Duke University

By President:
Richard H. Brodhead
As you explore the university's website, you'll get a glimpse of the Duke I know: a place where students and scholars work to understand and address important issues in our world today, where tradition is combined with a desire to ask questions and where a commitment to Durham, North Carolina and the wider global community informs our work in the University and the Health System.

You'll see a beautiful place where an 8,000-acre forest frames a campus of old Georgian and Gothic buildings, medical and research labs, a stunning art museum, colorful public gardens and a soaring Chapel.

From my first visit to the campus until today, I have been struck by the spirit of this place. It manifests itself in collaborations across academic disciplines, the research that changes lives, and a lively student body whose innovation in cheering on sports teams is matched only by its innovation in class and community work.

Facts about Duke:
Duke University was created in 1924 by James Buchanan Duke as a memorial to his father, Washington Duke. The Dukes, a Durham family that built a worldwide financial empire in the manufacture of tobacco products and developed electricity production in the Carolinas, long had been interested in Trinity College. Trinity traced its roots to 1838 in nearby Randolph County when local Methodist and Quaker communities opened Union Institute. The school, then named Trinity College, moved to Durham in 1892. In December 1924, the provisions of James B. Duke's indenture created the family philanthropic foundation, The Duke Endowment, which provided for the expansion of Trinity College into Duke University.

As a result of the Duke gift, Trinity underwent both physical and academic expansion. The original Durham campus became known as East Campus when it was rebuilt in stately Georgian architecture. West Campus, Gothic in style and dominated by the soaring 210-foot tower of Duke Chapel, opened in 1930. East Campus served as home of the Woman's College of Duke University until 1972, when the men's and women's undergraduate colleges merged. Both men and women undergraduates now enroll in either the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences or the Pratt School of Engineering. In 1995, East Campus became the home for all first-year students.

For more info:
www.duke.edu/