Reflecting on Durham's problems and promise
Duke University and Durham work together in many areas

BY RICHARD H. BRODHEAD Guest columnist

Editor's note: This column was adapted from a speech Duke University President Richard Brodhead gave to the Durham Rotary Club on June 13, marking his first year in the position. This is the second part of Brodhead's talk.

My wife Cindy and I have come to love Durham's charms, and we've also learned about its problems. As others have told me, Durham is a pretty gritty place. I like gritty places, and think that universities provide better learning environments for their students in such places. I must confess that one of the things I like about Durham is that people feel free to be candid about the community's strengths and weaknesses -- perhaps, at times, more candid than makes people comfortable.

For instance, I think of Brad Brinegar's talk earlier this year before Downtown Durham, Inc., and in Sunday's newspaper [Herald-Sun, June 12]. Brinegar laid out the reality of local crime and the good work of the Durham Roundtable, which is demanding the attention of our elected officials to take the necessary steps and invest the requisite resources to change these deplorable crime statistics. I applaud their efforts, which have great potential to enhance the quality of life and the image of our community. This is important to all of us, whether our business is selling homes, managing a retail store or trying to attract top faculty and students from around the world. At the same time, we must always be cognizant that those who suffer most from crime are often the poor in our community.

Schools affect image

Durham's image also is affected by our schools. I realize that test scores do not by themselves define educational quality, but they are one measure that can provide insight on students' performance, especially when there is evidence nationally that students have been passed to higher grades without the requisite learning and skills.

I'm very encouraged by the progress Durham Public Schools' students are making in improving test scores in math and reading, and by the results to date of Superintendent Ann Denlinger's bold commitment to close the Achievement Gap by 2007. Church leaders and scores of others in the community have stepped forward to help make this vision a reality, something we're also doing at Duke, as I'll discuss in a moment. I also wish the progress our schools are making, and the positive image the children and teachers deserve, were the main news the school board projects -- which is far from the case.

Durham is also a community whose health statistics belie its claim as the "City of Medicine." This is an issue I know is of great concern to my colleague, Dr. Victor Dzau, Duke's new chancellor for health affairs. Victor is passionate about the issue of health care inequities -- whether be it in Africa or Asia or Durham -- and I believe that in the years ahead, Durham will experience a significant change in efforts to address the health care needs of its people.

I also have a feeling that effective planning is not a great tradition in this community. I must say I'm surprised when I see tall buildings in the community in isolated locations - one here, one here, one here - with no sense of continuity or seeming rationale.

Partnering with community

We at Duke are working to address many of the challenges facing the community in part through the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, which the university established almost a decade ago with 12 neighborhoods and seven schools near its campus. Over the past several years, the partnership has raised some $12 million to support schools, programs, and nonprofit organizations in these neighborhoods.

On the health front, you may have heard about the clinics we've established in Lyon Park and Walltown, working together with the Lincoln Community Health Center, The Duke Endowment, and neighborhood groups. People in these neighborhoods now have a convenient place to receive routine care instead of going to the emergency room at Durham Regional or Duke Hospitals, or receiving no care at all. I've visited both of these clinics and am so proud of the difference they're making in people's lives. Duke is ready to do more, but it can't do so alone. It needs government to be a more active player in this and other partnerships to improve the health of our local population.

Affordable housing

Duke also has partnerships to provide affordable housing. Last Friday, there was a wonderful launch of a new project that will provide 13 new affordable houses in the West End. This was a dream of our mayor, Bill Bell, and is a partnership among the city, Self-Help, the Durham Community Land Trustees, Durham Habitat, the Home Builders, and, most importantly, a neighborhood group known as the Quality of Life Committee in Southwest Central Durham. With funding and facilitation from Duke and The Duke Endowment, citizens from across the five neighborhoods of Southwest Central Durham have worked for nearly five years to identify issues and solutions. This impressive new development is one of the outcomes.

In recent years, Duke also has invested millions of dollars in a partnership with Martin Eakes and his colleagues at Self-Help, renovating some 56 affordable houses in Walltown, almost half of which are now owned by Duke employees. With support from Duke and The Duke Endowment, Self-Help is planning to provide as many as 25 more affordable houses in Walltown over the next few years. Working with a number of ministers in that historic community, this partnership is helping to change the face of Walltown, and not only through these housing programs and the Walltown health clinic. There's also the St. James Family Life Center and Carter Community School, where contractors at Duke contributed some $100,000 in materials and labor this year to build a much-needed playground and basketball court for local kids.

Duke in the schools

On the first day of second semester this year, I devoted much of my time to visiting several of our partner schools and associated community centers. It was one of the best days of my year. I met some of the 300 Duke students who provide tutoring and mentoring each week in the Durham Public Schools or in after-school programs. I visited with Juanita McNeil, one of the great people in the West End, whose commitment to these children in her neighborhood is the stuff of legend. I met many dedicated teachers and administrators.

Duke is making a difference in all of these neighborhoods, and continues to work with local partners and leaders to address new issues. For instance, the principals from E.K. Powe and Lakewood told me that day how important it is to find people who can speak Spanish and help our burgeoning population of Hispanic children. I brought that issue back to campus and, with considerable assistance from Dean Bob Thompson of Trinity College and faculty from our Romance Studies department, developed a program that will begin next fall. About 120 Duke students with Spanish-language skills will assist with translation and literacy issues at partner schools and nonprofits, in conjunction with their coursework.

Among my colleagues at Duke are people like Michael Palmer and MaryAnn Black who know Durham well and are constantly thinking of ways to help us use our special skills and resources to make Durham stronger. It's a challenge we share with Rotary and others who care about this community.

I'll close with this. Duke is a big institution, but we have no wish to dominate on the Durham scene, and we can't be the solution to all problems. What we can do, and should do, is work in partnership: we can accomplish things together that none of us could do alone. Working with the whole of this community, let's make Durham what we all want and need: an excellent place to live and work, for every citizen of this town.

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