Dear Members of the Duke Community,

This afternoon, I shared word with the Academic Council that I will be stepping down as
president at the end of the next academic year, in June 2017. For the past 12 years, leading
this great university has been an extraordinary honor and a daily pleasure. In time, Cindy
and I will find occasion to thank the hundreds upon hundreds of you who have enriched our
personal lives while helping to advance this great school. This has been an unforgettable
chapter in our lives.
When I first came to Duke, I encountered a school that was clearly in the top rank of
universities but that had a distinctive spirit within this group. Duke has an unusually strong
sense of community, and what binds people together is a vision that Duke is still being
created, still reaching for the further thing it could become. I appreciated all the things that
had been achieved under President Nan Keohane, but I had to wonder: how can this
momentum possibly be sustained? I need not have worried. It is Dukes nature to keep
pressing to live up to its highest potential, and we have made striking progress in the past 12
years.
Every school at Duke has strengthened its academic profile, and virtually every day brings
word of some astonishing research accomplishment that has taken place in our midst. We
have seen massive enrichment in the quality of the undergraduate experience, promoting the
engaged, integrative version of education for which Duke is known. Faculty and students
across the university have helped build the signature programs that bring the fruits of
academic inquiry to bear on real-world problems in fields ranging from global health to
energy and environment policy, with our innovation and entrepreneurship program as a key
component. In recent years Dukes physical campus has been extensively rebuilt in a way
that preserves the beauty of traditional Gothic while adding 21st century functionality for core
activities of the university. Duke has projected itself internationally in a way that has made
global connectedness an integral part of what it means to be at Duke. Closer to home,
Dukes work as first-mover investor and good partner has helped promote the revitalization
of our host city of Durham, with deep mutual benefits to both sides.
Throughout this time, alumni, parents and others have continued generously to support the
advancement of university priorities, including the universitys first priority: ensuring that
Duke quality education will continue to be available to the most talented students irrespective
of family circumstances. June 2017 will mark the close of the Duke Forward campaign, which
has already raised more than $3 billion for the universitys mission.
With many critical initiatives nearing completion, it seems the right time for Duke to recruit a
new leader to guide the next chapter of its progress. Meanwhile, there will be plenty to do in
the year ahead. Nothing in a university is the work of a single person, and in the year to
come, Ill look forward to chances to thank and celebrate with each of you who have helped
build the Duke of today. After a years sabbatical, I expect to return to teaching and writing,
the passions that lured me into the academic life in the first place.

With profound gratitude for the opportunity I have been given,

Richard Brodhead
Ninth President of Duke University