Attract and Retain Outstanding Faculty

Making a Difference will provide an additional $100 million above normal budgets over the next five to eight years in a new initiative to recruit, retain and support an outstanding and diverse faculty at all levels. Many of these positions will be in existing fields, such as the humanities and social sciences, while others will cross institutional boundaries to address important issues in the world. Examples include the genome sciences, ethics and global health.

Deepen Engagement in Education by Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Duke's plan seeks to empower students at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels to become more engaged with their own educations, integrating knowledge across their classes and into their own lives. Duke's curriculum already features innovations that extend from the Focus Program for first-year students through joint degree programs for professional students. Now Duke will pursue other changes that help students build on their academic knowledge and make new connections with the world they will experience beyond the classroom.

Transform the Campus with New and Improved Facilities

To help realize our ambitions in research and education, we propose major investments in new and improved facilities on all three campuses -- East, West and Central.

Most dramatic will be the transformation of Central Campus, a decades-long process that began with the opening of the Nasher Museum of Art in 2005. Parking lots and outmoded residential units near the museum will give way to Duke's vision of a 21st century university. Central will become a place where academic programs, residential housing for more than a thousand students, arts venues and campus services blend together to create a strong sense of community.

Simultaneously, important core facilities on West Campus -- West Union, residential housing and Page Auditorium -- will be brought up to date to better support Duke's educational goals. On East Campus, Baldwin Auditorium will be renewed and new spaces will be developed to support the education of first-year students. Across the university, Duke will make new strategic investments in libraries and information technology.