Welcome Back

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This message was sent to Duke faculty, staff, and students.

Dear Duke Community:

Happy New Year! I hope you are feeling—as I am—rested, recharged, and excited to embark on the spring semester.

Since arriving at Duke six months ago, I have been awed and inspired by what I’ve seen in our people. Through visits with students, faculty, and staff across the university, I have witnessed your commitment to a culture that is both extraordinarily energetic and also uniquely collaborative. Collaboration is really Duke’s superpower, enabling our scholars, trainees, and students to achieve remarkable feats of exploration, discovery, teaching, and learning. I see it everywhere, from research breakthroughs to innovative approaches to teaching and the arts. The Centennial we are celebrating this year is a testament to what can be achieved in a remarkably short period of time when we work together.

Collegial is a word that is often used to describe universities, and it fits Duke as well as any institution in the world. But collegial doesn’t mean we’re all the same or we always agree. It does mean we coexist as one pluralistic community in which everyone belongs and everyone has a voice, everyone is engaged and everyone is learning. People come to Duke with different backgrounds, experiences, and views of the world—and we get down to work. We collaborate across disciplines, methods, and styles, always striving to practice civil discourse, not just for its own sake, but because we know it represents the best path to solving the challenges we face. This is the strength of Duke’s culture, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

2024 will be an eventful year, with polarizing political campaigns coming on top of ongoing global crises and devastating violence affecting vulnerable people around the world. We can expect these events to produce strong feelings and difficult conversations. We can expect to disagree, sometimes passionately so, and to see the world differently from one another. We will not tolerate threats of violence against anyone in our community, but we can expect at times to hear radically different viewpoints reflecting the diversity of our identities and perspectives. By fully embracing Duke’s culture of dynamic engagement and rigorous, respectful collaboration, I think—in fact I know—we can be a model for others to follow. This is not just an opportunity, it is our responsibility.

Thank you for your commitment to this community and for welcoming me into it so warmly. I look forward to working together and wish you all a great semester!

Sincerely,

Alec

Alec D. Gallimore, Ph.D.
Provost
Alfred J. Hooks E '68 Distinguished Professor