Duke Pledges Millions to Women's Initiative Effort

The following is a portion of a speech that President Nannerl O. Keohane delivered Sept. 23, when the Women's Initiative Steering Committee report was unveiled:

As a direct result of the Women's Initiative Steering Committee report, and to ensure that the issues it raises will remain a highly visible priority for the future, I will appoint an ongoing President's Commission on the Status of Women. The committee will include representatives from across the university, including members of the faculty, staff, alumnae, undergraduate, graduate and professional students, and the board of trustees. Reporting directly to me and my successor, this group will interact freely with units across the university responsible for data collection and analysis, and meet regularly with key decision-makers such as senior officers and the Deans' Cabinet.

We anticipate that the commission will develop smaller working groups around specific topics of concern. Its charge will include following up on the recommendations of the Steering Committee as expressed in this report, establishing benchmarks and new initiatives of its own, and advising (and providing annual reports to) the President. The chair of the President's Commission will be appointed from among the ranks of senior faculty or administration, and the group will begin work in November.

Our second response to the report, from the university and its closest friends, is to put our money where our mouth is. The provost has pledged to provide up to $1 million per year in central financial support, indefinitely, for the faculty diversity initiative to enhance the strategic hiring of women and minorities. Provost Peter Lange will also fund grassroots networking activities that facilitate the development of personal and professional connections of women faculty across departmental and school boundaries.

Third, an annual subsidy of $100,000 from the Dean of the Graduate School will help Ph.D. students handle child care expenses.

Fourth, with the leadership of Executive Vice President Tallman Trask, we are investing about $2 million to expand the Duke Children's Campus, plus $750,000 per year to support this and other offsite child care. The addition to the child care center on campus is already up and running, having been fast-tracked so that it could accommodate faculty and employee families and -- for the first time at Duke -- children of graduate and professional students as well. We will invest in other fine child care facilities across the Triangle to help them leverage their strengths and receive more support from others, and guarantee slots to Duke people in return.

Fifth, the new parental leave policies that Professor Susan Roth mentioned involve a major financial commitment -- in the millions of dollars -- from all parts of Duke. We are especially grateful to Chancellor Ralph Snyderman and his colleagues in the Medical Center and Health System for their participation in this initiative, since most of our employees and many of our faculty members are in their divisions.

Sixth, we plan to spend an additional $500,000 this year on capital investments in the service of campus safety.

Seventh, many departments have already begun shifting resources internally to respond to the Initiative's recommendations in such areas as professional development, faculty and graduate student mentoring, student advising and student affairs more generally. Vice President Larry Moneta and his colleagues have already taken a number of steps in this area.

And, finally, our stalwart partners at The Duke Endowment have generously provided me with a $300,000 discretionary grant for my final year as president. With their enthusiastic support, I will use this grant to help establish the new undergraduate leadership program mentioned by Professor Roth. It will be called the Alice M. Baldwin Scholars program, in honor of our first dean of the Woman's College at Duke who served this institution with sympathetic and tough-minded distinction from 1923 to 1947.

Part of The Duke Endowment gift will be used to support our community partnerships to increase access to high-quality child care. The balance of funding needed to get these programs underway will come for the next three years from presidential discretionary funds, which will also support other targeted programs addressing the report's findings on undergraduates, graduate and professional students.

In sum, I am deeply pleased with the work of the Women's Initiative Steering Committee, and with its comprehensive report and list of recommendations. With the provost, the chancellor of the medical center and health systems, executive vice president and other senior administrators, I have put the full weight and authority of my office behind the committee's recommendations. With the good will and continued hard work of everyone in this academic community, I know we can help Duke become a more truly equitable place, friendly, supportive, invigorating and safe for women and men throughout our university.