The president of Duke University, Dr. Nannerl Keohane, made her way to Raleigh on Tuesday to address NC State's General Faculty meeting on the importance of a continued partnership between the two Research I institutions. Keohane was joined Chancellor Marye Anne Fox in addressing the biannual meeting, which was held in Stewart Theatre. Keohane mentioned several current partnerships between Duke and NC State, including the Triangle Research Libraries Network; studies in the fields of life sciences, statistics, information technology and bioinformatics; the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory; and the Research Triangle Institute.
	(Daniel Bunce / staff)
	Duke University President Dr. Nannerl Keohane addresses NC State's General Faculty.

"This is only a brief summary of decades of collaboration, enough to give us a flavor of how important this has been for both institutions," Keohane said during the meeting.

Despite these partnerships, the Duke president said that the two universities, as well as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, could do more — particularly in the fields of biotechnology and marine sciences, as well as research related to homeland security, genomics, genomic technology and bioinformatics.

"What are the present obstacles to bold new collaborative ventures that would allow us, in time, to be just as visionary as our predecessors?" Keohane said. "Although we have shown good will, and although many dyadic and faculty-specific collaborations are engendered all the time, we have not been able to take the next step. Our challenge — and our opportunity — is to invigorate our economic climate with some major new infusion of money and talent to take the Research Triangle up one more notch — and to protect its competitive advantage against would-be RTPs around the world."

In her address, Fox reflected on last year's accomplishments and challenged the group to persevere despite the ongoing state budget crisis.

"Regardless of the challenge, the future remains bright, as together we build for the new NC State," Fox said. "The year just completed provided opportunities for us to explore academic freedom, the right to free speech, a review of our promotion and tenure policies and the establishment of post-tenure review and validation."

Echoing the three main goals she has established since coming to NC State nearly five years ago, Fox spoke to the group on the importance of building the campus community, fostering partnerships and forming a business model for the university.

Fox extolled this year's freshman class as one of the brightest ever — citing a high school GPA that, on average, was above 4.0 and an average SAT score of 1193. She also noted the increased diversity on campus, saying that African-Americans represent about 11 percent of the student body, with all minorities representing 19 percent of total students.

Centennial Campus was recognized by Fox as NC State's premier partnership. She said that despite a harsh economy, the campus boasts an occupancy rate of 97 percent. She also praised the Cooperative Extension Service, which made nearly four million contacts last year, and the Industrial Extension Service, which served 8,000 clients during the same period.

"We are making measured progress toward our university vision despite severe fiscal austerity," Fox said. "It is a time reminiscent of other difficult times, like 1944, when Jose Ortega Y Gassett, in his acclaimed work, 'The Mission of the University,' said: 'The university must be open to the whole reality of its time. It must be in the midst of real life, and saturated with it; must intervene, as the university, in current affairs, treating the great themes of the day from its own point of view: cultural, professional and scientific.' Staying true to that vision and to our cherished traditions and values will get us through these financially difficult times."

Posted September 18, 2002

Return to the Bulletin homepage