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Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien visits
Duke in November 2000 to deliver his first public lecture after his
re-election and to meet with students and faculty connected to the
Canadian Studies Program and the Center for North American Studies.
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In the post-cold war international environment, those who want
to survive and thrive need to understand that they belong to an
interdependent world. Our responsibility at Duke is to furnish our
students with the resources to meet the challenges of a new world
where knowledge knows no boundaries and in which, as Duke graduates,
they will have great responsibility for how the future is shaped.
Accordingly, there are ongoing efforts to infuse the Duke curriculum
with international content (one of the goals of Curriculum
2000); to increase the number of international students in the
student body (approximately 5 percent of the undergraduate population
now comes from foreign countries); and to expand opportunities for
study abroad (more than 40 percent of Duke undergraduates experience
study abroad before graduating and have 120 possibilities including
La Paz, Bolivia; Beijing, China; and Accra, Ghana).
Faculty scholarship in the international arena has resulted not
only in exciting new faculty research and discussion throughout
the university, but also in innovative courses that are built around
connections between continents as opposed to comparisons between
them or differences that divide them. Gilbert
Merkx, who was appointed vice-provost for international affairs
in June, has written and edited extensively on Latin American studies
and international education. His most recent publications include
"International Education in the New Global Era" and "The
Jewish Presence in Latin America."
Faculty hires also expand Duke’s global ties. This year, arts
and sciences and engineering, for instance, hired 52 new professors,
18 ofwhom have international backgrounds. As Provost Lange says,
“We’re attracting the very best the world has to offer.”
We believe that more than anything we do, providing financial
aid for foreign students will have a profound effect on Duke’s
visibility abroad, making people much more aware of Duke’s
national (and increasingly international) reputation. The development
of strategic partnerships with other international universities
by various departments in arts and sciences, and by Duke’s
professional schools, has the potential to extend Duke’s reach
and influence worldwide. The Duke University Museum of Art, for
instance, has forged a faculty-student exchange program with the
Museo del Prado in Madrid, and the museum has built especially strong
contacts with Russia and Central and South America.
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