us here are in any way analogous with the destruction of the apartheid system in South Africa and the tensions attendant to that, but Mandela’s words in one section of his address struck me as an appropriate way to end this talk; words that both motivate and inspire:

“The time for healing of the wounds has come

The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come

The time to build is upon us”

Let us work together to make Duke an even stronger institution than it already is.  Thank you.