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http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-763651.html
Brodhead urges 'Double Dimes' class to embrace opportunities

By GREGORY PHILLIPS, The Herald-Sun
August 23, 2006 7:19 pm

DURHAM -- Duke President Richard Brodhead encouraged incoming freshmen Tuesday to take full advantage of the opportunities before them, but within a framework of tolerance and understanding.

During his first public comments of the new academic year, Brodhead addressed the class of 2010 -- the "Double Dimes," as Brodhead said they've already begun calling themselves -- during convocation at Duke Chapel.

"This is your place," Brodhead said. "Help yourself to all its chances and riches. Come here with the intention of being transformed. Welcome to Duke."

Brodhead referred to the lacrosse case controversy that has dogged the university for five months only as a "great trouble."

Beyond hoping once again for a speedy and fair resolution to the legal charges, he also called for the freshmen's help in addressing the larger questions he said were raised about "responsible student behavior and the boundaries of acceptable conduct."

"Not a single one of these questions is unique to Duke, but we are not free to ignore them and in working them through, in discovering how an animated, wonderful, high-spirited world can be made compatible with the requirements of respect and responsibility," Brodhead said.

"We're going to need your partnership. We're going to need the best exercise of your thoughtful intelligence. If you get some experience here of collectively learning how to visualize and enact a good society, you will have learned a form of intelligence of incalculable value for your later life."

Brodhead's remarks seemed to go over well with freshmen for whom the lacrosse case is something that happened before they graduated from high school.

"I thought he did a good job of bringing up the lacrosse thing without harping on it," said freshman Bryan Fox of Raleigh.

As for the rest of Brodhead's speech, Fox called it inspiring but said he was "still trying to sort it out." He said he appreciated the president highlighting the opportunity college affords to shed the divisive elements of high school culture.

"When you think about it, you're not alone," Fox said. "There's going to be something in the middle you can find for yourself."

Making the most of attending Duke is about fully engaging, Brodhead said.

Getting an education "requires that, in the presence of difference, you be willing patiently to teach those who don't yet understand where you are, not to write them off as hopeless or unforgivable and patiently to learn when the needy one is yourself."

Before students left Duke Chapel to sign the university's community standard -- a pledge to act responsibly, honorably and with integrity -- they heard from Jonathan Schatz, chairman of the university's honor council. He told them to embrace the college experience and let it challenge their preconceptions.

"College is a place where your world can be turned on its head," Schatz said. "And if you're lucky, it will be."

There was a lot to take in for freshmen barely into their orientation week, let alone their college experience proper.

"It was a little bit overwhelming," admitted Malen Oberg of Haddonfield, N.J. "That I'm actually a part of this school, it's important."

Andrea Matthews of Grand Rapids, Mich., called the speech "very practical" and said she came to Duke with a determination to try lots of different things. Her mother Leslie applauded Brodhead's comments.

"I think it was great that he encouraged students to begin a new identity, break with the culture of high school and become the person they're going to be," she said.

Some parents took the opportunity to be elsewhere on campus while the crowds were gone.

"We shopped," said Scott Morrison of Bethesda, Md. "The bookstore was empty. It was great."

URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-763651.html

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